Tom Verlaine

He first attracted attention with the band Television, a fixture of the New York punk rock scene. But his music wasn't so easily categorized.

Hell was replaced by Fred Smith in 1975 and later went on to form the punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. The layered, often ethereal sound that Mr. After they moved to New York, they formed a band, the Neon Boys, which in 1973 evolved into Television, with Richard Lloyd on second guitar, Mr. Although Television achieved only minor commercial success and broke up after recording two albums, Mr. Mr. He was 73.

Verlaine fronted the ambitious and oblique New York band Television, with whom he made two of rock's most acclaimed albums.

That year, when a reporter asked him to describe his career, Verlaine said slyly, “Struggling not to have a professional career.” But the records didn’t sell and the band broke up, reuniting for a third album, called “Television,” in 1992 before disappearing again. The first two Television albums — “Marquee Moon,” released in 1977, and “Adventure,” a year later — were enough to cement the band’s enduring legend. But Verlaine himself seemed loathe to pursue the explosive, careening music that brought him renown. Although Television first attracted attention at the New York punk rock club CBGB, Verlaine wasn’t a fan of punk, which he described as “just amped-up bubblegum with angrier lyrics.” Among other things, punk bands eschewed solos, which Verlaine and fellow guitarist Richard Lloyd did not. “The personal loss, for me, is absolutely devastating.

Tom Verlaine, a founder, lead vocalist and guitarist for '70s N.Y. rock band Television, has died. He was 73 years old.

After the “Television” reunion album and the instrumental set “Warm and Cool” in 1992, he opted out on recording for nearly a decade and a half. In the studio, and on tour, he frequently served as accompanist to former paramour Patti Smith, and appeared on her albums “Gone Again” (1996), “Gung Ho” (2000), “Twelve” (2007) and “Banga” (2012). But, despite the fact that Television gelled into one of the most formidable live acts on the scene, neither the debut LP nor its successor “Adventure” managed to enter the American charts, and the group dissolved within weeks of the end of its 1978 U.S. (Some of Hell’s songs for Television were heard on “Blank Generation,” the 1977 debut by his band the Voidoids.) With Blondie’s original bassist Fred Smith enlisted to replace Hell, the band recorded a storming seven-minute track that was issued across two sides of a single released by Ork on his eponymous label in September 1975. “Up until then, the guitar was a stupid instrument to me,” he recalled in a 2001 interview with Mojo. But the New York Dolls’ glam scene inspired the pair to form a band, the Neon Boys, with Meyers on bass and Ficca recruited as the drummer. The two became close friends, and made an attempt to run away to Florida that was squelched by the police in Alabama. In 1963, he took up the saxophone after gravitating to the music of jazz avant gardists Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Roland Kirk and Albert Ayler. In 2007, Lloyd was replaced in the touring unit by Jimmy Ripp, who had for many years supported Verlaine on his solo albums and tours. A love of symphonic music led him to the piano as a child. It was a revelation and I was hoping my Jazzmaster could somehow channel his when I played the solo on ‘Halloween’ on the first Dream Syndicate album.

His band rose to fame in the 1970s New York punk scene, scoring UK hits including Marquee Moon.

Will Sergeant, guitarist of Echo & The Bunnymen, said: "Tom Verlaine's playing meant the world to me. He set me on my path as a guitarist, thank you Tom." That takes a special greatness."

Verlaine's jaggedly inventive playing as part of the band's two-guitar assault influenced many musicians.

It has been a clear influence on such artists as Pavement, Sonic Youth, the Strokes and Jeff Buckley,” Billboard magazine wrote in 2003. “Tom Verlaine has passed over to the beyond that his guitar playing always hinted at. That takes a special greatness,” Mike Scott of The Waterboys tweeted.

The founding father of American punk and a fixture in the 1970s New York rock scene died Saturday as the result of a brief illness.

"Tom and I had an hysterically funny conversation that lasted the last 42 years," guitarist and Television member Jimmy Rip wrote in a statement to NPR. "He was blindingly smart, incredibly well read as well as surreally silly! "I met Tom when I was a child, not long after my dad passed away," Jesse Paris Smith wrote in a statement to NPR. Verlaine developed a cult following throughout his career, but never quite achieved mainstream status and eschewed the limelight. Verlaine thought for a moment before offering his preferred self-deprecating epigram: 'Struggling not to have a professional career.' " Born Thomas Miller in Denville, N.J., Verlaine grew up in Wilmington, Del.

Tom Verlaine, singer and guitarist for punk legends Television who crafted the band's 1977 masterpiece 'Marquee Moon,' has died at the age of 73.

[Marquee Moon](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/marquee-moon-2-251950/), the centerpiece of which was the album’s twisty, mesmerizing title track. “And I liked that; I thought that was valuable.” In 1979, Verlaine released his self-titled solo album, which included the song “Kingdom Come,” recorded a year later by David Bowie for that icon’s 1980 LP Scary Monsters & Super Freaks. “As exhilarating in its lyrical ambitions as the Ramones’ debut was in its brutal simplicity, Marquee Moon still amazes,” Rolling Stone wrote. Television’s classic lineup would only release one more album during the Seventies, 1978’s Adventure, before Verlaine embarked on his solo career. Arriving in Manhattan’s Lower East Side at the dawn of punk, Verlaine and Hell first teamed up for the short-lived act Neon Boys before co-founding Television in 1973 alongside guitarist Richard Lloyd.

The founding father of American punk and a fixture in the 1970s New York rock scene died Saturday as the result of a brief illness.

"Tom and I had an hysterically funny conversation that lasted the last 42 years," guitarist and Television member Jimmy Rip wrote in a statement to NPR. "He was blindingly smart, incredibly well read as well as surreally silly! Verlaine developed a cult following throughout his career, but never quite achieved mainstream status and eschewed the limelight. "I met Tom when I was a child, not long after my dad passed away," Jesse Paris Smith wrote in a statement to NPR. Verlaine thought for a moment before offering his preferred self-deprecating epigram: 'Struggling not to have a professional career.' " Born Thomas Miller in Denville, N.J., Verlaine grew up in Wilmington, Del.

Verlaine's jaggedly inventive playing as part of the band's two-guitar assault influenced many musicians.

It has been a clear influence on such artists as Pavement, Sonic Youth, the Strokes and Jeff Buckley,” Billboard magazine wrote in 2003. “Tom Verlaine has passed over to the beyond that his guitar playing always hinted at. That takes a special greatness,” Mike Scott of The Waterboys tweeted.

The music industry honors Tom Verlaine, who died at the age of 73, with Patti Smith, Blondie and Billy Idol paying tribute.

It was a revelation and I was hoping my Jazzmaster could somehow channel his when I played the solo on ‘Halloween’ on the first Dream Syndicate album. “He was my guitar hero at a time when I needed one most,” Dream Syndicate guitarist Steve Wynn said in a statement posted to Facebook. The rock guitarist was a groundbreaking figure of the punk era, whose inventive, askew playing style can be seen as an influence on younger groups like Sonic Youth, the Feelies and countless other groups.

Tom Verlaine, an iconic punk guitarist known as the front man for the band Television, has died at the age of 73, according to Patti Smith's daughter, ...

[Patti Smith](https://www.vulture.com/article/patti-smith-a-book-of-days-photography-instagram.html), Smashing Pumpkins’s Tony Garnier, and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley. He frequently worked closely with [Smith](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/patti-smith-rock-and-roll-n-r-removed-streaming-services.html), including on her Grammy-nominated single “Glitter in Their Eyes” and “Fireflies.” Verlaine, alongside Sonic Youth’s Ranaldo and Shelley, Wilco’s Nels Cline, Garnier, Smokey Hormel, and John Medeski, made up the super-group Million Dollar Basher, creating music that appeared in Dylan’s biographical film, I’m Not There. [Tom Verlaine](https://www.vulture.com/2007/06/tom_verlaine_stops_bitching_lo_1.html), an iconic punk guitarist known as the front man for the band [Television](https://www.vulture.com/2015/12/televisions-richard-lloyd-will-teach-you-guitar.html), has died at the age of 73, according to Patti Smith’s daughter, [Jesse Paris Smith](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn-gFLpvikB/?hl=en). Joined by [Richard Hell](https://www.vulture.com/2015/11/new-york-punk-then-and-now-godlis-ork.html), they first formed the group the Neon Boys before later transforming into Television. [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/arts/music/tom-verlaine-dead.html) Verlaine collaborated with many artists like

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Verlaine, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal proto-punk band Television who influenced many bands while playing at ultra-cool ...

“His vision and his imagination will be missed.” It has been a clear influence on such artists as Pavement, Sonic Youth, the Strokes and Jeff Buckley,” Billboard magazine wrote in 2003. “Tom Verlaine has passed over to the beyond that his guitar playing always hinted at.

Singer and guitarist Tom Verlaine, who soared to fame in the 1970s New York punk scene in rock band Television, has died at the age of 73.

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Tom Verlaine, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal proto-punk band Television who influenced many bands while playing at ultra-cool New York music venue ...

It has been a clear influence on such artists as Pavement, Sonic Youth, the Strokes and Jeff Buckley,” Billboard magazine wrote in 2003. “Tom Verlaine has passed over to the beyond that his guitar playing always hinted at. That takes a special greatness,” Mike Scott of The Waterboys tweeted. “We wanted to strip everything down further, away from the showbiz theatricality of the glitter bands, and away from blues-iness and boogie,” Television co-founder Richard Hell wrote in his autobiography, I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp. “We wanted to be stark and hard and torn up, the way the world was.” He was the best rock and roll guitarist of all time, and like Hendrix could dance from the spheres of the cosmos to garage rock.

Tom Verlaine, who redefined rock guitar in the punk era of the 1970s with his band Television, died Saturday in Manhattan.

But, despite the fact that Television gelled into one of the most formidable live acts on the scene, neither the debut LP nor its successor “Adventure” managed to enter the American charts, and the group dissolved within weeks of the end of its 1978 U.S. “Up until then, the guitar was a stupid instrument to me,” he recalled in a 2001 interview with Mojo. In 1963, he took up the saxophone after gravitating to the music of jazz avant gardists Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Roland Kirk and Albert Ayler. A love of symphonic music led him to the piano as a child. In 2007, Lloyd was replaced in the touring unit by Jimmy Ripp, who had for many years supported Verlaine on his solo albums and tours. It was a revelation and I was hoping my Jazzmaster could somehow channel his when I played the solo on ‘Halloween’ on the first Dream Syndicate album.

Tom Verlaine, the influential frontman of the band Television which emerged from the New York punk rock underground in the late 1970s with seminal album ...

"Name 10 minutes of music as good as Marquee Moon. He (affected) the way John and I play immeasurably," he tweeted, referring to guitarist John Frusciante. "Fly on Tom." TV Rest In Peace." He went to high school with fellow punk icon Richard Hell, and together they founded Television in 1973 alongside guitarist Richard Lloyd. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.

Visionary frontman of Television whose 1977 debut LP Marquee Moon is considered one of the most influential albums of its era.

The album was co-produced by the studio engineer [Andy Johns](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/apr/09/andy-johns-producer-dies), who had worked with the Rolling Stones, Free and Led Zeppelin, and who helped Verlaine achieve the clarity of sound for which he was searching. [Malcolm McLaren](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/09/malcolm-mclaren-obituary)’s styling of the Sex Pistols, had already been sacked by Verlaine on the grounds of heroin-induced unreliability by the time Television made their first single. A second album, Adventure, made less impact and the band dissolved in 1978 after disagreements between Verlaine and Lloyd. Two albums of instrumental pieces, Warm and Cool (1992) and Around (2006), showed his gift for creating tone poems inspired by film noir. [Blank Generation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqsDXmmaEAk)) and the soaring interplay between the two lead guitarists quickly earned them a following among New York’s scenemakers. In 1995 he appeared as a guest with Smith’s band on a US tour with Bob Dylan. Smith, then beginning her rise to prominence, was another early supporter, and Verlaine played on her first single, a version of [Hey Joe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEkmoawOih0), in 1974. They had made their separate ways to New York by 1971, where they teamed up again on the Lower East Side, changed their names to Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, scuffled for work and wrote poetry together under the nom-de-plume “Theresa Stern”. But among the artfully distressed apparel, defiant haircuts and painfully skinny silhouettes of their milieu, none of those serving apprenticeships in [CBGB](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/11/cbgbs-rocks-backpages)s, Max’s Kansas City and other New York clubs showed more concern for the music itself than Verlaine. But it was his exploratory guitar solos that spoke of his early interest in, and deep knowledge of, the avant-garde jazz of the 1960s. He was born Thomas Miller in Morriston, New Jersey, into a middle-class family who moved to Wilmington, Delaware, when he was six years old. Although each of those groups pursued a very different musical path, together their impact would shape what became known as the punk movement, while Television’s debut LP, Marquee Moon, released in 1977, would secure a place among the most admired and enduringly influential albums of its era.

Tom Verlaine, founding member of seminal New York punk band Television, died Saturday at age 73 "after a brief illness," according to a news release from ...

“He made incredible music that greatly influenced the US & UK punk rock scene in the ’70’s,” [wrote Idol.](https://twitter.com/BillyIdol/status/1619476443586756609) Grief is not an affliction, but a privilege.” [Blondie’s Debbie Harry](https://twitter.com/BlondieOfficial/status/1619450134819115008) and Billy Idol similarly honored the guitarist and songwriter on social media. “He was the perfect friend and support for me as a little girl.” The two were a couple in the 1970s and remained lifelong friends. The guitarist, raised in Wilmington, Delaware, was “noted for his angular lyricism and pointed lyrical asides, a sly wit, and an ability to shake each string to its truest emotion,” the release added. [picture of herself with Verlaine ](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn-efDrJ29T/)as well [another of a vase of flowers](https://www.instagram.com/p/CoAEbjiO6qA/) with the caption, “This is morning thinking about Tom.

Leader of the group Television, Verlaine was an astronomically influential figure in the New York scene.

[cited](https://rockportraits.wordpress.com/2014/10/03/television/) jazz saxophonists John Coltrane and Albert Ayler as inspiration, and early on Television covered “ [Fire Engine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq-xhBUCQAA)” by the trailblazing psychedelic group the 13th Floor Elevators. This line-up, with Billy Ficca on drums, was the one that entered Phil Ramone’s (no relation to The Ramones) A & R Studios in Manhattan in September 1976 to record “Marquee Moon” for Elektra Records. He was replaced by Fred Smith (not to be confused with Fred “Sonic” Smith of the MC5, who would eventually marry Patti Smith of the Patti Smith Group, whose name was already Smith before they wed.) Hell, who played bass and sang backing vocals, eventually split to found The Heartbreakers (with exiting members of the New York Dolls) and then Richard Hell and the Voidoids. This appears to be made up, but perhaps speaks to the shroud of mystery that surrounded this uncategorizable group.) [has died](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/arts/music/tom-verlaine-dead.html), according to Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of musician Patti Smith, following “a brief illness.” Though never a commercial success, Verlaine’s influence as an artist and icon of downtown cool has reverberated throughout the decades.

From Television through his solo career, the songwriter created enigmatic tidings and cat's-cradle guitar structures. He died on Saturday at 73.

“Call Mr. Verlaine’s and Lloyd’s guitars set up “1880 or So” with a calm fingerpicked drone immediately answered by a nervous, leaping line, immediately re-establishing their two-guitar equipoise as Verlaine sings about love and mortality. On his self-titled 1979 solo debut album, Verlaine welcomed keyboards into his arrangements. The reaction, at a gig in 1978, was a smattering of applause. “Little Johnny Jewel” extended across both sides of Television’s first single, in 1975, and onstage it would expand even further, into a jazzy, sprawling, exploratory jam that was never the same twice. Spirituality meets flirtation in “Glory.” The music harks back to the metronomic beat, talky verses and major chords of the Velvet Underground, but it has its own twists, as Verlaine’s guitar lines push toward Eastern modes. It starts with the two guitars of Lloyd and Verlaine, separated in stereo, syncopated against each other; then, before anyone can get settled, Fred Smith’s bass and Billy Ficca’s drums forcibly move the downbeat. But through the next decades, he created music that rewards attention to every detail. Verlaine’s voice would never be ingratiating enough for a broad audience; it was reedy, yelpy, quavery, a bit strangulated. His playing drew on country, jazz, blues, surf-rock and raga; his compositions almost always set up a contrapuntal dialogue of guitars with distinct tones, colluding or contending. His music looked back to the not-so-distant days of psychedelia and the Velvet Underground, but it was leaner, tauter, steelier. Tom Verlaine was present at the creation of New York City punk.