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Marquee Moon

Certain Songs #2669: Television – “Guiding Light”

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Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

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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.”

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Certain Songs #2668: Television – “Marquee Moon”

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Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

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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.

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Certain Songs #2667: Television – “Friction”

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Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

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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

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Certain Songs #2666: Television – “Venus”

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Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

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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.

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Certain Songs #2665: Television – “See No Evil”

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Album: Marquee Moon
Year: 1977

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OK, let’s set the scene, as this is a day I’ve been mythologizing for nearly 45 years, though the exact date is lost to those 45 years. What I do know is that it’s late summer or early Autumn of 1978, and I’m just a couple few months shy of turning sixteen.

And it’s the day that I bought my first two punk rock albums.

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