Despite rumours of some credence we’ve been waiting some eight years for the new Television album — don’t rush into it lads! To feed my addiction I was one of those who sent off for a cassette import of The Blow-Up (1982) if only to hear “Little Johnny Jewel”. We waited 14 years for album three (1992), not withstanding Tom Verlaine’s solo outings keeping us nourished, and of course we WILL wait for another album from (IMHO) one of the three greatest “rock” bands of all time and certainly the greatest one still functioning with absolute artistic integrity — no showbiz schlock for these guys.
I just wish that (a) journalistic glove-puppets would stop using the totally misappropriated trope “punk” and that (b) “purist” fans stop harking back to Richard Hell and Richard Lloyd — Jimmy Rip lovingly and brilliantly really does the business. Regarding the former, one of Television’s unlikely virtues is that their sound is ahistorical — it exists in a soundscape that is not subject to the vagaries of changing fashions, technological or otherwise. It has a timeless transcendental quality to it.
We know that Verlaine and Bowie saw each other as kindred spirits — though, as we know, Bowie gave up the ghost after he brilliantly covered Verlaine’s “Kingdom Come” in his last great album Scary Monsters (1980). Tom Verlaine . . . as indicated earlier pursued greatness not “careeriness” and whose artistic vision is still a wonder to behold. Long may the “Frantz Kafka” of musicality continue.
manwithoutqualities 