Marquee Moon

33⅓ Main Series #83

by Bryan Waterman

Two kids in their early twenties walk down the Bowery on a spring afternoon, just as the proprietor of a club hangs an awning with the new name for his venue. The place will be called CBGB & OMFUG which, he tells them, stands for “Country Bluegrass and Blues & Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers.” That's exactly the sort of stuff they play, they lie, somehow managing to get a gig out of him. After the first show their band, Television, lands a regular string of Sundays. By the end of the year a scene has developed that includes Tom Verlaine's new love interest, a poet-turned rock chanteuse named Patti Smith. American punk rock is born.

Bryan Waterman peels back the layers of this origin myth and, assembling a rich historical archive, situates Marquee Moon in a broader cultural history of SoHo and the East Village. As Waterman traces the downtown scene's influences, public image, and reputation via a range of print, film, and audio recordings we come to recognize the real historical surprises that the documentary evidence still has to yield and come to a new appreciation of this quintessential album of the New York City night.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, 21st Century, History, Rock N Roll

244 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2011

Reviews

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great document of the 70s downtown music scene percolating around CBGB, Max's Kansas City and later the Knitting Factory.Certainly in the top 5 debut albums of all time; a legendary mix of dueling guitar leads between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd and the longest 33 1/3 volume I've ever seen (at least double their usual size). So why am I not loving this book more. Well for one thing the writing in large swatches is pedestrian at best. By the time we finish the thoroughly researched and exhaustive investigation of Television and its place in said downtown scene an the attempt to tear apart the myths created by the competing narratives provided by Verlaine, Lloyd, Kristol, and Hell in a kind of reverse Rashomon, Waterman seems to have very little left to put into discussion and analysis of the ostensible topic of his book, Marquee Moon. The track-by-track analysis is perfunctory, at best. He never answers the obvious questions one would want to see broached: who (Verlaine or Lloyd) is soloing when, why that matters, how their styles differ, et al. An interesting book but a real missed opportunity as well.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have strong memories being a total Television obsessive before hearing one note of their music. Their visuals got me. A band looking this cool, I knew had to sound great. When I first bought the single "Johnny's Little jewel" it was like a dream coming to life. I knew this song was an odd choice for a single, and the author Bryan Waterman brought this up - but then again, one can tell by the visuals that Television were never going to play by the rules. If Tom Verlaine and company were animals, they would be under-fed house cats. Totally proud, and happy in their own world. But once they find food, they're going to tear into it like wild animals.

And their music conveys that tension to me. When I heard the first note of "See No Evil," the opening song to their album "Marquee Moon" it was like being stabbed by electric guitars in a dark alley. Very violent, and very poetic. To this day, and many years after, it still gives me goose bumps. And "Marquee Moon" is perhaps one of the great rock albums ever. I want to say the greatest of the greats, but ..... is that too dramatic of a statement?

As a music movement (which it wasn't really) the CBGB years were magnificent. I don't know if it was in the NYC water system, but it seems like the early to mid- 1970's brought out the genius of various folks there. The Ramones of course, but also Richard Hell, who is equally brilliant as Verlaine. The fact that both of them were in the same band drives me insane. Its too good! Besides Hell needed to have his own outlet -and he too made an incredible classic album "Blank Generation."

And these two guys - Verlaine and Hell - were (or are) incredible poets. But focusing on "Marquee Moon," it is such a beautiful record with stunning songs. The ultimate guitar rave up album, but with the touch of "French Symbolic Poetry" thrown into the mix. But what Verlaine adds (besides his name) is a contemporary POV that is haunting and deeply romantic. But passionate in a very very cool way.

Waterman's book is a good one. He touches on all the greatness in the band, and his focus on the lyrics is much needed. You may have read all the gossip in "Please Kill Me," but this is a much more reflective look into the mystique and wonder of Richard Lloyd, Fred Smith, Richard Hell, Billy Ficca, Patti Smith, and Tom Verlaine.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad book on Television - for a good one read Tim Mitchell's "Sonic Transmission". I think there was too much New York rock history preceding the Television scoop, too much so. I like all the gossip about the enmity between Patti Smith and Deborah Harry (so much for Patti Smith's phony attitude about feminism). Waterman's commentary on the "Marquee Moon" album tracks delve too much on Tom Verlaine's lyrics, and only references The Velvet Underground in regards to Verlaine and Lloyd's guitar playing. Ironic, given that Verlaine has constantly given props to Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and other free jazz players as influences.

The only time the book truly shines are the quotes from many hysterical Richard Hell press releases written about his band: "Tom Verlaine looks like the Mr. America of skulls, his mouth moving like a a machine to let the lyrics escape.
Richard Lloyd has a perfect male-whore pretty boy face, alive with such fear and determination as he wracked the guitar, you could almost hear his mother scolding him. He looked like he was going to cry." Anything frothing out of Hell's pen was the high point of the book for me.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best 33 1/3 series book I've read. Marquee Moon is one of the best albums ever, but until reading this, I knew hardly anything about the band. The book includes Television's history, literary and musical influences and analysis of the music and lyrics. Well written book about a great album.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlbun...

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Television's Marquee Moon is one of the greatest guitar rock albums of all time. If that's a little too grandiose, I can't think of anyone, at least, who would dispute that it is among the best rock albums of the 70s. Even critics like Lester Bangs who didn't like the band Television still liked Marquee Moon. There's a lot to talk about, and Bryan Waterman gets a lot right. The album is really different from everything else in the period, and it requires a lot of explanation.

The best part of the book for me is how Waterman dismantles some of the favorite stories about Television's role in the 70s New York punk scene. For instance, he shows that the famous on-street encounter between Richard Hell, Tom Verlaine, and Hilly Kristal outside CBGB's has been told two or three different ways, and we start to understand that the story of Television is another rock-and-roll myth without much of an assured accepted history. (The reason I like this is because other books like Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk and From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World are too accepting of the memories of rock stars and hangers-on.) Waterman's an historian, so it makes sense that he can disrupt a lot of assumptions around these events. And more broadly, there's just a ton of information about the scene and the period: Waterman is all over his sources. So if you want to read about the CBGB's scene w/ Tom Verlaine at the center, this book is for you.

On the other hand, he seems to accept all of Patti Smith's BS about the members of the band: A lot of the mythology of Television comes straight from Smith, and her cliches about how the men in the band are simultaneously virginal boys but also street thugs -- all that should be marked out as projection and mythmaking by Smith yet the author kind of accepts it. Maybe Waterman thinks he's just reporting Smith's words but it strikes me as a tissue of fantasy that needs to be marked as such.

And then there's the discussion of the album tracks. It must have been tough for Waterman because you just can't put the album into many traditions: It's not blues. You can argue that the lyrics really do have a lot to do with the poets of French symbolism (Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, etc.) and their decadence . . . but with poetry you can be pretty precise about the languages games played by the poet: Here, though, we're dealing with song and it seems hard to put a lot of pressure on the lyrics. The lyrics sound poetical, but maybe they're not poetry. Anyway, Waterman tries to pull out some meaning here but I don't think it really works. There are some lines where Waterman will suggest that the lyrics are about Richard Hell [who had left the band] but it seems like a reach. Waterman doesn't have a lot to say about the twin guitar approach of the band -- where did that come from? Maybe talk about Thin Lizzy? Southern rock? Waterman's good, though, on picking out what the bassist, Fred Smith, brought to the band in terms of musicality (which the original bass player, Richard Hell, didn't have).

So . . . good one. I think there might still be a masterpiece book on the mid/late 70s scene. Maybe it's a book that's been on my reading list for a long time, Downtown Pop Underground: New York City and the literary punks, renegade artists, DIY filmmakers, mad playwrights, and rock 'n' roll glitter queens who revolutionized culture but I haven't made much progress there.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Waterman sets the scene for the forming of the band (some interesting discussion of the other artists involved in the nascent punk movement and CBGBs scene) and the eventual writing and recording of this amazing album, without too much of the extraneous or ponderous stuff that some 33 1/3 authors are guilty of.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

33 1/3 books vary in a lot of ways. In a way, they all feel like experiments as there's no prescribed format for how these writers should pen their thoughts about the band and record they're covering. This one is more straightforward than some of the most enthralling, inventive entries in the series, but it's still a great chronicle of one of the coolest times, clubs, records, and bands of 20th century music. There's tons of stuff in here about CBGBs in the seventies and I'll always eat that sort of stuff up. If you're into Television, early punk, or just want an idea of late 70s New York City, you really can't go wrong with this one.

[Catriel Fierro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Television, y más precisamente Marquee Moon, son un espejismo, o más bien un engaño. Parecen sencillamente eso: una banda y un disco. Pero la realidad es más compleja que eso. Television es historia comprimida, es cinco géneros musicales metidos a presión en un cajón; es más de un lustro de historia del bajo Nueva York, es causa y consecuencia del nacimiento abortivo del Punk, es poetas malditos franceses y beatniks y Bob Dylan riéndose cuando le gritan "Judas" en 1966, es usar las reservas de la banda para garparte la desintoxicación y seducir a la novia de Keith Richards. En términos de su primer bajista Richard Hell, "La música de TELEVISION satisface el deseo adolescente de coger con la chica que nunca llegaste a conocer porque te acaba de atropellar un auto".

Un primer vistazo (en especial si el vistazo es ingenuo o ignorante de lo que hay detrás) puede llevar a pensar que Marquee Moon es un disco y nada más, y que Television su intérprete. Pero en las raíces del disco y de la banda existieron más de cien presentaciones en vivo entre 1973 y 1978, peleas internas (Verlaine y Hell), literatura oscura, y un cruzamiento fértil entre un puñado de bandas que iban a definir la música de finales de los '70 y comienzos de los '80. Esto, usualmente, es desconocido por casi todos, en particular por quienes simplemente compran el disco, lo escuchan y se deleitan con los solos mixolidios de Verlaine y los solos más rockeros de Lloyd. Y lejos de ser una particularidad de Television, es una historia que aplica para otras bandas como Talking Heads: bandas cuyos discos debut eran el punto cúlmine de tres, cuatro o cinco años tocando en bares, intentando grabar singles y buscando un contrato discográfico.

Lo que hace este libro es, precisamente, descomprimir esa historia: sacarla del cajón, ponerla sobre la mesa, ordenarla, interrelacionarla, narrarla, desde el pre-Marquee Moon hasta los shows de Television donde la banda consolidó su repertorio, hasta su grabación y el desenlace del propio grupo. Waterman es un historiador profesional, y el libro realmente se parece más a mis libros académicos de historia cultural que a los otros libros de bandas. Pero he ahí el auténtico aporte: el autor explicita desde el comienzo que quiere desmitificar Television: sus mitos de orígen, su supuesta absoluta originalidad, las razones de su falta de éxito comercial y separación, etc. Es un libro crítico escrito por un fanático iconoclasta con un doctorado en literatura inglesa. ¿Capiche?

En consecuencia, Waterman traza una cartografía ENORME y ERUDITA (enfatizo: E N O R M E y E R U D I T A) citando recortes, fanzines, panfletos, así como libros de música, blogs y literatura (Don DeLillo aparece por ahí). Es una cartografía sobre Nueva York entre 1970 y 1980, con su decadencia, su polarización social, y con su explosión cultural posterior. Es sobre este esquema que Waterman describe, y luego deconstruye, el mito de Television: el libro entrelaza de forma espectacular la historia de Verlaine y Hell con el mítico club CBGB, con las bandas glitter y el glam rock del cual el punk supuestamente era una reacción pero que en realidad no fue tan así, con otras bandas pioneras (Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, Talking Heads). Es una historia de cómo Television fue la banda más punk del art-rock y la banda más artistica y menos punk del punk (¿Y hay algo más punk que no ser punk, al menos en 1976?). Es una narración de cómo Television engendró, cimentó, alimentó y luego se alejó de toda una escena musical, justo cuando (en 1978) esa escena estaba eclosionando con el punk, el post-velvetismo, el new wave y el post-punk. Y es una crónica que incorpora (de forma muy precisa) documentos y contenidos que hoy día son prácticamente inconseguibles, por ejemplo extractos de reseñas de la época, entrevistas a los miembros de la banda, e incluso (!) material de los archivos privados de Richard Hell.

Iba a darle cuatro estrellas porque el anteúltimo capítulo del libro (donde se analizan las canciones de Marquee Moon) es un poco confuso y superficial, pero me saqué la verga del orto y ví la Verdad: que es un libro casi perfecto, si no perfecto, en función de los objetivos que se traza, el material que aporta, su fluidez y su redacción. Eternamente agradecido a DOBRA ROBOTA que ha decidido editar en Argentina la colección 33 1/3 a un precio risible (500 mangos por libro, o sea 4 kilos de manzanas, o una hamburguesa doble con una cerveza), ayudando a difundir y socializar la historia de la música internacional en nuestro país.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, the album: 5 stars for the album. It's in my top 5 favorite albums of all-time, moving freely between slots on any given day.

If you haven't heard it you probably need to. If you like Talking Heads you need to hear this album. If you like Patti Smith you need to hear this album. If you like Velvet Underground you need to hear it. If you like The Ramones or The Clash or The Sex Pistols you need to hear this album. If you like Nirvana or Meat Puppets or Pixies or Sonic Youth or The Cure or Radiohead, or any group influenced by any of the above, you need to hear this album.

If you like guitars you need to hear it, because this album's got two of 'em, and good ones. Or drums, because Ficca is the swingingest jazziest punkiest rock drummer ever. Basically, just listen to the goddamn album already!

As for the book itself: meh. I like the idea of this series, something my friend recommended to me, but I'm not sure if this particular subject merited 200 pages. Waterman uses a lot of other things than this album or even this band to fill space, and while I understand the benefit of context, making half the book context is overkill. It doesn't really pick up until halfway through Ch. 4 when discussing their first single, "Little Johnny Jewel."

I did enjoy seeing documentation of just how big a deal Television was within their scene, and their influence on punk and other music of the 70s and beyond. It's interesting to see the possible explanations of why they never made it. Ultimately I think they just weren't commercially appealing enough. They weren't "easy." Popular opinion is necessarily ruled by a lower common denominator, and in such an environment commercial failure by no means implies artistic failure.

And indeed not in Television's case, because Marquee Moon is a frickin masterpiece. Just in finishing this book I began to liken it to John Fante's magnificent Ask the Dust (see my review). Both are arguably the "one-hit wonders" (though really WAY more than that) of supremely talented artists. And both relatively obscure artists created other solid works that pale in comparison to their magnum opuses. And both masterpieces resulted from a perfect storm of external and internal factors, and would be buried at the time but later gain devout admiration from a loyal cult following. (And on a personal note, both would become one of my all-time favorites.)

So in sum: the album? Essential. The book? Not so much, unless you're really obsessed. Really you'd be better off just listening to the album for a few hours straight.

Here's my favorite quote to sum up Television:

"Television is representative of nothing," Christgau wrote. "Almost every great rock band and a lot of the most successful bad ones culminate some general social tendency, be it the Ramones' pop economy or Kansas' greedy middle-American pseudo-seriousness or Steely Dan's expert programmability or Kiss's life-sized caricature. But while it's possible to imagine a late-'60s revival in which Television would spawn countless imitators, at the moment their single-minded Utopian individualism sets them apart. And it is just that that makes them seem so precious" 205.

Not Bad Reviews

@pointblaek

[Joshum Harpy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted this to be a different book. The idea of a book focusing on a specific album really gets the nerd in me going, especially with such an enigmatic and beautiful album as Television's Marquee Moon. However, I found this book to be somewhat tedious and shallow, focusing an inordinate amount of time on the clothes, haircuts, and what the author portrays as a very much contrived persona of the band. The book felt very bogged down for me with the constant tangents about the who's who of the CBGB's scene, trivial name dropping and at times over the top obsession with 30 year old snarky drama from rock press. In fact, I think the reliance on 1970's obscure rock press for what seemed like a significant chunk of the research, with no contemporary interviews of band members (though they are all still alive) really made this a lifeless read.

A painfully large chunk of this book was really just a stitching together of old Television press and commentary on dusty old interviews, all through a lens of breaking down every element of Television's presentation as utterly contrived and lacking any authenticity. In that way it felt that either Television's enduring hipness has doomed them to be poster children for the cultural wasteland that is modern hipsters, or that the author is so firmly entrenched in hipsterdom that he simply doesn't believe in such a thing as authenticity. Either way, a bad taste was left in my mouth.

Some of the most enjoyable parts of this book were the introduction and closing chapter, which dealt more with the author's own experience and appreciation for the band and the whole early CBGB's scene, as well as unabashed praise of the enduring mystique that surrounds Television, particularly this album. A more contemporary look at the legacy of Television, free from decades old rock press, was far more exciting and the author's personal experience, though limited to being an obsessive fan, was also more engaging than the bulk of the book. Somehow, by virtue of being personal, it lacked the know it all smirk of the detached commentary plaguing a formidable chunk of this book.

Near the end of the book, there was finally a song by song breakdown with sparse information on the recording techniques, and some minimal insight from assembled interviews as to the lyrical content of the band. This, and possibly more fresh coherent interviews, was what I was looking for in the book. It was brief and lacking in much of the substance I had hoped for, but again the authors personal perspective on the songs was a saving grace. Worshipful analysis of the arrangements, lyrics, beats, riffs and solos, including comparing/contrasting the final versions with earlier demos, got me excited to listen closely to every track on the album in the way I was looking for. More of this would have really changed my entire perspective on the book. I absolutely love reading about riffs and styles on guitar, but I don't think that I have ever read any thoughtful bit of writing this specifically focused on a guitar solo. The authors reverie and intricate analysis of the solos of Marquee Moon alone almost made this book worth reading.

All in all, there was enough redeeming qualities to this book to get me through, but I certainly didn't finish feeling satisfied.

[Greg Talbot · Rating 2 out of 5]

My friend mistook "See No Evil" as having been recorded 30 years after it's actual recording date. It sounds so polished, so vibrant, it's hard to imagine it as part of the 1st wave of New York punk rock.

Maybe he wasn't so wrong. Waterman argues Television felt constrained by their scene, and never really got along with the coterie of bands of that gritty punk sound. Heralded by some as the torchbearers of New York's finest - The Velvet Underground, Television pushed aside scuzzy noise. Critic Lester Bangs said they sounded more like "San Francisco psychedelica warmed over". Hardly an endorsement!

Marquee Moon may not sit comfortably as a classic rock album, or punk rock album, but it is still a riveting adolescence album about desire, sexuality, and adolescent fun. Waterman attempts to go through the songs and spell out their meaning. Sometimes the descriptions are a bit of a stretch, but I give him props for creativity. It was really enjoyable to hear the songs in the back of my head as I read along to his ideas. Television have enjoyed the fame, even if it was a long time coming. They sold their equipment to survive, but have been influential to artists from The Smiths to the Strokes. While I don't reach for MM like I use to, I give it credit for introducing me to so much art rock.

The rating is a reflection that there is so little first hand accounts or truly illuminating stories on the process of the recording. The book rattles through history, but never plants us into the world. Frankly, it wouldn't convince me to check out Television if I had never heard of them.

But hey, props to this being another book giving evidence to an underground classic.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waterman would be better served calling this "Dreams of Patti Smith as it pertains to her on again/off again relationship with Tom Verlaine and Television during the rise of NYC punk". Waterman, rather than telling a unique story about the album, regurgitates interview snippets and passages from the myriad books that have already covered the Bowery scene circa 1972-1979. But this is what often happens when Continuum allows lecturers to pen books in the series: you end up with a boorish, boring, and over-postulated book that omits the passion and fun of being a music fan; the want of nerdy insight into a band and/or an album.

[a.g.e. montagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I want him. I want Tom Verlaine. He has such an Egon Schiele look".
— Patti Smith, after her first Television concert.

I discovered the 33⅓ series by pure chance. I was browsing the shelves of a bookstore in Venice and happened upon a weirdly shaped book on the greatest rock'n'roll album ever made. I decided to look for the English edition... and found a treasure trove.

The 33⅓ books are a compact delight for the music lover: the format is 16.5 x 12 cm and usually around pp. 150 (for the record, quite unlike that one-off Italian translation). Each volume focuses on a single record, and any not yet covered by the series is eligible, granting a welcome diversity. Originally published by the glorious Continuum Press and later bought by Bloomsbury, at the time they sold for as little as €5 on BookDepository — a number that neatly tripled as soon as the website was absorbed by Amazon.
I soon discovered, though, that they are a shot in the dark. The open-call selection brings very little quality check and, depending on the writer, the pages analysing your favourite record might just as easily be enlightening as downright painful. I stopped buying the series, and only returned to it when it became available on Library Genesis.

Fast forward to 28th January 2023: Tom Verlaine, frontman and founder of Television, dies.
I had never resolved to devote any time to Verlaine's solo career which turns out to be great; he was a superb guitarist and never less than inspired as a songwriter, but Marquee Moon will be in the top ten of my favourite records probably forever. It's that rarest of things: a perfect album.
The occasion, therefore, called for a celebration.

Books in the series are usually divided in two sections: a biographical account followed by a detailed song-by-song analysis. Not every writer is up to the latter, and as a rule the first is the better half. It's also the part that gives an author more freedom of movement: Philip Shaw took a (rather pedantic) psychiatric angle to Patti Smith's Horses, while Christopher R. Weingarten skillfuly remixed the making of It Takes a Nation of Millions with the history of the records sampled by the Bomb Squad.
For Marquee Moon, Bryan Waterman took the scenester's route. This might not be surprising, considering that Television were instrumental in nurturing the CBGB's scene that spawned American punk and new wave. From the start, Waterman proves willing to deconstruct the storied mythology accrued over the decades, often with the complicity of his fellow journalists: the legendary episode in which members of Television offer to play for a not-yet-quite-opened CBGB & OMFUG exist in different versions — and each of them might be fabricated. Moreover, Waterman points out, at that stage the Bowery already had a bohemian tradition stretching back over a century: "from Walt Whitman to Hart Crane, Marcel Duchamp to Jackson Pollock, Frank O'Hara and Allen Ginsberg to the band's contemporary, Jim Carroll" (Don DeLillo also gets a quote from the eponymous Great Jones Street about a Dylanesque songwriter).

Accordingly, the book traces a detailed genealogy of the underground threads that would interlace on the CBGB stage: glitter, cabaret, drag theatre, 50s and garage revival... with Andy Warhol presiding from the back room of Max's Kansas City.
Particular interest is given to the "street" poetry underground in which two Delaware transplants named Miller and Meyers would first surface as Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell — a reference to the French Decadent gay poets Rimbaud and Verlaine. Deciding that "there was much more excitement in rock & roll [than] sitting at home writing poetry", they formed first the Neon Boys (apparently already favouring references to... marquees?) and then Television (a pun on Tom Verlaine's initials?).
For the band, Richard Hell almost single-handedly conjured what we now perceive as the punk aesthetic. In the surface-is-substance context the author calls "the Age of Warhol", Hell consciously moved away from the androginous bisexuality of glitter toward a more streetwise look, with a post-apocalyptic feel courtesy of William Burroughs (who would be referenced in songs by both Television and Patti Smith). Malcolm McLaren took notes, thematically as well: "Pretty Vacant" by the Sex Pistols is a reworking of Hell's "Blank Generation", which is in turn a tongue-in-cheek reference to "Rebel Without a Cause".
In those white-hot months, Television were unanimously considered the flagship band of the CBGB scene: the more original, mature and sophisticated. Yet, as they obsessively refined their repertoire, every other band that came on their heels proved more succesful: the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Patti Smith Group; even the band everybody at the time considered "a joke", and that through various name changes and personnel shift would achieve fame as Blondie.

At this point, bands exchanged personnel with astonishing promiscuity. When the Neon Boys auditioned for a second guitarist, future members of Blondie and Dee Dee Ramone both responded. Patti Smith in particular shamelessly pilfered members from other bands, a practice Debby Harry deeply resented; Smith also reportedly warned Harry that there could be only one woman lead in the scene. When Hell eventually left Television (a tectonic shift in the NY underground, given lengthy coverage in the book) he would first regroup briefly with former New York Dolls in the Heartbreakers, then form the Voidoids. And after Brian Eno's high-profile demos for Television were scrapped, apparently over diverging views with Verlaine, he quickly shifted his interest to Talking Heads — and the rest is recorded history.

Waterman has clearly done his homework, especially the less fashionable part of going through ads, concert listings and any mention of the band in the press of the period, much of it little more than fanzines.
Long stretches of the book are devoted to gig lists, followed by the press that covered them (usually with an insider's smirk), particularly in the months leading up to the making of Marquee Moon. All of which makes for a long book; at least a hundred pages longer than the usual, slim, 33⅓ issue. Only 15% of the total page count is actually devoted to the analysis of Marquee Moon, offering little of interest beside some less obvious musical and literary references. Short work the author made of a record of such messianic intensity.
But the book is correct in showing, sometimes in painstaking details, that it took years for four guys to achieve perfect alchemy.

"CBGB's is a state of mind".
— Patti Smith, headlining the club's final shows before closure.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been toying around with reading Richard Lloyd’s Television-centric memoir Everything is Combustible since it came out (and still plan to), and I realized, that despite all of the times I’ve listened to Television’s Marquee Moon, I knew almost nothing about the band itself. But then I came across the description of this book as not only an impartial history of the band, but a deep dive into the album itself, it leap frogged Lloyd’s book, for sure.

I first heard about Television on the PBS American Masters documentary on Lou Reed in high school. They were listed along with the Ramones, Talking Heads and others I’d heard of from the CBGB as being influenced by Reed. I was intrigued because while those other bands were household names, I hadn’t heard of Television. I remember later buying Marquee Moon along with Lou Reed’s Sally Can’t Dance at CD World near my house. The clerk observed that I was in a “NY punk mood.” I liked that and I liked exploring the Velvet Undergound’s progeny.

I share this because I’ve experienced Television almost entirely through Marquee Moon — until this year I’ve given their second album Adventure somewhat perfunctory spins and had not dug much into their background. I’m guessing I’ve listened to Marquee Moon more than any other one album from the CBGB crowd.

(Emphasis on “album” because during college, after doing a deep dive into the CBGB scene for other bands to explore, I came across a John Cale produced EP by Harry Toledo & the Rockets that my roommates and I spun non-stop on our record player. I’m still pretty obsessed with Toledo who only has a handful of other songs available).

In college, I even had a janky DIY Television shirt that I found online. This was pre-Etsy/Zazzle/Teepublic, so rather lo-fi, which I guess is on brand. Delivering the mail on campus, I even had a few strangers stop me and start up conversations on the band.

So, despite all of that, I sort of stopped at Marquee Moon. In someways its cool to have had this relatively unmediated experience with the album (other than, you know, everyone raving about it) and experience the music for what it was. As a result though, I never realized how integral to the CBGB scene they were, which this book does a great job of unpacking.

By providing that context, the book becomes a sort of de facto history of CBGBs. I haven’t read Please Kill Me (I’ll probably get around to it because I’m a sucker for oral histories), but I loved how this book sorted through the various versions of things and myths people have been saying over the years. It’s definitely making me go back to that era and listen (or relisten) to some albums.

I also liked the track-by-track analysis, especially how it dissects Verlaine’s garbled and punny lyrics, which I’ve grown to appreciate over the years.

Fwiw, reading this led me to check out the mostly bad movie CBGB (largely because it was free and I saw that Televison was included). I’ll get a Letterboxd review up eventually on that.

[Corey J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 33 1/3 entry is almost 75% history book about the downtown scene at CBGBs. It isn’t until 100 odd pages in that you’ll find out about one of the greatest rock n roll albums of the last 50 years. But for people like me who are into this band, this album and all the other great bands and albums that germinated on the Bowery in 75 - 77, that is not such a bad thing.

Much is made of the guitars in Television in this book and probably too much of the lyrics. Quotes from iconic critics like Christgau and Nick Kent definitely elevate the material. More information on the production of the album would have been appreciated, but unlike the Live Through This entry, it wasn’t completely missing.

I’d recommend a reading of this book, as long as you’ve heard the album a dozen times and you’re interested in the history of not just Television, but the Ramones, Blondie, Richard Hell, Patti Smith and Hilly Kristal.

[Matt Rabski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The longest entry in 33 1/3 that I've read and certainly worth it. Instead of strictly covering the history of this album, it covers the history of CBGB's through the lense of Television's career.

The author goes off on tangents about non-Television/Marquee Moon topics but they all ended up relating back to the album in a way I appreciated.

This has made me realize the benchmark for 33 1/3s (for me) is to give me a new context on an album that I already enjoyed and this entry delivered despite not being an action packed Adventure the whole way through. Certainly give this one a recommend if you liked this album or are remotely interested in the history of the New York music scene.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

For much of the first 155 pages of this 211-page book the author expends a lot of effort to argue that Television did not emerge from nothing, but rather is part of a continuum that includes glam (glitter).
This doesn't seem to be a particularly controversial notion and pretty self-evident/already accepted.
The walkthrough of the album's songs, beginning on page 156, is earnest and at times interesting. If you love the album, you kind of have to read everything about it, even just the mediocre stuff, right?

[Lautperata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es libro para fans. Me sorprendío que haya podido hacer un libro tan largo sobre una banda que en sí duró muy poco. Tiene mucha investigación y te deja muchas puntas para seguir investigando sobre la primera escena punk. El libro habla principalmente de Television como generador de la escena punk con sede en el CBGB. Haciendo un relato que comienza a principios de los 70 y llega hasta la disolución de la banda en el 77. Lo disfruté mucho porque Marque Moon es uno de mis discos favoritos.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read many 33 1/3s. They’re usually quite hit or miss. This particular entry into the series is an absolute hit! Spanning Televisions wonderful career from Verlaine’s humble upbringing to the heights of the indie rock world. It’s incredibly well written and insanely informative. Definitely one of the finest artist bios I have ever read. Marquee Moon is an absolutely legendary album. The buildup to its inception and the song by song analysis really drives the book home. Great book!

[Isaiah Espinoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite albums and I love playing the title track. As a fan of the series of books I looked forward to reading this one. The author goes into detail about the scene, CBGBs and the relationship between Verlaine and Hell. With everything that was included the book felt a bit too long I wish it had focused more on the production of the album but I understand why felt it necessary to include all the background information.

[Brian Kovesci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be my favorite in the series so far because it does everything right; historical context for the band in time, place and situation, discusses the contextual genre, talks about each member as people and breaks down each song as each relates to everything previously discussed.

Well done, Waterman.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué melancolía me produce la figura de Tom Verlaine! Tan auténtico que se quedo sin el éxito comercial que realmente quería... a la vez creo que era un personaje incapaz de salir del underground aunque lo intentase con todas sus fuerzas. Este libro se lee como un cuento de la escena neoyorquina de los 70, Patti Smith incluida!

[Jim Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great overall history of the early NY punk scene. The track by track analysis of the record got a bit boring though.

[Andy Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best in the series so far. Lots of great 70's NYC history, lots of interesting CBGB's scene-setting. Great read.

[Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

honestly a lot of boring details drag this book down but i love marquee moon so it was tolerable. really interesting stories and all

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of information, but kind of boring.

[edmondegreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written and made me listen to the first two Television albums again

[Rich · Rating 1 out of 5]

It just came off as too dry, too academic, lacking in verve and luster.

[Audrey J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost TOO well researched. great complement to Please kill me. Rip Tom verlaine