Verlaine’s death was confirmed by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine’s peer and former partner Patti Smith. She shared that the musician had died “after a brief illness.”
Staking out Hilly Kristal’s funky club CBGB on New York’s Bowery as its laboratory, Television advanced an expansive, ecstatic style that counterpoised Verlaine’s askew, chiming playing against fellow guitarist Richard Lloyd’s more conventionally bluesy yet equally lyrical work.
Critic Robert Palmer noted in “Rock & Roll: An Unruly History” (1995), “When the punk rebellion began taking shape in the mid-seventies, Television in particular carried on the [Velvet Underground’s] legacy of street-real lyrics and harmonic clang-and-drone, with appropriate nods to John Coltrane’s modal jazz and the Byrds’ resonating raga-rock from lead guitarist Tom Verlaine.”
“He was my guitar hero at a time when I needed one most,” Wynn said in statement. “I spent the entire year of 1981 practicing daily to Marquee Moon. Tom Verlaine’s soloing (and Richard Lloyd‘s) showed me you could be a virtuoso and dangerous at the same time, more Coltrane or Ornette than the arena rockers of the day.
It was a revelation and I was hoping my Jazzmaster could somehow channel his when I played the solo on ‘Halloween’ on the first Dream Syndicate album. Such an immeasurable influence on me and, of course, on so many of fellow guitarist friends.”
Signed to Elektra Records (after the departure of Verlaine’s close friend and co-founding member Richard Hell), Television issued its groundbreaking debut album “Marquee Moon” in 1977.
The collection’s 10-minute title track – written by Verlaine, who also played an extended solo and contributed a distinctively throttled, wobbly lead vocal –was an anomaly among the short, intensely focused songs of such CBGB contemporaries as the Ramones and Talking Heads.
Tension between Verlaine and Lloyd led Television to disband after its second album “Adventure” (1978); the group would reunite for a self-titled 1992 album for Capitol Records and sporadic live appearances. In 2007, Lloyd was replaced in the touring unit by Jimmy Ripp, who had for many years supported Verlaine on his solo albums and tours.
Verlaine released 8 solo albums, which extended the authorial voice he developed in Television, on Elektra, Warner Bros., Virgin, I.R.S., Fontana and Rykodisc from 1979-1992. A 14-year studio hiatus followed, until the guitarist reemerged in 2006 with the vocal collection “Songs and Other Things” and the instrumental set “Around,” released simultaneously on the Chicago independent label Thrill Jockey.
