Tom Verlaine, the influential punk-era NYC rock guitarist and leader of band Television, died earlier today in Manhattan at the age of 73.
|
read more Television had a brief three year run that left a legacy of one of the most brilliant debut albums in rock history ("Marquee Moon") an adequate follow up ("Adventure") …
|
His death “after a brief illness” was confirmed to the New York Times by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine’s musical peer and former partner Patti Smith.
Thomas Miller was born in Denville, NJ on December 13, 1949. moving next to Wilmington, Delaware, at an early age. As a child, he took piano lessons, but switched to sax in middle school after hearing a record by Stan Getz, and then moved to guitar after hearing the Rolling Stones' "19th Nervous Breakdown".
In addition to music, he wrote poetry as a teen and was friends with future band mate and punk icon Richard Hell (Richard Meyers), creating his stage name as a reference to the French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine.
Their seminal band Television fully came together after finding a guitarist in Richard Lloyd and began playing NYC punk clubs like CBGB and Max's Kansas City, releasing their first single in 1975 with Fred Smith replacing Hell. Television released only two albums, Marquee Moon and Adventure, before breaking up in mid-1978
Verlaine released solo albums beginning in the 80s, moving to England for a short time, and collaborating with other artists and in the early 1990s, Television reformed to record one studio self-titled album and a live recording (1992’s Live at the Academy), occasionally reuniting to tour into the new century.
Verlaine’s last solo albums were the instrumental Around and the vocal Songs and Other Things, which were released simultaneously in 2006.
| John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
Comments