Adventure

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.