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Your Paragon of Virtue

Television

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I got Marquee Moon, and I love it. I'm surprised I hadn't tried to listen to it earlier. Talk about them in this thread, I'm sure I can't be the only fan.

 

Anyways, the real motivation for starting this thread is that they're coming to Toronto Friday, and tickets are forty bucks. Though 25 years removed from their prime, I'm still tempted to check it out based on the brilliance of this album. Has anyone been to a show recently, or know what kind of material they'd play? Is it worth the steep price?

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They're still solid live, from what I've read.

 

Subthread: Adventure is a perfectly good album. I dare say it's more consistent than Marquee Moon; it's just the first four songs on MM are better than pretty much anything.

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I'm going to see Verlaine in August. Adventure is under-rated, as is Television, the comeback album.

 

Having seen clips of them, they are brilliant live: Richard Lloyd is actually a better guitarist than he was in the 70s and damn near breaks the neck of the thing when soloing. Verlaine is more subdued but..fuck, they're still great.

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Guest Felonies!

I thought Marquee Moon was pretty good, but it didn't live up to the impossible expectations that I had coming in; forgivable since the hype for it is almost ridiculous. Yeah, there's some cool stuff happening with the guitars, but I'm not blown away by it. I prefer Talking Heads. It's not as if I can't stand Verlaine's voice--I have a high tolerance for unconventional vocalists. It's just that as interesting as the guitar interplay may be, a lot of it is just kinda forgettable to me.

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Guest Felonies!

Yeah, but I don't understand why everyone is like "INCREDIBLE! NOT ONE, BUT TWO LEAD GUITARS!!" Who really cares? I'm certain that there were dueling guitar solos elsewhere and before NYC 1977. That said, man, the riff in the title track is killer.

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Guest Felonies!
Yes, I fear this thread will turn into one which criticises stuff that has been held up for years just for the sake of being EDGY.

Oh come on. All I said was that it'd be like a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 instead of an 11. I'm pretty much in line with everything else, save Aeroplane

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"Yeah, but I don't understand why everyone is like "INCREDIBLE! NOT ONE, BUT TWO LEAD GUITARS!!" Who really cares? I'm certain that there were dueling guitar solos elsewhere and before NYC 1977. That said, man, the riff in the title track is killer."

 

By most accounts Television looked and sounded like they came from another planet in the NY scene or anywhere, I don't think I've ever seen them hyped because they have two guitarists.

 

 

Anyway the A-side of Marquee Moon is fantastic while the B side is just very good. Lots of interesting stuff going on at the same time, especially in the Title Track and Elevation with all four instruments playing a role in the groove instead of just supporting the guitar's lead. I think this as well as the oddly subtle guitar heroics that makes the album so appealing and so much different than the usual big lead guitar sound. It's not guitars that scream out and demand attention, they plays their role in the song and compliment the other instruments.

 

Too bad Richard Hell couldn't stay clean enough to lend classics like "Blank Generation" to the album before he got booted, oh well.

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"Yeah, but I don't understand why everyone is like "INCREDIBLE! NOT ONE, BUT TWO LEAD GUITARS!!" Who really cares? I'm certain that there were dueling guitar solos elsewhere and before NYC 1977.

 

Didn't Skynyrd use a twin guitar approach? Their first album was in '73, IIRC.

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