OBITUARY: Tom Verlaine of hugely influential band Television dead at 73
Tom Verlaine of Television performs at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on April 16, 1978. Photo by Gus Stewart/Redferns.
Tom Verlaine, singer, guitarist and founding member of hugely influential post-rock band Television, has died at 73.
Verlaine, born Thomas Miller in New Jersey, was a fixture in the scene around New York’s CGBG’s in the 1970, dating poet and musician Patti Smith and forming Television with boarding school friend and fellow escapee Richard Hell (Richard Meyers) in 1974 after a failed collaboration called The Neon Boys.
Verlaine wove disparate influences from The Rolling Stones to 1970s electrified fusion of Miles Davis into a more refined musical approach than many of his early punk contemporaries. Verlaine was also a deep thinker about music, and changed his name in tribute to French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine.
Verlaine assembled the band’s core lineup of Richard Lloyd on guitar, Richard Hell on bass and Billy Ficca on drums in 1974. In 1977, Television released Marquee Moon, which became a hugely influential album for subsequent generations. The band’s angular rock, and the juxtaposition of sparse instrumentation and elaborate guitar interplay, influenced everyone from Gang of Four to The Jesus Lizard. The epic title track, clocking in at over 10 minutes, encapsulates the band’s sound perfectly with complicated yet graceful guitar melodies and dynamic improvisation. For a time, Television occupied the same scene as the likes of the Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie, though the band was nothing like any of them.
Television’s 1978 follow-up album, Adventure, further cemented the band’s status as trendsetter for the heavier, more angular post-rock as it slowly morphed into more synthesizer-heavy new wave music. The band broke up after that second album, reforming for reunions in the early ’90s and again in 2001. Television played regularly until the year before the pandemic.
Verlaine decamped to Europe and released a number of solo records in the 1980s. He worked with the likes of Patti Smith and David Bowie.
In 2006, he released his first new album of solo material in over a decade, Songs and Other Things. More recently, he was part of the Million Dollar Bashers, a supergroup also featuring Sonic Youth musicians Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier, guitarist Smokey Hormel and keyboardist John Medeski.
Verlaine’s death was announced by Patti Smith’s daughter Jesse Paris Smith, who said Verlaine died in New York City, “after a short illness.”
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I met Tom Verlaine when he just arrived in NYC I guess ’72. He had long hair and came to my apartment with an acoustic guitar and played some songs he’d written. Both Tom and Richard Hell have told me that I auditioned for the Neon Boys but I don’t remember.
— Cʜʀɪs Sᴛᴇɪɴ (@chrissteinplays) January 28, 2023
Most nights we walk onstage to Marquee Moon- RIP to Tom Verlaine, the realest deal
— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) January 28, 2023
Went by the book stalls outside Strand yesterday thinking I’d see you as usual, have a smoke, talk about rare poetry finds for a couple of hours, downtown NYC racing by our slow meditations on music, writing – gonna miss you Tom. TV Rest In Peace.
— Thurston Moore (@nowjazznow) January 28, 2023