Television Singer and Guitarist Tom Verlaine Dead at 73

Television singer, guitarist and songwriter Tom Verlaine has died at age 73 after an unspecified transient sickness.

(*73*)The New York Times studies the information was confirmed by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine’s good friend and fellow artist Patti Smith.

Television was considered one of a number of influential bands to emerge from New York City’s fruitful mid-’70s music scene. They constructed a following by performing commonly at CBGB, the membership that additionally helped give delivery to the Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads.

The band’s 1977 arty, jazz-influenced debut (*73*)Marquee Moon

is taken into account one of many masterpieces of its period. R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, Joy Division’s Stephen Morris and U2’s the Edge are among the many artists who’ve credited it with altering the way in which they approached their music.

“In the early ’60s, I hated pop. I took up sax in about ’63, and an older friend of mine had some [John] Coltrane and Ornette Coleman records, and that’s the music I liked,” Verlaine advised (*73*)Guitar Player in 1993. “I never listened to guitar music – I thought it was a really twee instrument. But when I wanted to write songs, I decided that was the thing to play. For me, even a solo is an accompaniment of some kind, or it just takes the place of a voice.”

Neither (*73*)Marquee Moon

nor the band’s follow-up (*73*)Adventure made a lot of a dent on the charts, and Television broke up in 1978. Verlaine launched 10 solo albums over the subsequent three many years. He additionally often reunited with Television for reside performances. The group launched a ultimate, self-titled album in 1992.

“I think what I took from Verlaine was not really his style,” the Edge advised (*73*)Rolling Stone

in 1988, “but the fact that he did something no one else had done.”

Hear Television’s ‘See No Evil’