Television
In an era when short and raw was a virtue, this was a band that carried on long conversations between two guitars.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
Members and associates ⏳🌊
- MemberTom Verlaine
He was a co-founder who handled guitar and vocals.
- MemberRichard Hell
The early bassist, who left the band in 1975.
- MemberRichard Lloyd
The other guitarist, who traded melodic lines with Verlaine.
- MemberBilly Ficca
The drummer, who had known Verlaine since their Delaware days.
- MemberFred Smith
The bassist who left Blondie to fill the gap Hell left behind.
- FriendshipPatti Smith
A poet and musician close to Verlaine; each was part of the other's early work.
I. The boys before New York · 1949–1973
(Formation) The band formed in New York in 1973. Yet the two at its center were not New Yorkers. Tom Verlaine was born in New Jersey in 1949 and grew up in Delaware; Richard Hell was born the same year in Lexington, Kentucky. The two met and became friends at the Sanford School, a small boarding school in Delaware. Both were literary boys who read Rimbaud and Kerouac, and, unable to bear the rote routine of school life, they even ran away together. (Running away) Around the age of sixteen, the two packed their bags and fled south, only to be caught in Alabama and sent back. That recklessness would later carry over into their attitude toward music. Shedding their birth names, Tom Miller and Richard Meyers, they named themselves: Verlaine, after the French poet Paul Verlaine, and Hell, for the underworld itself. Drifting into New York in the early 1970s, they worked as bookstore clerks and dishwashers, writing poetry and listening to music. (Joining up) Drummer Billy Ficca had also known Verlaine since their Delaware days. Guitarist Richard Lloyd, born in Pittsburgh, reached New York after drifting through a string of cities. In 1973 the four first played together in a shabby rehearsal space in Lower Manhattan.
II. The four at CBGB · 1973–1975
(Roles) Verlaine took guitar and vocals, Hell bass, Lloyd a second guitar, and Ficca drums. The way Verlaine's and Lloyd's two guitars split melodies between them and traded lines was rare in rock and roll at the time. Through the efforts of Terry Ork, who had appointed himself their manager, the band took the stage in the spring of 1974 at CBGB, a small club on the Bowery. (CBGB) The club's owner, Hilly Kristal, had originally meant to feature country and bluegrass, but after seeing Television play he changed his mind and began opening the stage to rock and roll bands. Thanks to that decision, bands such as the Patti Smith Group, the Ramones and Talking Heads came to share the same stage. Television was effectively the first band of that scene. (Friendship) Verlaine was close to the poet and singer Patti Smith. The two are said to have been lovers for a time in the mid-1970s. Verlaine also played guitar on some of Smith's early recordings.
III. The gap Richard Hell left · 1975–1977
(Conflict) When they went into the studio together in 1974, the difference in direction between Verlaine and Hell came into sharp focus. Verlaine wanted more refined, meticulous playing; Hell wanted to keep a raw, spontaneous feel. As their musical aims diverged, Hell left the band early the following year, in 1975. (Smith) Hell's place was filled by bassist Fred Smith, a founding member of Blondie who had moved over to Television. On the steady rhythm that Smith and Ficca held together, Verlaine's and Lloyd's guitars found room for longer, freer conversations. (Marquee Moon) In 1976 the band signed with Elektra Records and recorded its debut album, Marquee Moon, with Andy Johns, releasing it the following February. Johns was an engineer seasoned on records by Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, but on Television's sessions he chose to pare back excess and bring the dialogue of the two guitars into sharp relief. Critics took the album as proof of the subtlety that had been hiding beneath punk's rough banner.
This was the recording completed with Fred Smith on bass after Hell's departure.
- A 7-inch single split across its A and B sides, it was Television's first record, issued on Ork Records, the indie label run by manager Terry Ork.
- Without thick-sounding chords struck on just two notes (power chords), a thin, dry guitar riff carries the entire song.
- Verlaine's vocals waver unsteadily, clipped as if spoken word by word, giving an edgy rather than polished feel.
- Ficca's drumming rides a loose swing closer to rockabilly than to rock and roll.
A song that shows how, in the Marquee Moon period, the two guitars found a way to converse.
- The two guitars, trading lines as if entwined, create the dreamlike atmosphere that runs through the whole song.
- Verlaine's guitar builds tension with a clean tone, without leaning on distortion.
- Listen to the short answering phrase Lloyd's guitar cuts in with just before the chorus, and the division of labor between the two guitars becomes clear.
- Rather than following the melody, Fred Smith's bass anchors the song with a weighty low end.
The moment when, at Andy Johns's fingertips, the subtlety hidden beneath punk's rough banner was fully realized.
- The title track runs past 10 minutes, a radical departure at a time when punk made a virtue of being short and rough.
- In the middle section, tension builds slowly before bursting into a guitar solo passage, which unfolds in phrases Verlaine and Lloyd trade back and forth.
- A guitar tone that shimmers as if the amp were lightly trembling (tremolo) sustains the tension of the whole piece.
- The moment at the ending when the two guitars converge on the same riff is said to have varied in length and intensity from one live show to the next.
IV. Adventure and the breakup · 1977–1978
(Touring) Marquee Moon did not sell in large numbers, but critical support was strong. The band crossed over to Britain to play, and its sound left a mark on the current that would later be called post-punk. But the fatigue of life on the road and money troubles slowly wore away at the bonds among the four. (Adventure) In 1978 they released their second album, Adventure. Its sound was brighter and more polished than its predecessor's, but by the same token some critics missed the sharp edge of the first album. Lloyd later disclosed in his memoir that he had relied on drugs while touring during this period. (Breakup) The differences in temperament between Verlaine and Lloyd grew steadily wider. Verlaine wanted control bordering on perfectionism; Lloyd wanted a looser atmosphere. In July 1978 the band stopped without any formal announcement. The breakup was not the climax of a quarrel but a process in which four worn-out men quietly scattered down their own paths.
The track that opens Adventure, carrying a different air from the sharpness of its predecessor.
- As the album's opener, it signals a change of mood with a guitar tone brighter and crisper than on Marquee Moon.
- With verses and choruses more clearly defined, it adopts a more accessible structure than the looser development of the previous album.
- The harmonies (backing vocals) layered over Verlaine's voice add a bright texture absent from the earlier album.
Their last studio album before the breakup, in which road fatigue mingles with a polished ambition.
- Its signature track, “Foxhole,” is the most aggressive song on the album, with Smith's bass line driving the whole piece forward.
- The guitar tone is shaped rougher and thicker than on Marquee Moon, closer to the texture of the post-punk bands to come.
- The moment in the chorus when the two guitars double the same riff is said to have come alive with particular force onstage.
V. Separate paths and the reunion · 1978–1992
(Solo) After the breakup, Verlaine struck out on his own as a solo musician, releasing albums steadily for nearly 10 years from 1979. Offstage he remained sparing with words, preferring time in the studio to interviews. Lloyd, too, released records, both as a session player and under his own name. (Hell) Hell passed through the Heartbreakers and went on to lead the Voidoids, building another pillar of punk, but in the mid-1980s he gave up music and turned to writing. Ficca kept working steadily as a drummer, passing through a number of bands. (Reunion) In 1992, after 14 years, the four came together again to record a self-titled album, Television. In place of Marquee Moon's sharpness came calmer, more seasoned playing. They did a short tour, but the band was never again as active as before.
A balance carefully struck by the four, reunited after a 14-year gap.
- The signature track, “Call Mr. Lee,” trades the sharp edges of their youth for a calm, seasoned performance.
- Verlaine's guitar, at a more relaxed tempo than before, places its notes with plenty of space left between them.
- The arrangement favors harmony over the taut tension between vocals and guitar, offering a glimpse into the psychology of a reunited band.
VI. Intermittent returns and the end · 1992–2023
(Intermittent) After the reunion, Television remained in a state of never having quite broken up and never having fully come back together. They took the stage once every few years, and when Lloyd left the band around 2007, another guitarist stepped in to fill his place. Verlaine went on releasing records and performing, keeping to a pace all his own. (Death) In January 2023, Tom Verlaine died in New York. His death effectively brought the name Television to a close. Critics wrote that the guitar playing he left behind had taught countless later bands how to build tension not with words but with sound. (Legacy) Television was a long way from commercial success, yet on the strength of Marquee Moon alone they became a reference point cited again and again by post-punk and indie rock guitarists. In an era when short and raw was a virtue, they showed another path through long, intricate guitar conversations.
Lesser-known stories
The torn shirts and safety pins Richard Hell liked to wear were in fact an improvised style born of dire poverty. Malcolm McLaren, an Englishman visiting New York in 1975, took careful note of the look, and he is said to have drawn on it later when devising the wardrobe of the British bands he managed. The anecdote is a little-known trace Television left on punk history — through image rather than sound. The band name Television was an unusual choice for its time. It borrowed an object far too ordinary and domestic for a rock 'n' roll band, and Richard Hell, who came up with it, built in a pun: it sounds the same as 'tell a vision.' There was also the sense of a band reclaiming the name of the medium that dominated the age. Verlaine once said that his guitar playing owed more to the free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler than to the rock guitarists of his day. His way of soloing — breaking from set chord progressions to build tension and then release it — had a different grain from typical rock guitar, which circles the blues scale. The connection is well known among music specialists but almost never appears in popular introductions.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Punk
(Meaning) In English, punk was originally slang for 'rotten wood' or 'something worthless.' Musicians in the 1970s deliberately pinned this disparaging word on their own rough, unvarnished music. (In rock) It refers to a movement that rejected the excesses of established rock 'n' roll with short, simple, fast songs, free of complex technique or elaborate stage productions. It is an attitude much like choosing, at a school festival, to simply shout and jump around instead of performing a polished dance. (Elsewhere) In everyday speech, punk is still used for something worthless or for a delinquent.
Riff
(In rock) A short guitar (or bass) melodic phrase repeated throughout a song that gives the song its identity. Much like the short tune everyone remembers in a round, sung over and over, a riff works like a handle — hear it once, and the whole song comes back to you.
Twin guitars
(Meaning) Twin means a pair of twins, and the term refers to two guitars playing together as a matched pair. (In rock) A style in which one guitar plays the main melody while the other fills the gaps or answers it in counterpoint. Just as one player counts while the others move in hide-and-seek, the two guitars slip into each other's openings and interlock.
Overdubbing
(In rock) A recording method in which other instruments or voices are layered on top of an already recorded performance. It is like painting not all at once but by laying color over a sketch, one coat at a time.
Groove
(In rock) The flow of rhythm created as bass and drums lock together, one the body responds to on its own. It feels like the moment in a tug-of-war when everyone pulls in unison. (Elsewhere) In everyday speech, groove is also used for 'a state of running smoothly, right on track.'
Solo
(Meaning) Italian for 'alone.' (In rock) A passage in which the vocals or other instruments step back for a moment and a single instrument (often the guitar) plays on its own, in the spotlight. It is like the moment in a choir when one singer steps forward to sing alone. (Elsewhere) Solo is also used for 'doing it alone,' as in climbing or flying.