The Great White Hope for 1977

Rip It Up, Issue 1, 1 June 1977, Page 12

The Great White Hope for 1977

Jeremy Templer.

Television Marquee Moon Elektra

Let's get this right: Television is not apunk rock group, so if you're looking for some guys who stick safety pins in their cheeks and spit and vomit all too often then you'd better look some place else. But come to think of it even the Sex Pistols aren’t real punks, they're just marketed outrage that bears little in common with the efforts of America’s real punks the garage bands of 1965-1968 like the Seeds, the Chocolate Watchband, the 13th Floor Elevators and, oh yes, Question Mark and the Mysterians. Television has often been mistakenly included in the renaissance of punk rock along with other CBGB groups who have a better claim to the title; groups like the Ramones, the Heartbreakers, Tuff Darts and the Miamis. Television’s elementary sound; a reliance on a simple guitar, bass and drums line-up (no synthesisers or mellotrons) with Tom Verlaine’s occasional keyboards and their concise style

two notes aren’t used where one will do has probably led to their being lumped in with New York’s punk rock groups. But there is no question of their musical competence; they are musical sophisticates among the punk groups. Verlaine and Richard Lloyd share the cutting guitar solos which are the basis of their sound, at their most incisive on "Elevation”, while Billy Ficca and Fred Smith, on drums and bass respectively, add powerful if often minimal backing to Verlaine’s vocals. Verlaine is also a good lyricist (although his medium doesn’t demand it) and he uses imagery in a similar way to Patti Smith but his images are more ordered. His lyrics are often menacing, And this boy can sing! Verlaine is a Ramones' "Beat On The Brat”. Verlaine’s vision is stark, often pessimistic on "Friction" he sings "My eyes are like telescopes/l see it all backwards but who wants to hope?" And this bou can sing! Varlaine is a convincing and often compelling vocalist with a delivery similar to that of Patti Smith. The words are stretched to their full meaning and he makes count what would normally be throwaway lines. Like his repartee with the band in "Venus”

the band ask what sounds like "Do you feel low?" Verlaine replies "Not at all’ with the surprised response from the band, “Huh?" Like the way Verlaine puts malice into the single word “confidential" in “Prove It". What Television shares with the best of the new punk rock groups (and among the chaff there are some good bands) is a common feeling for R & B basics and anger that hasn’t been heard since the early days of the Stones and the Who. And think about it: when did white boys last sound so good?