Television is an American rock band, one of the pioneers of the new wave and punk rock . Despite the fact that Television failed to achieve any mainstream success, they had a significant impact on the New York and world rock scenes.
| Television | |
|---|---|
 | |
| basic information | |
| Genres | Rock art punk post punk proto-punk |
| Years | 1973 - 1978 , 1992 - 1993 , from 2001 to the present |
| A country |  USA |
| City | New York |
| Where from | |
| Labels | ORK Records Elektra Capitol |
| Composition | Tom Verlaine Fred smith Billy Fikka |
| Former the participants | Richard Lloyd Richard Hell |
Television was part of New York's early punk scene with the CBGB club, along with artists such as Patti Smith , Suicide , Ramones . However, unlike Ramones' intentional minimalism, Television was characterized by more sophisticated musical structures - the “dueling” guitar parts of Verlaine and Lloyd, sometimes long and complex songs. Thanks to this, Television had a significant impact on the new wave and post-punk , and also became one of the first groups of the so-called art punk .
Content
History
The original reason for creating Television was the friendship of Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell; after moving to New York, they founded The Neon Boys , which was renamed Television after Richard Lloyd came to them. Soon Television invited Hillie Crystal , director of the CBGB club, which at that time specialized in blues and bluegrass, to give them the opportunity to perform there on an ongoing basis. Thanks to this, Television became the first band to perform there, thus laying the foundation for the extensive punk rock scene of CBGB in the second half of the 70s. Gradually, their performances began to attract considerable attention - in particular, Patti Smith , who began to meet Verlaine and decided to try herself in music, drew attention to them.
Initially, the songwriting in the group was approximately equally divided between Verlaine and Hell (occasionally Lloyd acted as a co-author). However, Verlaine gradually began to try to become a full-fledged leader of the group, he told Hell to "not get in the way" and gradually reduced the proportion of Hell's songs in concert performances; in the end, Hell began to perform only one “ Blank Generation ”, until Verlaine decided to ban its execution. (The live “Blank Generation” live recording of the Television version can be found on the Hell collection “ Spurts ” - this is one of Hell’s few surviving recordings with Television.) In the end, Richard Hell decided to quit the band and entered The Heartbreakers with Johnny Sanders and Jerry Nolan who left New York Dolls at the same time, and later founded his own band Richard Hell & The Voidoids. The new Television bassist is Fred Smith, who left Blondie .
The first release by Television was the single “ Little Johnny Jewel ”, released in 1975 on the independent label Ork Records . The song consisted of two parts, each of which occupied the side of the plate. Lloyd was extremely unhappy with the choice of song for his debut (he preferred the still unreleased song “O Mi Amore”) and was seriously thinking about leaving the group; Peter Lauter , guitarist for Pere Ubu , even auditioned for Television. However, in the end, Lloyd remained in the group.
In 1977, the band's debut longplay, Marquee Moon, was released, and despite modest sales, it received very good criticism. So, critic Roy Tarkin wrote the following review for SoHo Weekly : “forget everything you heard about Television, forget punk, forget New York, forget CBGB ... hell, forget about rock and roll - it's something completely new” . The album continues to be considered the main work of the group: for example, in 2000 it fell to 83 place in the list of the VH1 music channel “100 greatest rock and roll albums”, and in 2003 - to 123 place in the list of 500 greatest albums according to Rolling magazine Stone In addition, “Marquee Moon” occupies the 25th line (as of July 18, 2016) in the rating of albums of all times of the resource Rate Your Music [1] .
The band's second album, " Adventure ", was released in 1978 and caused a much less violent reaction. This album includes more “simple” songs, influenced by The Rolling Stones ; the role of Lloyd’s guitar parts has diminished. The group’s views on music diverged more and more, and Lloyd’s drug overdose in 1978 caused the group to break up. Verlaine and Lloyd began solo careers.
In 1992, Television reunited and recorded their third album of the same name. However, the group’s concerts were irregular and infrequent. In 2001, Television performed at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival and gave several more concerts around the world, then again began performing in New York on an irregular basis. In 2007, Lloyd announced his withdrawal from the group due to worsened pneumonia ; Jimmy Ripp took his place.
Along with The Velvet Underground , William Burroughs , Nico , The Stooges and other counterculture figures, Television is mentioned in a punk culture book, “ Please Kill Me! ".
Style
Before Richard Hell left, the band was the brightest representative of the first punk of the 1970s, playing at the CBGB club as loudly and not always neatly. Subsequently, the departure of Hell made the group “much less marginally aggressive” [2] .
Although Lloyd and Verlaine were nominally lead and rhythm guitarists, in fact, their closely interconnected guitar parts made up a special musical structure, faintly resembling a typical guitar solo. While Lloyd was playing something atonal and unusual, Verlaine’s parallel guitar part was more typical. Unusual melodic guitar lines of the group were clearly manifested in the introduction to their most famous song - “ Marquee Moon ”. The melody of Television, as well as other representatives of the early punk scene, was marked by a considerable influence of The Velvet Underground ; the group was also characterized by the influence of minimalism (composers like Steve Reich ). Tom Verlaine also noted that their guitar style was influenced by Love , Buffalo Springfield and The Rolling Stones song “ 19th Nervous Breakdown ”. Another “source of inspiration” for the band was 60s garage rock ; Television often performed “ Psychotic Reaction ” Count Five and “Fire Engine” 13th Floor Elevators at concerts.
Lester Bangs and other critics noted in the original psychedelic guitar parts of Television the influence of the Quicksilver Messenger Service ; Verlaine's solo records are also close to the work of this psychedelic group. He, however, denied the significance of this influence, arguing that The Ventures had a much greater influence on him. However, a comparison of Television with bands from the 60s psychedelic scene is quite common.
Group members
- Tom Verlaine - vocals, guitar (1973-1978, 1992-1993, 2001 — present)
- Jimmy Rip - Guitar (2007 — present)
- Fred Smith - bass, backing vocals (1975-1978, 1992-1993, 2001 — present)
- Billy Fikka - drums (1973-1978, 1992-1993, 2001 — present)
Former members
- Richard Lloyd - guitar, vocals (1973-1978, 1992-1993, 2001-2007)
- Richard Hull - bass, vocals (1973-1975)
Discography
Albums
- Marquee Moon - (Elektra 1977); UK # 28
- Adventure - (Elektra 1978); UK # 7
- The Blow-Up - (1982) [1978 Record]
- Television - (Capitol 1992)
- Live at the Academy, 1992 - (2003) [1992 Concert Recording]
- Live at the Old Waldorf - (2003) [1978 Recording]
Singles
- Little Johnny Jewel - Part One (3:30) b / w Little Johnny Jewel - Part Two (4:00) - 7 "mono 45 rpm (ORK Records 1975)
- " Marquee Moon " - (April, 1977) # 30 UK
- " Prove It " - (July, 1977) # 25 UK
- Foxhole - (April, 1978) # 36 UK
- " Glory " - (July, 1978)
Notes
- ↑ Top Albums of All-time - Rate Your Music . Date of treatment July 18, 2016.
- ↑ Walker, 1991 , p. 662.
Literature
- Bangs, Lester . Free Jazz / Punk Rock (English) // Musician : magazine. - 1979.
- Emerson, Ken Television Adventure Album Review . Rolling Stone (June 1, 1978). Date of treatment April 4, 2016.
- Handa, Al Television: Marquee Moon . Perfect Sound Forever (May 1996). Date of treatment December 25, 2014.
- Hughes, Josiah Television Announce Vancouver Show Exclaim! (April 27, 2015). Date of treatment October 30, 2015.
- Meagher, John Music - Television: NYC's art-punk pioneers . Irish Independent (May 31, 2015). Date of treatment October 30, 2015.
- Murray, Noel 60 minutes of music that sum up art-punk pioneers Wire . The AV Club (May 28, 2015). Date of treatment October 28, 2015.
- Schinder, Scott. Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends who Changed Music Forever / Scott Schinder, Andy Schwartz. - Greenwood Publishing Group , 2008. - Vol. 2. - ISBN 978-0-313-33847-2 .
- Ramone, Marky. Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone / Marky Ramone, Richard Herschlag. - Simon & Schuster, 2015 .-- ISBN 978-1-4516-8775-0 .
- Robb, John. Punk Rock: An Oral History / Craske, Oliver. - United Kingdom: PM Press, 2012 .-- ISBN 978-1-60486-005-4 .
- Simpson, Dave Television . The Guardian (November 17, 2013).
- Taylor, Steven. False Prophet: Field Notes from the Punk Underground. - Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press, 2003. - ISBN 978-0-8195-6668-3 .
- Thompson, Dave. Alternative Rock. - San Francisco: Miller Freeman, 2000 .-- ISBN 978-0-87930-607-6 .
- Trakin, Roy . Marquee Moon review.
- Wallace, Amy. The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists / Amy Wallace, Dick Manitoba. - Backbeat Books, 2007. - ISBN 978-0-87930-919-0 .
- Waterman, Bryan. Television's Marquee Moon. - Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011. - Vol. 83. - ISBN 978-1-4411-8605-8 .
- Walker, John. The Trouser Press Record Guide / Ira Robbins. - 4th. - New York: Collier, 1991. - ISBN 978-0-02-036361-3 .
- Wizon, Tod Television . bombmagazine.org . BOMB Magazine (1992). Date of treatment February 2, 2016. Archived on January 6, 2016.
- Mitchell, Tim. Sonic Transmission. Television: Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell. - 1th. - New York: Glitter, 2006 .-- ISBN 978-1-90-258816-2 .
Links
- Group biography on Allmusic website