‘Marquee Moon’ – Television, 1977
After going to see The National at the Olympia recently, I went for a few pints in Whelan’s on Wexford Street. They always play decent music in the pub, and the Guinness is pretty good too. Anyway, I was mid-way through my first pint when ‘Marquee Moon’ came on. I’ve always really liked this song, but with the blog and all, this time I tried to put together some words as to why I like it so much.
The Marquee Moon album is a really good listen the whole way through, an eclectic mix of Pink Floyd guitar-hero play and punkish attitude with opaque, cod-poetic lyrics. The lead singer, Tom Verlaine, obviously took his name from the French poet Paul Verlaine, and Television slot nicely into rock’s literary tradition, alongside The Doors, Bowie, Lou Reed & The Velvets, Patti Smith, and all the rest.
The song ‘Marquee Moon’ is the best part of eleven minutes and starts off with the rhythm guitar playing two simple chords, before Verlaine’s lead guitar comes in with a jagged line that works really well. For the verses, it’s pretty much duelling guitars, with the lead as counterpoint to the rhythm. Hard to describe, but really beautiful to listen too. The riff for the (wordless) chorus is a killer, one of my favourite guitar pieces in all of rock ‘n’ roll.
The portentous (and, of course, this being New York in the ’70’s, pretentious) lyrics refer to a time when “lightning struck itself”, “light and darkness doubled”, and “the embrace of life”. In between all of this, the lyrics have a very life-affirming quality to them, and seem to be about change and finding direction.
The last half of the song is devoted to a building crescendo of amazing guitar by Verlaine, all backed up by the rhythm guitar, bass and drums. Verlaine’s solo sounds almost like bird noises, very trebly, going up and down the note scale in a very original way. Anyway, enough of trying to describe the indescribable – have a listen to ‘Marquee Moon’.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Nice to see “Marquee Moon” in such fine company. Click on my name for more things Television-related.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Thanks for the article and review. It was great.
I have added you to my blog roll. Welcome!
June 24th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
[...] Dave (who added a comment here) has written an article about why he likes this album so much. Read the article at his blog. [...]
June 24th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[...] Edit: Dave (who added a comment here) has written an article about why he likes this album so much. Read the article at his blog. [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
All of the videos I’ve seen of this song live have Richard Lloyd (the second guitarist) doing the “birdlike” lead parts throughout the song, as Verlaine is doing the simpler chords while singing. Verlaine of course does the long solo you mentioned.
Anyway just wanted to get Richard’s props in there, because he seems to be the oft-overlooked but equally skilled guitarist in this band.
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
One of my favorite songs, but so it is for many. Just wanted to point out that the lyric is “I remember how the darkness doubled”, not “light and darkness doubled”. That bit of ephemera aside, really nice review. Thanks!