Television had a substantial cult following in New York, but they had yet to release an album. Television was a significant early leader in the movement, with Tom Verlaine playing lead guitar on Patti Smith’s cover of “Hey Joe,” a song often considered the first punk song. Bands like the Ramones and artists like Patti Smith had helped shape the increasingly successful punk scene. Punk was drastically changing the contemporary rock landscape, leaving behind the increasingly long-winded prog and art rock of the period and moving towards radical simplification. “Marquee Moon” was released at a turning point in music history. We only hear his angst through riffs, solos, basslines, and fills. At least, we never learn what he makes of these moments. When he finds it, whether it is the titular lunar skyscape or falling “into the arms of Venus de Milo,” he runs into another problem-that experience does not deliver, either. The third chorus instead concludes “I ain’t waitin’, uh-uh!” Throughout the album, we see Verlaine frantically roaming an impressionistic New York exploding with light, sound, and friction, seeking something that would help him transcend everything bombarding his senses. Surely, the marquee moon promises something great and terrible. Verlaine’s vocal delivery elevates those lines to a near-apocalyptic significance. Then, the instruments crash back and the other guitarist Richard Lloyd launches into another gorgeous, tightly-crafted solo. Television’s singer, guitarist, and lyricist Tom Verlaine hesitates between those lines, and since the instruments have also paused, his fermata creates a rare moment of peace, an eye in Television’s hurricane. #Marquee moon full#“There I stand ’neath the Marquee Moon / Hesitating.” In a beautiful album full of striking images, the most memorable part of Television’s “Marquee Moon” is at its center, as the 10-minute title track comes to a climax.
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