Tom Verlaine: Remembering the Innovative Guitarist, Singer, and Songwriter

(Full disclosure: this post was not composed by ChatGPT.)

Tom Verlaine, front man in the band Television, passed away at 73 years old on January 28th after a short illness. He was born in New Jersey in 1949 as Thomas Miller. Inspired by the Rolling Stones, specifically “19th Nervous Breakdown,” he picked up a guitar as a teen at a boarding school. He met bass player Richard Hell there and formed a short-lived band, the Neon Boys. They moved to NYC in 1973 and reformed as Television with new member, guitarist Richard Lloyd. It was then that he changed his last name to Verlaine in honor of French poet, Paul Verlaine. They became part of the East Village music scene sharing gigs with Blondie, Talking Heads, and Patti Smith at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. Hell left to form the Heartbreakers with ex-New York Dollers Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan (and after that to the Voidoids and Blank Generation). Fred Smith replaced him, and the band was set for its landmark debut album. They could never have imagined the impact it would have.

Marquee Moon was released in 1977 to good reviews and pitiful sales. The critical acclaim would continue unabated over the years landing it on numerous best-of lists: best guitar album, best alternative rock album, best punk album, best album of the year, best album of the 70s, and one of the best of all time. The album had some commercial success in the U.K., but never caught on in the U.S. Sales topped out at about 80,000. From the opening number, “See No Evil,” you know there’s something groundbreaking going on. A two-guitar interplay of punk riffs and jazzy overtones. An experimental Velvet Underground vibe with stark, unsettling vocals and lyrics meandering through images of NYC. The clean, articulate guitars improvise through the entire album with “Venus,” “Friction,” and “Prove It” being other noteworthy tracks. No power chords or distortion here. But when you think of Marquee Moon, you think of the title track: a glorious 10-minute epic anthem. The guitars twist and turn, while the vocals hypnotize. It’s barbed, forlorn, and beautiful.

Soon thereafter, Television released their second album, Adventure, in 1978. It was greeted with the same lackluster sales, but without the enthusiastic praise of Marquee Moon. The record label lost interest in the band and the group disbanded. Verlaine went on release ten solo albums. (I had no idea.) Television reunited in 1992 and put out a self-titled album. A lower key effort without the grand statement song, but solid throughout. They continued to perform sporadically over the years. Verlaine collaborated with Jeff Buckley, Luna, James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), and most frequently Patti Smith (they were also a couple for a short time). He was one of the Million Dollar Bashers, a supergroup with members of Sonic Youth and Wilco (again, no clue).

Tom Verlaine was a hesitant rock star and never understood all the fuss over Marquee Moon. He expanded his search for new avenues of musical expression to instrumentals and film scores. His songs were vignettes of everyday life experience and observations. As Patti Smith put in her touching eulogy in the New Yorker, “There’s no one like Tom. He possessed a child’s gift of transforming a drop of water into a poem that somehow begat music.”