Marquee Moon is truly timeless

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Halfwit, Jul 12, 2015.

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  1. quakerparrot67

    quakerparrot67 Forum Resident

    Location:
    tucson, az.

    wow, ralph.....that is a truly beautiful bit of writing! well said.

    cheers,
    rob
     
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  2. Phil Tate

    Phil Tate Miss you Indy x

    Location:
    South Shields
    Their eponymous '91 reunion album is great as well, hugely underrated.
     
  3. spaulding

    spaulding Hoi Polloi

    Location:
    The Windy City
    Love this album and the second.
    Question:
    Where is 'Little Johnny Jewel' available on vinyl? I know the original single was cut into two parts - and there was the live version on The Blow Up. But is there an unedited studio version available on vinyl?
     
  4. jjjos

    jjjos Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    The drum fills in Venus are some of my favorite on record. This album blew me away when I first grabbed it a few years back and remains one of my favorites.
     
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  5. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    There was a 12 inch version released by ORK that featured a live take on the second side.

    [​IMG]
     
  6. pobbard

    pobbard Still buying CDs

    Location:
    Andover, MA
    This came out in 1979. Interestingly, it's the most "complete" studio take out there - you can hear the drums rattling a bit before the track starts. This was edited out of CD-era releases.

    Side B, the live take, is an audience recording.
     
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  7. "Adventure" is certainly first & foremost on my similar list. I don't feel that enormous a difference between the first & second albums & think they are both brilliant. While I dig the debut (contains some of what would have clearly been the 3rd Television album with some stalwart tunes they used to do live), I dig "Dreamtime" even more- it & the solo album I'd add to the list above the debut, "Flashlight", are my two total faves. The last one I'd add to that short list is the band's 1992 eponymous reunion album. The rest of Verlaine's solo catalog is well worth exploring & not that far off in quality from the aforementioned top shelf/shortest list, with loads of great songs on very good to near great albums too.

    Love what Ira Kaplan, of as fave a band as I have in the world, Yo La Tengo said about "Adventure" in naming it one of his short list favorite albums ever, & I couldn't agree more...
    "Television – Adventure
    I think that as great as Marquee Moon is, I love Adventure just as much. There's that truism, that cliché, that you have your whole life to create your first record and a year to create your second one and Marquee Moon has obviously got that sort of perfect quality to it like they'd been planning it for ages. You hear it in their demos, working towards how great 'Venus' is going to be and how great 'Marquee Moon' is going to be; they had so many amazing songs in that period. You look at the cover of Marquee Moon and 'you're like, where's 'O Mi Amore', where's 'Adventure'?' and it comes to their second album and they still don't have these songs. All these great songs that they had in their repertoire aren't even on their second record. Marquee Moon is perfect but I don't think perfection is necessarily the be all and end all. There's something so beautiful and so human about Adventure. I do think the fact that it's not considered as good definitely made me gravitate towards it but I just love every song on that record as much as anything on Marquee Moon.
    http://thequietus.com/articles/11644-yo-la-tengo-ira-kaplan-favourite-albums?page=10
     
  8. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Yeah! The problem with everything Verlain touches seems to be that it's not "Marquee Moon". Which is a shame because some of his solo work is great as well. But there is always THAT looooong shadow. A beautiful shadow but a shadow nontheless:(
     
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  9. tremspeed

    tremspeed Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I never understood this constant comparison whatsoever. The Strokes to me, albeit good on their first album, were the vocal sound of "Lust For Life" over catchy but rudimentary garage rock. I can think of a couple of basic solos on "Is This It" but a far, far cry from the innovative (Verlaine) or masterful (Lloyd) dual lead guitar work of Television, let alone the more developed songs. The drumming on MM is about a hundred times more advanced than the wind-up monkey stuff the Strokes do.
     
  10. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    One day after work last week, I stopped by my local coffee shop for some half-price sandwiches. They were playing Little Johnny Jewel, of all things. I was gobsmacked and must have looked it, since one of the youngsters behind the counter actually asked me if I was OK. Oh yeah, feeling just fine, thank you very much.
     
  11. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I overlooked it for over 30 years myself. I had no idea that the late-70's alternative scene produced such a brilliant album and such an original sound. I was aware of many other brilliant albums and original sounds, but Marquee Moon hit me between the eyes when I first heard it a couple of years ago.
     
  12. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    One of my favorite lyrics from the album - it always makes me laugh in the best way:

    Suddenly my eyes went so soft and shaky
    I knew there was pain but pain is not aching
    Then Richie, Richie said:
    "Hey man let's dress up like cops
    Think of what we could do!"
    But something, something said "you better not"
    And I fell

    Did you feel low?
    Not at all!
    Huh?

    I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo
     
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  13. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York

    This is the Eno demo from 1974.
     
  14. sixelsix

    sixelsix Forum Resident

    Location:
    memphis, tn, usa
    Brilliant. Please tell me you dropped the mic afterward.
    :cheers:
     
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  15. sixelsix

    sixelsix Forum Resident

    Location:
    memphis, tn, usa
    Compairing the Strokes to Television is like comparing Kevin Hart to Richard Pryor.
     
  16. Endymion

    Endymion Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Truly a one-of-a-kind album. No other album sounds quite like it.
    The guitar is magical.
     
  17. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    Ralph pretty much said it all - tough to add to that.

    There are a small handful of records that I would consider absolutely perfect, and Marquee Moon is certainly in that category. Completely timeless and unclassifiable, it was neither punk or that hideous term 'new wave', and didn't sound like anything else then or now. Just unique in every way, and one of, if not the greatest guitar records ever made. Desert island material.
     
  18. Oliver

    Oliver Bourbon Infused

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  19. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
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  20. Oliver

    Oliver Bourbon Infused

    What a great write-up from a historical point of view from someone who was there!
     
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  21. Oliver

    Oliver Bourbon Infused

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  22. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    That is absolutely amazing - as you say, a monster.

    It's not Television, but another great live version is the one from the Venue in London in 1982 with Jimmy Ripp on the other guitar, and Fred Smith and Jay Dee Daugherty. It's on The Miller's Tale anthology, and also includes a killer version of maybe my favorite Verlaine song, "Breakin' in My Heart".
     
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  23. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Here's a live version of "Breakin..." from 1975.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=032bsV9SeWg
     
  24. Steve G

    Steve G Senior Member

    Location:
    los angeles
    I don't think anyone could argue with that (i.e., that it is timeless). It could come out today or it could have come out in the 1960s and you would listen to it about the same way. It's pure.
     
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  25. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    Got this a few years ago (a Rhino reissue, I think). Didn't really grab me after a few listens..... but I am going to dig it out and give it another try.
     
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