Television

Group / 1973 - 2023 / United States

post-punk art punk art rock new wave proto-punk punk experimental rock rock

Biography

Television was an American rock band from New York City that formed in 1973. Its most prominent lineup comprised vocalist and guitarist-keyboardist Tom Verlaine, guitarist Richard Lloyd, drummer Billy Ficca, and bassist Fred Smith. An early fixture of CBGB and the 1970s New York punk rock scene, the band is considered influential in the development of punk rock and alternative rock.

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Elsewhere

Analysed songs (10)

Ain't That Nothin'

Television

A restless, riddling song built from fragmentary images of heat, motion and spinning objects, addressed to a companion who never…

evasion and unanswered questions restlessness and burnout attraction to chaos

Call Mr. Lee

Television

Television's late-reunion track builds a noir vignette out of coded phone numbers and cryptic instructions, sounding like a…

surveillance and code confinement versus escape urgency under pressure

Careful

Television

"Careful" stages a nervy standoff between protest and confession: a narrator insists he doesn't care about anything while the…

denial and self-deception paranoia emotional withdrawal

Carried Away

Television

A hushed, drifting piece from Television's second album, built around a single confession: the speaker keeps getting swept along…

passivity and surrender dissolution of self memory and its distortions

Days

Television

A short, hazy meditation on time and companionship that trades narrative for atmosphere, repeating its title like a mantra until…

time and impermanence dreamlike perception companionship

Glory

Television

Television's "Glory" plays a lopsided, almost cartoonish romantic squabble against a chant that sounds like religious…

romantic confusion transcendence vs. absurdity surrender of anxiety

Guiding Light

Television

A slow, piano-led ballad from Marquee Moon's back half, this song trades the album's angular guitar interplay for something…

disorientation longing for stability romantic uncertainty

Little Johnny Jewel, Pts. 1 & 2

Television

This is Television's first single, a hazy character sketch built on a shuffling, unresolved guitar figure rather than a…

outsider mystique visionary madness voyeurism and judgment

See No Evil

Television

The opening track of Marquee Moon works as a manifesto of pure appetite and willful blindness, its narrator declaring immediate…

desire and impatience willful ignorance denial of consequence

Venus

Television

A downtown-New York nocturne about a night walk that tips into a heightened, almost hallucinatory perception of the city,…

urban nightlife altered perception desire and detachment