Guitar prodigious Tom Verlaine dies at 73 | Culture | The USA Print

Tom Verlaine, leader of the band Television, which emerged from underground New York punk rock in the late 1970s with the album marquee moon, died Saturday in New York at the age of 73, his family reported. The American singer and guitarist died “after a brief illness,” Jesse Paris Smith, daughter of singer Patti Smith, told the newspaper. The New York Times, although without specifying the cause of death. “This is a time when anything seems possible,” Patti Smith wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday, under an old photo of her with Verlaine. Patti Smith had once said that Tom Verlaine sounded “like a thousand howling tiles.” Born Thomas Miller, Verlaine adopted his last name from the French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine, whose lyricism he tried to infuse into his compositions, while playing the guitar with an ethereal and aggressive style. Among his musical references, he always showed a predilection for the free jazz by John Coltrane or Eric Dolphy.

Verlaine, born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1949, went to high school with another punk icon, Richard Hell, and together they founded Television in 1973 with guitarist Richard Lloyd. His debut album, marquee moon He is considered “one of the best of the punk era”, according to the magazine rolling stones. At nearly 10 minutes long, the album’s self-titled single illustrated the richness of a musical movement that inspired many groups, from the Ramones to the Talking Heads to Blondie. They all went to the same punk rock mecca, CBGB, a club on New York’s Lower East Side where the best hours of that musical genre in the city were experienced. Even though marquee moon received critical acclaim from the likes of rolling stones, NME Y pitchforkTelevision was a short-lived success.

After two albums, the band dissolved and Verlaine released a dozen solo albums from the 1980s, while collaborating with numerous artists such as Smith and David Bowie. Tributes from fellow artists have rained on social networks remembering Verlaine. “Went past the book stalls outside the Strand yesterday thinking I would see you as usual, have a cigar and talk about rare poetic finds for a couple of hours,” he tweeted. Thurston Moore, by Sonic Youth. “I will miss you, Tom. Rest in peace”.

Flea, from Red Hot Chili Peppers, has posted that he heard marquee moon 1,000 times and you’ll “hear it 1,000 more.” “Tom Verlaine is one of the greatest rock musicians ever,” he tweeted.

“His role in our culture and his genius on the electric guitar were legendary,” wrote Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. “Name 10 minutes of music that are as good as marquee moon. It can not. It is perfect”.