Marquee Moon is truly timeless

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

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  1. Halfwit

    Halfwit Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dublin
    I was one of those people who rushed out and bought it on the strength of Nick Kent's euphoric review in the NME. It didn't sound like anthing else in 1977, and listening to it 38 years later I'm amazed at how contemporary it still feels. Still gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention at the perfection of it all. Classic.
     
  2. keith65

    keith65 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    Agree. I would like to add Adventure and Verlaines s/t and Dreamtime too. Always seems overlooked.
     
  3. PhilBorder

    PhilBorder Senior Member

    Location:
    Sheboygan, WI
    Yes. It never really seemed of its time anyway. One of those very rare explosions of expression that grow more compelling as time passes. Significantly, the characteristic of 'timeless' comes up in this 2006 interview excerpt with Richard Lloyd: http://www.tapeop.com/interviews/56/richard-lloyd/ A very clear concept of what they wanted to accomplish.

    These guys were so far beyond punk, new wave, whatever... you could almost say they were taking R+R to another level (though very few bands could have joined them there).
     
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  4. Roger Thornhill

    Roger Thornhill Senior Member

    Location:
    Ilford, Essex, UK
  5. Freedom Rider

    Freedom Rider Senior Member

    Location:
    Russia
    The guitar work on this album is just brilliant.
     
  6. dennis the menace

    dennis the menace Forum Veteran

    Location:
    Montréal
    Terrific album. The sound and the playing of the guitars is amazing. True, clean and totally out of time, probably the reason why it still sounds so fresh today. The kind of album you love more the more you listened to it. No bad song on it. Superb and very highly recommended.
     
  7. chodad

    chodad Hodad

    Location:
    USA
    Amen.
     
  8. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    It was the very first New Wave album I ever bought having come out of years Prog Rock and side-long songs. Not to put THEM down but this was something as refreshing as it could get at the time. The big thing at the time was to keep the production straightforward and simple and "get on with it". MM certainly "gets on with it" but the melodic content of those songs as well as the TRUE musicianship left most other bands of this "new" genre in the dust. And simple production or not, it's a great SOUNDING album as well.
     
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  9. Love Andy Johns production as well
     
  10. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Agreed with both of you 100%.

    And I'd add Verlaines IRS release Flashlight to your essential list as well...
     
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  11. nojmplease

    nojmplease Host, You Can't Unhear This

    Location:
    New York, NY
    When I heard Marquee Moon (the track) for the first time a few years ago, the first thought that popped into my head was: is this The Strokes? When I then realized that it was in fact Television and preceded The Strokes by 25 years, it hit me just how innovative and influential this band must have been to have basically spawned an entire sound a generation later.

    It's also a reminder of just how derivative music often is (and that isn't a bad thing, just an observation).
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2015
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  12. john hopkins

    john hopkins Active Member

    Venus in particular is magnificent.
     
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  13. Halfwit

    Halfwit Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dublin
    Love Billy Ficca's drumming in that song. They're just so tight right through the album.
     
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  14. Joe N

    Joe N Forum Resident

    Agree about the greatness of "Marquee Moon". The follow-up "Adventure", though less heralded, I think is almost as good.
     
  15. nikosvault

    nikosvault Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    <---

    The album is amazing.
     
  16. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Yes. Amazing...:righton:
     
  17. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    "Elevation, don't go to my head"
    Ah, but that's precisely what they were about. Even in the early Hell days, there was some kind of reach going on that was obvious, a desire to be something other than. Once they got Smith in it was about growth/expansion/mutation, how to take this form that everybody already knows and stretch it out so that the world felt like the Twilight Zone with silvery static guitars when they played. How to get into your head and rearrange it. They were beaming in so many new songs during 1975/76 that M. Moon could have been a double album, accommodating long excursions like "Breakin' In My Heart" and "Kingdom Come" along with lost jewels like "Double Exposure". Perched at the end of the CBGB bar, right in front of that old Voice of the Theater PA, with the band a few feet away, churning the air with that need to search and bend the music in their heads, getting into mine. They were as much about how they wanted you to feel as anything else. This is our vision, it could be yours.
    Watching the songs that wound up being on the album grow, watching beloved tunes get dropped from the set as they turned into a fire breathing monster (truly the best band on the planet on a good night) that was like a mystical tank rolling over you and lifting you up at the same time.
    Walking out of CBGB at 3am in the winter of 1975 and Broadway on the Bowery did indeed look medieval , swooning at the sight of a cloudless black sky and wishing I could rewind the clock to 10pm and the first set of the night. Halfway expecting to see the Venus De Milo in black leather walking down the street. Sometimes I did.
    Then the album finally came out, hoping it would be as amazing as I knew they were. From the first chords it sat right, felt right, it was Television, somehow they had managed to wrestle those bent notes and solos and chiming chords onto vinyl and it was as good as the best drug you could find on the street. Better. The Mapplethorpe cover, the swirling whatever on the back cover, you knew it was a different thing when you held it in your hands while browsing the record racks. There was nothing else like it/them at the time, they were special. They knew it, and Marquee Moon made damn sure that you knew it.
     
  18. I was going to post something about how amazing this LP is and how much impact it's had on me personally as well, but you said it all here. Fantastic post!
     
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  19. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    One of the best albums ever but "timeless"? It does still sound fresh but like the Ramones or Suicide it also sounds like NYC in the Mid-70's. Which is part of it's beauty:)
     
  20. Luckless Pedestrian

    Luckless Pedestrian Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    I remember
    how the darkness doubled
    I recall
    lightning struck itself


    Oh that gets me every time.
     
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  21. Leviethan

    Leviethan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I recently picked up an original Elektra promo copy, and it just blasts out of the speakers. I never get tired of listening to this album. Those guitars!!

    I fell back into the arms of Venus De Milo is one of the best lyrics ever.
     
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  22. I envy you. Not only did I never see Television live, I never heard of them until I joined this forum a few years ago. That's why I love this place.
     
  23. An SACD would be a welcome thing, preferably with a 5.1 mix.
     
  24. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Doesn't matter, they truly are timeless and always ripe for discovery by someone. :righton:
     
  25. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Very very well said ....!
     
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