a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

Starting the Countdown….

            No, sillies, not to New Year’s…. I mean, my Top 10 albums of all time….

            I’m sure there’ll be interruptions to the flow—life does happen, after all, and maybe byrnes’ll finally get that album out within the next 10 weeks, you know?—but at least this way I’ve got a good default mode going for the next three months, after which maybe I’ll know exactly why I’m doing this thing (or not)….

            Anyway, let’s kick it, shall we? And in true self-contradictory fashion, I’m going to name TWO albums my #10. Although at least they’re by the same band, and in fact make up that band’s entire “official” output (sanctified live bootlegs, and reunion albums to pay the bass player’s bills, not included of course). And heck, it’s even especially good winter music (I kid you not—some artists just feel like one season more than another…).

            So, without further ado, I give you….

          #10. Television—Marquee Moon and Adventure

           How do you describe Television to a generation that doesn’t have a clue about them (let alone a generation that should’ve but still didn’t)? 

             And lest we forget the rock-solid Billy Ficca (probably better known for his work with The Waitresses, who put out the way cool but overkilled “Christmas Rapping,” which y’r probably yet again sick of hearing right about now) and Fred Smith (he of the greasy hair and financial problems, who nonetheless consistently had a few great bass riffs on every Television/Verlaine album), and Richard Lloyd, who went on to become part of an arguably even more dangerous guitar duo with Robert Quine while backing up Matthew Sweet on the more popular Girlfriend but especially Altered Beast (which ain’t too far from my Top 10, BTW).

Anyway, I’d bought Marquee Moon pretty much when it came out, in my senior year of high school (1977-78)—I figured, hey, if I was right about the Pistols and Talking Heads without ever hearing them, and these guys were being mentioned in the same breath…. But alas, it did nothing for me. “See No Evil” had a pretty good riff but the rest kind of bored. I’m pretty sure I gave it away, in fact.

It wasn’t until a couple years later, in a stoned-and/or-drunken stupor at byrnes’ place (where all things rock-and-roll happened, you see), that I locked into the title song and THAT SOLO and asked, “Who IS that?”

“It’s Television.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Really? What album?”

“Marquee Moon.”

“No, it’s not, because I owned that and it sucked…”

I was very useful when I was stoned and/or drunk. Which back then was pretty often.

But good news: It sounded even better straight. I probably had some growing up to do in between. The romanticism and (yes) spirituality of stuff like “Guiding Light” and “Torn Curtain” was stuff I had no clue for when I was 16, although how still managed to miss the absolute shredding going on in “Friction” and (ESPECIALLY) the title song…. I dunno. I was young and stupid. Now I’m old and stupid. But a lot more conscious of it.

Maybe it was the indirectness of the lyrics. Because like his namesake, Verlaine’s lyrics were images. No stories here, although you could put it together if you found yourself in the middle of it. (I remember one time a few years later when byrnes dared me to try to explain what the heck “Glory” (from Adventure) was about. Which I, in midst of another failed romance, therefore had no difficulty whatsoever doing. At which point, he reared back and nodded approvingly. J).

I’m not talking much about the music, am I? Things you need to know about both of these albums that I haven’t already alluded to: 

Marquee Moon is the refined, cool-but-edgy, tight little package that hits you in one way or another from start to finish. Even a stupid 16-year-old could hear a great opener in “See No Evil,” but it takes a few heartbreaks and a lot of trips to NYC to appreciate a song like “Venus,” despite some great guitar work that should’ve helped. Another great riff in “Friction” (thus justifying its place among the standard Envelopes covers — “I don’t wanna grow up / It’s too much contradiction / And too much friction / But you know, I’m crazy ‘bout friction / F--R--I--C--T-I-O-N” Absolute coolishness. (And how the 16-year-old didn’t latch onto “I start to spin the tale / You complain of my dic----tion” the first time around is beyond me. :D)

Then comes the title song. Again, how’d I miss this faithin’ riff, let alone the counter-riff that drives this thing for 10 whole minutes without a hitch? A journey deep into the edge of night that’s smart enough to know exactly when it’s time to get off:  

Well, the Cadillac, it pulled out of the graveyard

It pulled up to me; all he said was “Get in. GET in.”

Well, the Cadillac, it puttered back into that graveyard

Me? I got out again.

Which immediately is followed by probably the definitive solo of the entire “punk” era. I didn’t know anything about Coltrane back then, but I get the comparisons now. Dissonant, glorious, building back into this incredible climax that disappears into a gentle rain of harmonics. At which point the song starts completely over, then disappears. Which maybe is the real point of it. (Seeing Verlaine do it live was a great experience in and of itself. Never the same on any two given nights, usually twice as long as the as-you’ll-recall-10-minute original, and never a dull moment in the lot.)

Side two kicks back and lets the moodier stuff take over, interspersing between the cooler, ‘tudy-er “Elevation” (am I the only one that hears the repeat of the chorus as “Television—don’t go to my head”?) and “Prove It” (“this case is cloooosed”), and the real gems here, “Guiding Light” and “Torn Curtain,” two stellar combinations of quiet romanticism and the harsh reality that kills it almost every time…. 

Torn curtain, reveals another play

Torn curtain, such an exposé!

I’m uncertain, when beauty meets abuse

Torn curtain, love’s all ridicule

Tears, tears, rolling back the years… 

Torn curtain, feels more like a rake

Torn curtain, how much does it take?

BURN IT DOWN 

…and, of course, those danged guitar solos out of the stratosphere that keep the hairs on the back of your neck standing until the thing finally fades out. Every bit the masterpiece I heard it was in the first place, when I was that dumb high-school student. 

No-one will mistake Adventure for anything but a Television album, but unlike its predecessor, the second album wasn’t polished down to a fine finish before hitting vinyl. In some ways poppier, in other ways more ragged and edgy, in yet other ways drenched in near-impenetrable imagery, in still other ways more direct in its attacks—in all ways Television at its finest.

“Glory,” is a kinder, gentler “See No Evil,” the kind of stuff you could picture R.E.M. doing in a more rambunctious time. A tongue-in-cheek tribute to true-love-at-that-moment-anyway: 

She said, “There’s a halo on that truck. Won’t you please get it for me?”

I said, “Of course, my little swan — if ever and ever you adore me.”

She got mad, she said “You’re too steep.”

Puts on her boxing gloves and went to sleep

When I see the glory

I ain’t got a worry…. 

“Days” may not be quite as good as the Kinks song of the same name, but it’s a sweet, longing, and entirely unironic love song (that would musically go one to have R.E.M. written all over it, or of course vice versa — think: “Talk About the Passion”). The poetry of the lyrics aside, it’s about as gorgeously simple a moment as a Verlaine (& Lloyd, in this case) creation is ever going to have.

Which is promptly countered by the anti-war diatribe “Foxhole” (Verlaine’s quite good at these, actually; the title song from his album Words from the Front is arguably the best thing from his  seriously impressive solo career.) The guitar, of course, matches the lyrical venom note-for-note and then some.

Which, in turn, is answered by the goofy, catchy “Careful,” which doesn’t entirely forget the theme of the song before it — “I jump out of bed / I pull down the shade / I used to have such sweet dreams / Now it’s more like an air raid.”

Which, of course, leads into “Carried Away,” a quiet, majestically painful song that would have fit perfectly on side two of Marquee Moon:  

Those rooms were freezing

And always dark

But where we were never mattered

Your head was golden

There was lightning in your arms

And then the glass shattered 

With “The Fire,” side two picks up where “Carried Away” leaves off, only the exquisite feeling of loss has given way to pain and bitterness and all the guitar chops Tom Verlaine can muster. And brother, that’s a lot. After an emotion-dripping, guitar-strangling solo that arguably leaves “Marquee Moon” in the dust, Tom the lyricist comes back in to deliver the relationship’s epitaph: 

Praise emptiness

Her rose-colored dress

Her circling motions

Praise emptiness

Everything scattered.

Nothing was missed.

We took our house

In the fire. 

How do you follow that one? With the single, of course. And “Ain’t That Nothin’” is a good one. Great riffs, the requisite sense of cool, and a lyric that’s pure Television-era Verlaine: “Discover dishonor, and its thousand commands / It ain’t worth a shot — that target is sand / Oh but I love disaster — and I love what comes after / Ain’t that nothin’?… / I just wish that you’d tell me something.”

The album (and arguably the band’s real career) closes with “The Dream’s Dream” — quirky, impressionistic, haunting, confusing as all get-out, more an atmosphere than a song. The lyrics — repeatedly only once about halfway through the near-seven minute song — are no more and no less than: 

The elevator called me up — she said, “You’d better start making sense.” (Good luck. J)

The stone was bleeding, whirling in the waltz.

I went to see her majesty. The court had no suspense.

She said, “Dream dreams the dreamer.”

I said, “It’s not my fault.” 

Posted by: burninglight at 18:57 | link | comments (4)

Comments:

#1  23 December 2005 - 16:35

 

Bravo, Simmons. A better encapsulation/appreciation of the boys I have never read. Made me glad I finally got back to this page. For some reason I've never really written about TV, although they were one of my favorites back in the day. Can't wait to read the rest of the countdown (you are gonna place Von Lmo, right?)

timbyrnes

#2  26 December 2005 - 17:53

 

Not a Von Lmo CD to be found. Now, Art.... :D ... nope, not them, either...

Anyway, some selections will thrill you more than others. Guaranteed you'll enjoy #9, though....

Anonymous

#3  28 December 2005 - 21:03

 

Hey pal,
Hope yr Xmas was a good one. I'm still here so I guess mine was OK. Can't get antimusic email to load, so I figured I'd say howdy here. Lemme guess on #9. Is it 2nd Edition?
tb

timbyrnes

#4  28 December 2005 - 21:16

 

Well... um.... um.... um.... :D

burninglight

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