Television

That's a dreadful thing to say.

This is a joke right? Television had been around for years before U2 even decided to become a band, and Edge cites Television as an influence. Edge couldn't hold a candle to either Verlaine's or Lloyd's playing, without effects boxes there would be no U2.

anyone heard (WTF?) the new richard lloyd hendrix covers (WTF?) and/or seen a recent show?
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/04/televisions_ric.html

I got his first solo album. Strikingly like mid-period Nick Lowe!

damn i didn't know he just played D.C. a couple weeks ago, i totally would've been into seeing Lloyd cover Hendrix

so i went last night. he didn't really play many hendrix songs but did do sterling versions of "friction" and "elevation." dude is an a-mazing guitar player. he had laryngitis though which sucked

Billy Ficca's playing drums with him right? That'd be a bonus for sure.

Sounds awesome.

I keep hoping Television get together and do another album like they did with that s/t one in, what, the early '90s?, that surprises me by actually being pretty good.

i think it was billy yeah and the two of them were having a lot of fun together. a few times it seemed like they were making up songs on the spot for a minute or two before going into something familiar

cool, wish Lloyd/Ficca would come to my neck of the woods.
there were some rumors that Television was recording an album -- without Lloyd!! -- a year or two back. Don't know if that would really end up being a Television album or just a Tom Verlaine solo record. Anyway, they had been playing about an albums' worth of new songs between 2002-2006. Not exactly the most ambitious band in the world, in terms of recording, though.

that brooklynvegan link upthread mentions that television are currently recording, with jimmy ripp on guitar.

ah yes, that is what I had heard. i think Lloyd made a big announcement a few years back about how he was quitting Television once and for all, but that he gave them his blessing to continue without him. Still, Television w/o Lloyd just seems like Tom Verlaine solo -- Ripp, Ficca and Smith have all played on his solo records, anyway. Whatever, it'd be nice to have some new Verlaine/Television material. What I've heard from various live tapes sounds prettty sweet.

Who is Jimmy Ripp :(

Dude who played guitar with Verlaine throughout the 80s and 90s. Great player actually.

at this point, he's probably logged more hours with Tom than Lloyd has.

at the last television show i saw, 2005 i think?, he played some great stuff i didn't reccognize. I particularly remember a long song with a terrific eastern motif.

Sounds hopeful. Still sad to think of that band without Lloyd.

yeah, would be pretty weird to have a Television album w/o Lloyd -- is there a single review of that band that doesn't talk about the dueling Verlaine/Lloyd guitars? it's pretty much their signature.

i've only seen television once - one of the early '00s reunion shows in DC - but my main takeaway was that i'd severely overrated verlaine and underrated lloyd as guitarists. verlaine was a mess (sometimes in a really good way, obvs) with flashes of inspiration, but lloyd was lyrical, hypnotic, and locked on. it was weird to realize how many times i'd listened to recordings and been like "omg verlaine!" when it was actually lloyd's playing. verlaine rules, but i think his stuff is more of an "if you catch him on a good night, wow" kinda thing.

yeah i don't think Verlaine's heart is in the epic intense guitar solos these days. he can still do great stuff, but i think he left the heavy lifting to Lloyd in the various reunions. Like when I've heard latter-day versions of "Little Johnny Jewel" Tom barely seems there, whereas he kills it on those 70s recordings.

yeah...you just hear Verlaine's name so much more than when you hear guitar stuff on the albums you kinda assume it's him until you learn otherwise...i wish they'd credited who did which solos/leads on Marquee Moon like they did for the self-titled album.

xpost

they did! it's on the vinyl, anyway.

I heard somewhere or other that Lloyd's parts were a lot more written than Verlaine's, much truth in that ya suppose?

ah really? I need to check my CD reissue to see if it's in there.

oh totally, re: Lloyd's parts. On Marquee Moon, Richard doubletracked every note he played.

xpost the guitar solo credits etc are def on the rhino cd reish

saw the reformed television twice this decade, and both times the tension between verlaine and lloyd was self-evident in the way that they played together, stood on stage together, glared at each other (mostly tom) etc etc - i wouldn't say that either of 'em was 'better' on the night, tho' the second time around (2004) the whole group was noticeably sloppier - the first time i saw 'em (at the Tortoise curated ATP in 2001) the version of 'little johnny jewel' they delivered was stunning and tom v was on fire

in 2006 i saw verlaine and ripp play a really sweet duo set at the 100 club - ripp was v. much the accompaniest and subservient to the master, and verlaine seemed much more engaged w/ the material and event, even when playing a few of the old hits - i don't ever expect to see tom in action so close up and personal, and he was def. on form that night - so he still has it, still

yeah i've heard some of the Ripp/Verlaine duo (mostly instrumental) -- really lovely stuff!

btw if yr interested in hearing a bunch of vintage Television bootlegs, I did a long overview at my blog a couple weeks back: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/ I'll get around to the reunion years someday.

hmm: http://aquariumdrunkard.tumblr.com/post/677685931/indieandyy-careful-by-local-natives-originally
Aquarium Drunkard will be digitally releasing L’Aventure on June 22, featuring 8 Los Angeles bands each covering a track from the 1978 Television LP, Adventure.
1.The Henry Clay People: “Glory”
2.Foreign Born: “Days”
3.The Happy Hollows: “Foxhole”
4.Local Natives: “Careful”
5.The Deadly Syndrome: “Carried Away”
6.Imaad Wasif [ft. Lykke Li]: “The Fire”
7.Dirt Dress: “Ain’t That Nothin’”
8.Growlers: “The Dream’s Dream”
don't know any of these bands ... good/bad/eh?

local la bands, seen most of them, none of them are that bad but nothing really that special about any of em

^^ tyler--any chance that you could re-post No Glamour-- later TV @ Academy '92?

yeah, sure i'll re-post that one. totally an amazing set. blows away the s/t record. lloyd's solo on 1880 or so = craaaaaazy.
i'm in the process of putting together a couple of comps covering unreleased Television songs from the 70s and the 00s for the blog, too.

Venus de Milo has no arms, fwiw

^^ thanks tyler--sounds great!

this covers thing has me thinking -- are there any really *great* television covers? i liked chris stamey's mellow take on "venus" ... feelies do a good see no evil. clientele did a nice version of "the fire" a few years back.

[ft. Lykke Li]

Huh? How'd she get involved? (swedish pop princess (imo :))

LOL Upthread somebody said Television was a rip-off of early U2. I fervently pray that they were kidding.

'Marquee Moon' remains one of the great guitar-oriented rock LPs, a distinction that was certainly not damaged by the inclusion of "Little Johnny Jewel" on the reissue. The arrangements are also spot-on, the melodies infectious. The other records are also very good. 'The Blow-Up' is a terrific sounds-like-you're-there live recording & the s/t comeback disc was better than I thought it was going to be. 'Adventure' isn't as crazy-good as 'Marquee Moon' but I think it suffers only by comparison. Pretty solid throughout & it makes me wish they had continued long enough to do a 3rd LP so we could really judge its sophtware (sic) slump qualities more accurately. BUt - there ya go...

^^^

we need a story, Redd!

Don't make us beg!

(begs)

Aww man RIP

as I posted today on Adaam Jacobs thread, Lucy Sante says:

Some of you may already have seen this, but the tape I made at CBGB of a Television/Talking Heads show on January 24, 1976, is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by being shared all over the internet: https://archive.org/details/television1976-01-24.unk The T-Heads archivists had approached me and digitized and cleaned it, and I encouraged them to make it public. I'm sorry my batteries were dying during the second Television set; "Guiding Light" is especially wobbly. Overall, though, the tapes, made on generic cassettes with a cheapo recorder and stored in a shoebox all these years, sound at least as good as most of the commercially distributed bootlegs from those years. It's also ghostly for me, because at the end of some of the Television numbers you hear a whoop from my old girlfriend Eva, dead now almost 28 years. Oh, and the Talking Heads (trio and still pretty green): https://archive.org/details/th1976-01-24.unk.sante

A reminder for me to read her memoir.

I believe Eva and that Noo Yawk era are in Maybe The People Would Be The Times, maybe among others.

Tom Verlaine’s Record Collection Up For Sale.

https://www.spinmagazine.com/2026/06/tom-verlaine-record-collection/

“See No Evil” is being used in the trailer for the new Anthony Bourdain biopic

I got the Scamps, a lee Hazlewood and probably wrecking crew party cash in in records from Verlaines collection, certificate and all.

Neon Boys are all still alive and could theoretically play a show:
Richard Hell
Tom Verlaine
Billy Ficca

i have some bad news...

sad lol

I got as far as putting Verlaine's copy of Simple Minds' "Waterfront" 12" in my shopping cart but never did pull the trigger. Instanly would have if it was the "New Gold Dream" 12"

Man, this is like that time Big Bird drew a picture for Mr. Hooper...

Just went and watched that for the first time...

i got a few things at the academy records part of the sale. a couple ligeti records. L’Afrique Danse No. 2. he had lots of classical and world stuff. ancient religious music. had a thing for polish composers.

"Waterfront" sort-of has the riff from "Glory" played really slowly.

It was interesting to see stuff like Sesame Street records and Bonnie Raitt's Luck of the Draw in Verlaine's collection.

I almost picked up a gospel collection he had on CD, but I found it elsewhere for much less, like $2.

lots of classical too!

Another mad taper's collection has started going up, and already four Tom shows, which, since it's archive.org, we get in flac etc---haven't listened yet but yay for opp:
https://archive.org/details/LazArchives

Richard Lloyd has bile duct cancer and needs help.

Oh no

Fuck :(

Ugh. Remember when that happened to another, less well-known but still talented guitar player, Adam Roth.

Now his book collection is up for sale.

https://www.betterreadthandeadbooks.com/searchResults.php?action=browse&category_id=365

Now? His?

yes, yes

i think Verlaine's books have been for sale for a couple years now (on ebay at least)

He had a LOT of books. They should enormous parts of it a couple of years ago at a public sale. I didn't go, but it's possible they sold the bulk of it that way for logistical reasons (he had to rent out storage units to house his collection and I doubt they wanted to keep those rentals) and they're still selling off remaining sections of it through other means.

*They sold enormous parts

fun to peruse

They even had his magazines - I think Rob Sheffield or someone like that posted a photo of some guitar magazines that Verlaine bought.

The only thing I bought from his estate was a "rare" CD pressing of his solo debut that accidentally used his own mix rather than Bob Clearmountain's. Few copies ever go for sale and they're usually too expensive for me - but apparently he had a box of 20-odd sealed copies, probably sent direct from the label before they caught their mistake, so when Academy listed them, I thought "if I'm going to pay a premium for this, might as well get one of Verlaine's." Not insanely expensive, about what you'd pay in retail for, say, a brand-new double LP, but I stuck with CD's specifically to avoid paying those prices on albums.

I got a copy of that original mix cd, have to say its not hugely different and the powers that be should have stuck with that mix.

I have to agree, there were at best a couple of tracks (maybe a few?) where I immediately picked up the difference and thought the original was better, but the rest of the time, I wasn't even sure it was a different mix until I A/B'ed both side-by-side. But not once did it feel like they radically transformed mix. I honestly couldn't figure out why Verlaine's mix was unreleasable.

It kind of reminds me a story Mark Mothersbaugh had about the theme song for Pee-Wee's Playhouse: Cyndi Lauper's manager (and I think husband?) demanded they remove her vocal because he didn't want people associating her with a kid's show theme song after she blew up into a huge star, but for a variety of reasons Mothersbaugh thought that was idiotic since no one could really identify it was Lauper given the way she sings and how it was mixed. So he had the mixer take it out, then play it back for her manager who then left the studio in satisfaction. Then Mothersbaugh had the mixer revert everything back to how it was and no one complained when the show aired. I feel like if Verlaine had done the something like that (had he been able to), nobody who originally complained would've noticed.

*reminds me of a story
*So he had the mixer take her out of the mix

Tom Verlaine's books have been on sale for years now and the previous posts had been about Richard Lloyd's illness which also made that post jarring, so that's what I was getting at

Has anyone seen a TMOTV – The Music of Tom Verlaine show? Worth seeing?

https://www.lodgeroomhlp.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2027.03.20-TMOTV-web.png

Jimmy Rip (Television, Tom Verlaine Band) and Jay Dee Daugherty (Patti Smith Group, Tom Verlaine Band) were mainstays in Tom’s musical life throughout his many artistic metamorphosis. With the addition of Jackson Smith (guitar, Patti Smith Band) and Chris Lightcap (bass, Nels Cline Consentrik Quartet) this band is presenting a night of Tom’s music spanning his whole career.

sounds good here! (Of course, I don't think Nels Cline will be joining them every time ...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elj4hKiGPFU

Patti Smith's son! That's awesome.

speaking of Television I hadn't seen this pic before today — the Ork Loft sometime in 1974

https://scontent-den2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/850515369_10164258339830369_92196247921523846_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_tt6&cstp=mx1207x814&ctp=s1207x814&_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=K3qncleoAt0Q7kNvwEld66P&_nc_oc=Adqk6h9X3qiAcqXXvYTcUFGUWChd149_TiMN2nvm60mJNQVfDs40CGkDBwr6aDNCyPg&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-den2-1.xx&_nc_gid=2RjjHR6SpWOZxKm4sa0pEA&_nc_ss=7b2a8&oh=00_AQPC9fVJvAyc1Urekcz0MQR7LA7CziVfAq8EanE4tF_Tog&oe=6AD5A061

That reminds me - Richard Hell just donated a poster of an early Television gig to a Housing Works auction, and it reminded me that Richard Lloyd use to sport bleach blonde hair.

Amazing Orkloft pic, tyler!

Yeah, thanks! And lookit dose platfohm shoos---positively Noo Yawk '74!

(But wid West Coast haiah, yeh.)

From Richard Lloyd go-fund me-

Richard‘s in the hospital with pneumonia in his left lung, but we are hoping he’ll be home in the next few days.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-richard-lloyd-fight-cancer?cp_src=d

Oh man, him too! How's Billy Ficca doing?

Saw that in 2024 there was a mention of a group called Dylan Nirvana & The Bad Flowers feat. Billy Ficca.

The Richard Lloyd go-fund me for his health needs and fight against cancer has raised a sizable chunk of money but not yet met its goal