Tom Verlin, singer The band’s 1977 masterpiece was the guitarist for punk legends Television Mark MoonHe passed away at the age of 73.
Patti Smith’s daughter, Jessie Paris Smith, confirmed Verlin’s death from a “short illness.” A rolling stone on Saturday. “He died peacefully in New York City, surrounded by his closest friends. His vision and imagination will be missed,” Smith wrote.
Born Thomas Miller, Verlaine (who took his last name from the French poet Paul Verlaine), he was high school classmates with punk icon Richard Hale, with whom he formed his first bands. Arriving on Manhattan’s Lower East Side at the dawn of punk, Verlaine and Hell teamed up with guitarist Richard Lloyd before making their first short-lived act, the Neon Boys, in 1973 on television.
Verlaine and Television honed their sound as one of the main acts at legendary punk clubs such as CBGB’s – one of the venue’s first residential houses – and Max’s in Kansas City. Patti Smith — who once likened Verlaine’s guitar sound to “the cry of a thousand bluebirds” — was in the audience at one of the earliest televised shows in 1974, and paid the bill with television when the Patti Smith Band made its CBGB debut the following year.
Hell recently left television to join the punk scene’s Heartbreakers. With Verlaine and Lloyd taking over, the duo created a guitar sound, blending punk riffs with jazz. After making their 1975 debut single “Little Johnny Jewel”, Television released their masterpiece and one of the greatest albums of the punk era. Mark MoonIt was the album’s twist, encapsulating the title track. (The album as A rolling stone In the review, there were 2000 releases from CBGB bands like Blondie and the Ramones. (From the series released in 1977, it was “very exciting and bold,” but “also very unsettling.”)
“Television’s members played a mismatched, soaring fusion of genres in New York, at the dawn of punk: the screams of the Velvet Underground, psychedelic art rock, the double-helix guitars of Quicksilver Messenger Service,” A rolling stone He wrote Mark MoonNumber 107 on our list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
“When the Ramones first played, the lyrical yearning was as thrilling as it was brutally simple; Mark Moon He still wonders.” A rolling stone He wrote. “’Friction,’ ‘Venus’ and the powerful title track are haunted, desperate and beautiful all at once. As for punk credentials, don’t forget the mysterious electricity and strangled existence of guitarist Tom Verlaine’s voice and songwriting.
The TV Classic lineup would only release one more album in the seventies, 1978. Adventure, before Verlin began his solo career. As Patti Smith wrote, Verlaine’s albums showed “his angular lyricism and lyricism, his witty wit, and his ability to shake every string to its truest emotion.” (The classic TV line-up of Verlin, Lloyd, bassist Fred Smith and drummer Billy Fika for one last album – 1992 Television.)
In the year In 1979, Verlaine released his first solo album, the song “Kingdom Come”, which was recorded by David Bowie a year later for his iconic 1980 LP. Scary monsters and super freaks. As a solo artist, Verlaine remained prolific over the next few decades, transitioning seamlessly from post-punk explorations to fully instrumental EPs, and silent film scores to collaborations with Smith and other ex-CBGB denizens.
“Tom Verlaine once complained that he had never written about the two most intense dreams of his life, because ‘it is difficult to get past the language of dreams.’ That may be so, but Verlin still comes closer to solving that problem than anyone else in his medium. A rolling stone He wrote about Verlaine’s 1982 solo LP, The words in front. “Like his entire body of work, there’s something so inspired and effortless about Verlin’s songs that you have to wonder if he’s writing them…well, in his sleep.
In a 1988 interview A rolling stone, U2’s The Edge cites Verlin as a major influence. “I think what I took from Verlaine wasn’t his style, but that he did things that no one else did,” he said. “And I liked that; I thought that was worth it.