Tom Verlaine, the founding member of Television, dies aged 73
Tom Verlaine, the hugely influential guitarist and songwriter best known as the founding member and frontman of the New York City rock band Television, has died at the age of 73.
The confirmation of Verlaine’s death arrived via Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine’s counterpart and former partner Patti Smith, who relayed the news in a statement issued to the New York Times.
It has been confirmed that Verlaine died in Manhattan. He was 73 years of age. Jesse Paris Smith verified that Verlaine passed away “after a brief illness”.
Despite being one of the leading bands in the New York scene, Television always seemed slightly outside the parameters of what we’ve come to lazily regard as the punk aesthetic. While Verlaine and Richard Hell’s duel guitars were able to conjure up as much no-nonsense ferocity as The Ramones or Blondie, Verlaine also bought a virtuosic edge to a genre that generally despised virtuosos, weaving technically astonishing guitar solos with Television’s raw and unrelenting minimalism.
Control of tone was always one of Verlaine’s greatest strengths. As a guitarist, it was the thing to which he was perhaps the most attentive. “I can’t sing with a shit guitar sound,” he once said. As a result, he spent a lot of time manipulating the tone settings on his guitar and amp. “I just find everything kind of temperamental and problematic because all the equipment is so old,” he added.
“One day the amp sounds great, and for some reason the next day it just totally sucks. I really take every day as a new day. But it’s mildly frustrating sometimes. There’s a lot to be said for having one amp and just playing every song through it like you do live, but I like a changing sound quality on record.”
Verlaine, an artist who changed the shape of alternative music as we know it, placed a wonderful emphasis on tone control as a guitarist, which also led him to play fingerstyle on a number of Television tracks. Many players find playing with a pick limits the expressive capability of their guitar, and so they abandon it in favour of the less-percussive fingerstyle approach. Verlaine, however, always attempted to push the boundaries of creativity. Pretty much all of the instrumental Television material sees Verlaine adopt this manner of playing, and it is the sole reason why his name will forever be etched into the annals of rock and roll history.
When discussing his style, Verlaine once told a Guitar Player: “I never played guitar along with records, so I never learned all the speed licks everybody gravitates to when starting out,” he said. “I know 19-year-old guitarists who can play Danny Gatton solos note-for-note. They don’t really know what notes they’re playing, but they do them flawlessly.”
News of Verlaine’s sad passing has already filtered through to the music world, with many tributes exemplifying the major influence he posed throughout a remarkable career. Mike Scott of The Waterboys tweeted: “Tom Verlaine has passed over to the beyond that his guitar playing always hinted at. He was the best rock and roll guitarist of all time, and like Hendrix could dance from the spheres of the cosmos to garage rock. That takes a special greatness.”
He added: “Tom Verlaine … first heard on Patti Smith’s ‘Hey Joe’ and ‘Break It Up’, and Television’s ‘Little Johnny Jewel’, the most incredible, otherworldly guitar playing. Jazzblown, fantastic, inspired. Never surpassed, never equalled except by himself.”
Chris Stein, the founding member of Blondie, tweeted: “I met Tom Verlaine when he just arrived in NYC I guess ’72. He had long hair and came to my apartment with an acoustic guitar and played some songs he’d written. Both Tom and Richard Hell have told me that I auditioned for the Neon Boys but I don’t remember.”
Steve Albini added: “Beautifully lyrical guitarist, underrated vocalist. Television made a new kind of music and inspired new kinds of music. Marquee Moon is a perfect record. Requiescat”.
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