RE: (TV) Television

[leif joley <leifjoley@hotmail.com>]

I'm also surprised to read this -- I've always believed that it was the ove
rall concept, with two talented guitarists playing the way they did, th
at became so influential. If any particular song made a particular impact
, that'd be "Marquee Moon", the song, which feature solos by both Llo
yd and Verlaine.

Also surprised to read the claim that Verlaine turned the group into a "mon
ey-spinner".  It's possible that Television has made good money during this
 year, possibly also last year, possibly next year too, but it can't 
be a realistic thought that they can continue doing what they do now, wit
h *nothing* new to offer. I doubt that there will be audiences big enough t
o keep this listless thing going. And what's the point, artistically? I r
emember an interview where Verlaine slated young bands for having no urge o
ther than being famous and making money. What's his own urge today? It shou
ld be easy for everyone to understand Lloyd's frustration with the whole si
tuation, and why he finally abandoned the group. It isn't as easy to unde
rstand Verlaine's intentions neither those days in the mid-00s nor these da
ys. A waste of talent it surely is -- but it may be as simple as this: he h
as lost his ability to create new melodies and lyrics, and is getting by 
by fronting a revival band and sometimes earn money as a session musician.

Also surprised by the notion that Lloyd should've "outplayed" Verlaine in s
hows during the 90s and 00s. People must've paid a bit too much attention t
o Lloyd's much more aggressive soloing style, and his much more aggressiv
e rhythm playing when Verlaine was occupied with his singing duties. There 
wasn't one Verlaine solo from the records that was handed over to Lloyd. (I
n fact, it was even more Verlaine soloing live, since "1880" live had V
erlaine playing the outro solo.) This puzzles me. As much as I did enjoy th
e powerhouse playing from Lloyd in these performances, it also became app
arent that his playing had lost that fragile, poetical beauty from the 70
s, on both Television album and, especially, his own first LP; I th
ink that his solo albums from in particular the 00s are evidence of this my
 thesis.

Leif J, Sweden



> From: dend@nyc.rr.com
> To: tv@obbard.com
> Subject: Re: (TV) Television
> Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:46:35 -0500
> 
> Days is their most influential song??????? Wow, well that’s says it a
ll, 
> Richard WAS Television and Tom had nothing to do with them being a good 
> band, in your opinion.
> If the one song Richard gets writing credit on is their most influential 
to 
> you makes it very clear how you feel about the band. Richard talked to yo
u, 
> so of course his side of things must be correct.
> I've never met anyone who thought Days was their most influential song 
> before.
> I'm going to bow out of this thread because I like both Richard and Tom a
nd 
> I'm not going to defend one and slag the other. In fact it may be time to
 
> leave the list.
> The Richard camp is just too happy to slag Tom because Richard talked to
 
> them once or twice. See ya.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Their current fans seem to think differently, at least as far as I can 
tell 
> doing so shows with them and seeing how the audience has reacted since 
> Richard left.
> 
> 
> I hope nobody around here misunderstands my feelings about the band.
> 
> Truth be told it's A story of squandered genius and verlaines insane ego
> 
> Seriously ask yourself which song on the first two albums was the most 
> influential song had the greatest impact?  Was it Tom's stones influenced
 
> songs?
> 
> No it was a modest song called days
> 
> The blueprint of REM's first two if not three albums very influential to 
the 
> go-betweens and extremely influential across-the-board going to the 80s a
nd 
> forward for that type of music
> 
> Richard is the member of the band who anticipated and influenced a good 
> portion of the 80s--not Tom
> 
> I do not think that I am giving away any confidences to say that I spoke 
to 
> Richard and he's told me that he strongly pushed for television to tour u
p 
> and down the East Coast in 78 and Tom pushed back
> 
> The reason I have a problem with Verlane is because I've met many remains
 in 
> my life and they're not fun people to be around extremely controlling peo
ple 
> always hurt those who are around them
> 
> I understand why Billy and Fred and even rip are willing to bite their 
> tongue's because they probably don't have a lot of money and this is a wa
y 
> to make a little bit of money
> but they are slaves to a crazy controlling person who hasn't really share
d 
> much of his genius with us in 30 years
> 
> The funny thing is that when you see these guys play --whether it was Llo
yd 
> back in the 90s or the early 2000's or rip now, you realize that most o
f the 
> solos were Richards
> 
> In my opinion the tragedy of television is that Richard was such a fuckin
g 
> mess back then that he could rally nobody behind him, and Tom is such a
 
> psychological manipulative person that he's always had Billy and Fred on 
his 
> side
> 
> I'm not saying that Richard hasn't been the author of his own destruction
 
> because he has and I've seen him in person acting like a nut
> 
> all I'm saying is that if Tom had not been such an ego maniac control fre
ak 
> and had opened his mind television could've been huge
> 
> And as talented as rip is, and he is,I've seen enough television show
s and 
> watched enough YouTube videos to see that he does not bring out the best 
of 
> Verlaine like Richard did
> 
> For me the best the original band has ever done since their first go arou
nd 
> was 1880 or so live
> 
> That is the essence of television
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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