Certain Songs

Certain Songs #2675: Television – “Call Mr. Lee”

August 18, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Television
Year: 1992

. . .

One of the things I realized while writing these posts was that Television’s album covers primarily consisted of three colors: black, red and white, a proto-White Stripes coloring scheme that was only broken by the yellow lettering on Adventure. It doesn’t really mean anything, I don’t think — and ironically, the cover for this single is blue — and I doubt that Jack White was influenced by Tom Verlaine in any way, but at the very least, it’s an interesting coincidence.

Certain Songs #2674: Television – “1880 or So”

August 17, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Television
Year: 1992

. . .

Television were actually broken up before I heard a note of their music, and whether or not failure of Adventure to make any inroads here in the U.S. was a factor, Richard Lloyd’s high-profile junkiedom — he was literally doing smack with Anita Pallenberg, then the girlfriend of Keith Richards — was definitely a factor as well.

Certain Songs #2673: Television – “Little Johnny Jewel (San Francisco, 06-29-1978)”

August 16, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Live at the Old Waldorf
Year: 1978

. . .

I never saw Television in concert.

I mean, my original excuse was that they broke up in 1978 before I’d even heard their music, which is a pretty good one, especially since I didn’t leave Fresno for a concert until me, Larry, Craig & Tim saw The Who in the summer of 1980.

Certain Songs #2672: Television – “Ain’t That Nothin'”

August 15, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Adventure
Year: 1978

. . .

One of the reasons that Adventure wasn’t as good as Marquee Moon was that Television was without Richard Lloyd for part of the recording. That’s because he was in the hospital for five weeks with a heart ailment that stemmed from his heroin habit.

And, of course, Verlaine decided to carry on without him, with the upshot being there were three songs on Adventure that basically didn’t feature Lloyd at all: “Carried Away,” “The Fire” and “The Dream’s Dream.” And coincidentally, those three songs have always been my least favorite songs on the album, even though I had no idea until this year that Lloyd didn’t play on them. At least not consciously.

Certain Songs #2671: Television – “Careful”

August 14, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Adventure
Year: 1978

. . .

“Careful” was one of the two songs in Television’s repertoire that made it onto Adventure — the other being “Foxhole” — but people didn’t know it as “Careful,” but rather as “I Don’t Care,” which was what it was still called when it was originally demoed in 1975.

But when it came time to record it for Adventure, Verlaine decided to rename it. Why? Because the brothers Ramone decided to release their own song called “I Don’t Care,” on their 1977 masterpiece, Rocket To Russia, and Verlaine wanted to avoid any confusion. Now as somebody who bought Rocket to Russia on the same day he bought Marquee Moon — have I mentioned that? — I doubt that when I got around to Adventure (which let’s say I bought on the same day I bought Road to Ruin), I would have thought that Television was covering the Ramones.

Certain Songs #2670: Television – “Glory”

August 11, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Adventure
Year: 1978

. . .

The old saw about you have your entire life to write your first album, but only a year to write your second was both true and not true when it came to Television’s second album, 1978’s Adventure: after all, there were plenty of songs left in Television’s back catalog that could have been used for either Marquee Moon or Adventure, which they started recording in late 1977. Songs like “Hard on Love,” “Double Exposure,” “O Mi Amore,” “Poor Circulation” (which they were still playing on their last tour) or even their version of the 13th Floor Elevators’ “Fire Engine” would absolutely have enlivened Adventure, giving it more of the rock that made their live shows such a gas.

Certain Songs #2669: Television – “Guiding Light”

August 10, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

. . .

It would be cruel to say that Marquee Moon is kinda regarded as a one-sided record, but its reputation is absolutely predicated on the four songs that open it up as opposed to the four songs that closed it, none of which were even remotely as barn-burning as “See No Evil” or “Friction,” though they all had their charms, whether it’s the witty lyrics of “Prove It,” the weird chorus of “Elevation” or the guitar solo during the coda of “Torn Curtain.”

Certain Songs #2668: Television – “Marquee Moon”

August 9, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

. . .

We have a timer in our kitchen, and when it goes off, it makes a two-note repeating pattern: “beep-beep beep-beep beep-beep” and I swear to gods that every single time, I start singing “beedlebeedlebeedlebeedlebeed” in time to it. Just like the opening of “Marquee Moon.”

Coming out of spastic frenzy of “Friction,” the opening of “Marquee Moon” is as precision-tooled as it possibly gets: every single note is exactly where it should be, and each player gets to introduce himself.

Certain Songs #2667: Television – “Friction”

August 8, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

. . .

Take a look at that utterly iconic album cover! Taken by Robert Mapplethorpe — who had taken the instantly-iconic cover of Patti Smith’s Horses the year prior — it depicts four young men each trying to out-serious each other, with only drummer Billy Ficca showing the hint of a smile. These are dudes who know they’ve made a classic record, and are dying for you to get on with playing it already

Certain Songs #2666: Television – “Venus”

August 7, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

. . .

One thing that I know I didn’t know when I bought Marquee Moon in 1978 was that Richard Hell was the co-founder of Television. I’m sure I’d seen ads if not reviews for Richard Hell & The Voidoids Blank Generation album — hard to miss, given how visceral that album cover was, and how much Hell looked like the bands from England like The Sex Pistols or the Clash — but I hadn’t read anything that put it all together for me. Not yet.