Farewell to Tom Verlaine, the adventurer who took alternative rock to another level

In times and places where they played fast and dirty, Television stopped the ball and showed that other directions were possible without losing the plebeian aura of the environment that welcomed them. So it came in 1977 “Marquee Moon”, The group’s first album and a cornerstone of alternative rock. In it, the singer’s complex, original and exquisite guitar sets stood out together with his side Richard Lloyd.

Far from the great solos and samples of virtuosity, the cocktail was completed with the dramatic quota provided by Verlaine’s voice. His songs were fresh and unstructured. Fun, playful. The frontman’s music combined the guitar rock of the Rolling Stones and the freedom of rhythms like jazz, two of his great influences.

Although the environments they frequented and the characters that surrounded them brought the group closer to the punk movement, their music was not subservient to just one genre but rather flirted with many: pop, new wave, art rock, etc. Their search was more similar to that of groups like Talking Heads, another of the colossi of the incipient local scene.

But the myth of Television was not built solely on the quality of its albums. Its takeoff platform was just as important. From the stage of the mythical CBGB, Verlaine and his crew rubbed shoulders with bands and artists such as the Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, Lou Reed and the figures that orbited downtown New York. There, protected by the guru of the underworld Hilly Kristal, they laid the foundations of the myth.

Part of that legend was also built on the short life of the quartet, which after Marquee Moon would release Adventure in 1979, the second and last album of that first sprint. Then came the separation and the reunion to record an album with the same name in 1992. In parallel, Tom Verlaine launched his solo career, highlighting Dreamtime (1981), his second record.

He also collaborated with Patti Smith at various stages of his career. It was precisely Jesse Paris Smith, daughter of the singer and poet, who announced Verlaine’s death, news that mourns the world of rock and resonates in the ruins of that dangerous and creative New York, which today lost one of its favorite children.