Great Record
Had to return twice though due to poor packaging which resulted in damage to the record. Great record.
Very good but not earth shattering
But like Horse by Patty Smith it is probably over-rated by the cool crowd of the CBGB era. Very good- single is great. My how the icon status of Blondie and the Talking Heads has fallen in recent years. The song Marquee Moon heavily deserves to be on your playlist for Classic Punk/alternative though. .
An enduring masterpiece
Television certainly shared some of punk's elements: spare instrumentation, raw youthful energy, and a "street rock" rejection of the overindulgences of 70s era musical and visual style. Often cited as one of the NYC bands that helped inspire the "punk rock" movement in the 70's, Television is typically lumped-in with the punk bands that followed, but this is a tragic mis-characterization. But unlike the bands that followed, Television did this with a keen musicianship, that was equal to the intensely inventive spirit of their songwriting. This is why their debut album still remains fresh today and deserves recognition as a unique document that has all the qualities of the highest forms of musical art. I fully expect that hundreds of years from now those interested in and knowledgeable about electric guitar music will still be listening to the work of Television while their contemporaries are long forgotten.
Perhaps it takes a musician to truly appreciate the sheer brilliance of Marquee Moon. The inventive guitar interplay of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd over the equally inventive rhythmic foundation of drummer Billy Ficca and bassist Fred Smith puts every other rock foursome of the time to shame. . . both in sheer originality and musical sophistication. Most of the bands that followed eschewed serious musicianship and offered little more than youthful rebellion driven ever harder to a new level of speed, attitude, and volume. Television cracked open a door to a different kind of music, one that combined the raw attitude of rebellious youth, with a musical sophistication rivaling that of creative jazz, a fresh musical alchemy all their own that remains influential long after the raw appeal of punk has run its course.
For those looking for punk head-banging over densely hammering chords, this recording is not for you. For serious musicians and others interested in the deeper creative possibilities of guitar, bass, and drum rock music, Marquee Moon remains an essential and timeless artifact that defies categorization, and still inspires awe in Those Who Understand.
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One Thing...
Buy it and enjoy your trip. If ever there was one thing--ONE THING--that a person could buy that would make them go from zero to COOL at about the speed of light, this is it.
Not Really Like Anything Else
Marquee Moon never gets old. The thing about Television is that their two studio albums from the 1970's, especially Marquee Moon, sound like nothing else. It's kind of like a musical fantasyland. Every track is unbelievable. The musicianship is so unique that one can always tell what band it is. No one has made a guitar album like this. Sure, any band can have one guitarist bang out chords while another solos over the top but the two guitarists here arrange the songs so well that one need not bother picking them apart. It all flows together perfectly. Buy this. Listen to it. Listen to it again. Try to compare it to anything else. You can't.
You can see a complete list of all Television discography, or go back to the Television tabs
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