Music Banter - Television

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- - Television (https://www.musicbanter.com/punk/26962-television.html)

Marquee Moon is undoubtedly one of the best albums I've ever heard. I remember the thing that struck me most about them was how upon first hearing the guitar work, it sounded so impressive and complex. When I thought further about the solos, and in particular the one from the title track, it struck me that it's actually (almost) just going up and down a natural minor scale! Taken out of the song, it's entirely unremarkable, and that's where the genius of this album lies - by combining otherwise simple elements they produced something that sounds so wonderfully rich and complex.

Favourite songs from the album:

Venus, Marquee Moon, Elevation

What are other people's?

Richard Hell & The Voidoids > Television

I still like Marquee Moon though.

The title track is one of the greatest songs ever written.

Shame I can't remember any of the others.

I think it is highly influential, but I really do not play it that much TBH.

I think it was like Alex or someone from Franz Ferdinand who said something like "I admire Marquee Moon more than I enjoy it." that's basically my thoughts on the album.

There we go

Quote:

Television, Marquee Moon
Nominated by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand

People expect us to love Television the way they think we love Gang of Four and were influenced by them - but we don't and we weren't! Marquee Moon is one of those records that I thought I loved, but it was only after a few years I realised I didn't love the album, just the first 10 bars of the title track, which are pretty astonishing. Those guitars that play off each other and the way the instruments go into wonderful places and the guitars are totally insane and that big cascade of drums - it's incredible. Then your attention wanders. You know when a boring guy is explaining to you the technical spec of a car, the fuel injection system and the leather seats, and his voice becomes so much background noise? Once I took the needle off this record, I realised I hadn't heard it at all. But what annoys me is the way people pontificate over the album; it's one of those staples of student halls of residence. People wax lyrical about it, but the reason it's so popular is because it's a prog rock album its okay to like. Because the words "punk" and "New York" and "1977" are associated with it, it's deemed cool. Really, though, they're a band who give guys who like 20-minute guitar solos an excuse. They were the Grateful Dead of punk, and I always hated all that jam-band stuff. They have the ethos of a jam-band but the aesthetic of a New York outfit. If anything, the Strokes took the look of Television, the aesthetic - and the Converse sneakers - and ignored the jam-band aspect. They took those first 10 bars of Marquee Moon and did something great with it! Tom Verlaine's lyrics didn't have much impact on me. I'm always uneasy when singers in bands profess to be poets - they can veer into pomposity and pretentiousness. But I've got to be careful: I once said something about Jim Morrison and the Doors, about their pseudo-poetry, and immediately all these articles on the internet appeared saying, "Kapranos slams Morrison!" I'm not slamming Television - I respect them. But Marquee Moon is an album I admire more than enjoy.

I think it's good when people say that "A CERTAIN ALBUM" is not all that, even though every other mag and critic says it is.

Not when it comes from someone who hasn't made one half as good.

I would take Venus and See No Evil over the title track, plus I think Little Johnny Jewel is their best song but that's a bonus track so I guess it doesn't really count.

So yeah. I think it's a brilliant album and listen to it through all the time.