Episode 64: Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’

Listen:

EPISODIX:

Posted:

April 6, 2017

Music:

All songs by Television from Marquee Moon (Elektra) 1977

  • “Marquee Moon”
  • “Friction”
  • “Guiding Light”

Notes:

This is Nate Scott’s 5th appearance on RTS.

We didn’t get into it here, but Richard Hell had a, well, hell of a lot to do with making Tom Verlaine Tom Verlaine. Just ask Theresa Stern.  You can probably read all about it here — this one is on Patrick’s to-read list.

Here’s a nice piece on Tom Verlaine by Chip Stern, which says, among other things, “There are rock guitarists, and then there are rock guitarists. You’re all familiar with the garden variety type: concussion-level volume, a lot of flashy notes, maybe a bionic tongue for good measure- but not too much thought. Some people think they have to play a mile a minute to create excitement, but in the best rock, as in jazz, the dictum is that if you can’t say it with a few well chosen notes… well… you can’t say nuthin’.”

Here’s Richard Lloyd’s take on the whole thing.

The lyrics to “Marquee Moon”(the song):

I remember
Ooo how the darkness doubled
I recall
Lightning struck itself

I was listening
Listening to the rain
I was hearing
Hearing something else

Life in the hive puckered up my night,
A kiss of death, the embrace of life
Ooo there I stand neath the Marquee Moon,
Just waiting

I spoke to a man
Down at the tracks
And I ask him
How he don’t go mad
He said ‘Look here junior, don’t you be so happy
And for Heaven’s sake, don’t you be so sad’

Life in the hive puckered up my night,
The kiss of death, the embrace of life
Ooo there I stand neath the Marquee Moon,
Hesitating

Well a Cadillac
It pulled out of the graveyard
Pulled up to me
All they said ‘get in’, get in
Then the Cadillac
It puttered back into the graveyard
Me, I got out again

Life in the hive puckered up my night,
A kiss of death, the embrace of life
Ooo there I stand neath the Marquee Moon,
I ain’t waiting nuh ah

I remember
How the darkness doubled
I recall
Lightning struck itself

I was listening
Listening to the rain
I was hearing
Hearing something else

Written by Tom Verlaine • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group

If you love it, you can read it.

This happened once:

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