Television - "Marquee Moon" CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, 1977 (Elektra/Rhino)

The stark image by Robert Mapplethorpe of Fred Smith, Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, and Billy Ficca A.KA. Television sets the tone what is inside the package.  Before the Internet, and yes, there's radio, but it was pretty useless for those who live in Los Angeles and therefore didn't have access to the tidal wave of new bands in New York at the time.  I've read about Television, and even more intrigued by their photographs of the time.  They never smiled, nor do they look like they enjoy each other's company.  The only goofy/fun one was Richard Hell, but he left the band by the time of this album's release.  

I think I first heard of the band in 1975, so through publications like The Village Voice, I kept track of this band and was very curious what their sound was like.   The critical response from their shows seemed chaotic from boredom to spiritual enlightenment.  Alas, I purchased the 45 rpm single of "Johnny Little Jewel" (Part 1 and 2, like a James Brown single from the late 1960s), and was transformed by the words, Verlaine's voice, and of course, those two magical guitars working at and against the slippery bass and drums.  When they reissued this remastered CD, the folks on the label were smart to add this song to the package.  

"Marquee Moon" is without a doubt, a classic recording.  The albums' mixture of intensity, beauty, drama, and you know these guys probably didn't move much on the stage.  Verlaine's lyrics/poetry would read like Raymond Chandler if he were a beat poet.  Romantic, yet tough, but with strong visual poetics that gives a picture while listening to the music.  Their stance of attachment or coolness mixed in with a focus on a classic rock two guitars, bass, drums sound is essentially fantastic. In my mind, since Elektra originally signed the band, I think of them as younger brothers to the other Elektra acts Love and The Stooges.  Of all the labels in the world, Television is an Elektra band.  With respect to the band's devotion to the music, and doing things their way.   The way Verlaine and Lloyd would work their guitars separate from each other, and in a sense giving little stabs, stings, and a sense of play, and then on the chorus, they join sensually and sexually manner.  There are a lot of great guitar bands, and one can argue who is better than the other.  The truth is Television is unique, and I think it's not only due to the talents of Verlaine's writing (although I suspect the others had their two or three cents in) the whole chemistry of the band, working together.  Indeed a gang, a group at work.  Perfection practiced by professionals. 

Moondog "The Viking of Sixth Avenue" (Honest Jon's Records) Double Vinyl Album

Moondog “The Viking of Sixth Avenue” (Honest Jon’s Records) Double Vinyl Album

The great thing about art is one never knows when they will confront genius. Moondog was a composer and performer who played his music on the streets of Manhattan. To be exact on 6th Avenue and anywhere between 52nd and 56th street from the late 1940s to 1972. An odd tourist attraction but he also had some positive attention from Charlie Parker, Leonard Bernstein, Steve Reich, Julie Andrews, Igor Stravinsky, and his future roommate Philip Glass. 

In appearance, this blind composer and musician wore eccentric costumes that resemble Viking uniform, including helmet. He would stand on a busy street corner, playing his compositions on his own hand-made instruments. Yet beyond all of that, Moondog’s music is extremely original, catchy, with beautiful melodies. On the surface, one can hear the sounds of the Native American, but mash-up with the textures and overtures of Bach’s compositions. Clearly he influenced both Reich and Glass, but overall Moondog made music for everyone. He wrote and performed pop, ambient, rhythmic compositions, as well as classical. In other words, an artist that is extremely hard to be defined, and truly original. 

Causally, Moondog can be seen as an outside music artist, because he did work on his music without proper schooling or music industry backing - although he did end up on a major recording label. Yet, his music is very much disciplined and not always eccentric. When you see the iconic vision of Moondog or hear stories about him sleeping on the streets of Manhattan, you get a sound in one’s head. And you do get that, but Moondog went beyond the cliché outside artist by making accessible music that anyone can enjoy. He’s avant-garde, but Moondog is also very much of a pop artist or composer. There are melodies on this album that will stick inside your head and heart. 

Honest Jon’s Records (label out of London, as well as a record shop) has released “The Viking of Sixth Avenue” which is a double vinyl album compilation of early Moondog EPs (from his own label at the time) as well as the rare 10”s. Some of the recordings are from the streets of Manhattan, as well as in the studio. All superb. In a beautiful way, the street sounds add texture to the Moondog performance, and in no fashion does the urban traffic sounds interfere with the aural delights of this genius and his recordings.  I suspect one is not going to find a more perfect album than “The Viking of Sixth Avenue.”

Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center (Recorded in 1961, released in 1964) Columbia

Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Milton Babbitt and Roger Sessions founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City sometime in the early 1950s.   It is the oldest center to focus on composing and making electronic music in the United States.  For me, there is something wonderful and fresh hearing early electronic music in the combined eras 1950s and 1960s.  It was a time of wonderment and exploration of new sounds, done in new ways.  This particular album is a classic, which consisted of pieces and performances by Babbit, Luening, Ussachevsky, Bülent Arel, Halim El-Dabh, and Mario Davidovsky. 

The main discovery for me is El-Dabh's "Leiyla and the Poet." My reference to this piece is David Bowie's "Lodger" album, which was one of the first works I heard that mixes ethnic melodies in an electronic-pop mode.   I don't know if Bowie was aware of El-Dabh's work, but what's marvelous is the mixture of musique concrète with what I think is Egyptian folk or ethnic music.  Based on the Arabic 11th century poem "Layla and Majnun, " the music is a combination of vocals, percussion and high-pitched electronic noise.  Tape manipulation of speed transposition filters the vocals into a unique and highly effective sound. It's a short intense piece of work, that also brings to mind the music that Paul Bowles recorded in Morocco.  To me, it's the perfect hybrid of styles, that is familiar, but in actuality, it's quite new - especially at the time of this recording in 1961.  

Ussachevsky's full chorus piece "Creation - Prologue" is a mixture of heavenly voices but then is joined by jolting electronic effects, including a short section using an early version of a synthesizer.  It's not surprising to know that Arel worked with Edgard Varèse - because the piece here, "Stereo Electronic Music No. 1" is very similar to the great French musique concrète composer's music.   Completely electronic, and controlled feedback, it's a remarkable piece of textures exploring mood and tension.   Rabbit's performance as the title says "Composition for Synthesizer" is an exploration of linear/total rhythms, volume, and pitches.  For me, the weakest piece on this album, but still interesting.  Davidovsky's "Electronic Study No. 1" is from three sources: sinusoidal and square wave generators, and white noise.   Chaos is contained in a box by the composer.  

The last piece on the album is by Luening, and it's a combination of synthesizer, then manipulated by taping techniques, with a live violin, played by Max Pollikoff.  "Gargoyles" is an intense piece of noise/music.   Besides the chorus used in Ussachevsky, and El-Dabh's mixture of vocals/electronics, this is very much more of a real stringed instrument bouncing off the electronics/tape manipulations.  The beauty of all six composers is that they have studied classical composition as well as worked with regular orchestrations, but here they take a huge step forward to a new world.  Yet, if one listens carefully, it is still has traces of the old classical world.  A remarkable anthology of sounds that one can hear later in 20th century pop music.