Artist

Television

New York City, United States • 1973 – 2023

Television is a music group from New York City, United States, active 1973–2023. Their discography on Gatefold includes 9 records.

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Photo of Television

9

Albums tracked

200

In collections

1973

Since

Biography

Television was an American proto-punk band formed in New York City in 1973. One of the most creative bands to emerge from New York's CBGB scene of the mid-'70s, creating an influential new guitar vocabulary. While guitarists Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd liked to jam, they didn't follow the accepted rock structures for improvisation — they removed the blues while retaining the raw energy of garage rock, adding complex, lyrical solo lines that recalled both jazz and rock.

The Arc of Television

The pivots — what forced Television to reinvent.

  1. The CBGB Genesis and Ousting Hell

    Verlaine and Richard Hell built the band out of the ashes of the Neon Boys, practically securing the residency that turned CBGB into ground zero for the scene. Hell brought the ripped-t-shirt attitude and chaos, but Verlaine wanted intricate harmonic structure and discipline. They kicked Hell out in 1975, brought in Fred Smith from the Blondie camp on bass, and hardened into a hyper-focused four-piece. You hear that exact tension and clarity resolve on their self-released single 'Little Johnny Jewel.'

  2. The Marquee Moon Sessions

    Signing with Elektra, they bypassed the heavy-handed production of the era and tapped Andy Johns to capture their live sound untouched at A&R Studios. The title track was cut live in one take with Lloyd's spiraling solo and Verlaine's crystalline leads woven together over nearly ten minutes without a single drop of overdrive. It stood completely outside the punk dogma of 1977, trading raw aggression for sprawling, architectural tension. The record stiffed on the American charts but established their untouchable status overseas.

  3. Adventure and the Fast Burnout

    Rushing back into the studio just a year later, the band found themselves exhausted and short on fresh material. John Jansen was brought in to co-produce 1978's Adventure, leaning toward pastoral, mid-tempo songwriting and softer guitar textures that alienated critics looking for another blistering workout. Behind the scenes, personal animosities between Lloyd and Verlaine escalated alongside heavy drug use. They folded the tent right after the tour, leaving an abrupt end to their initial run.

  4. The 1992 Reunion

    Fourteen years after their breakup, Capitol coaxed the original four-piece back into the studio to track their self-titled third record. Verlaine took sole production credit, stripping the sound down even further into spare, smoky, rhythm-and-groove interplay on tracks like '1880 Or So.' It completely avoided the bloated nineties rock production traps, picking up their telepathic guitar dialogue right where they left it. They stopped recording as a unit afterward, settling into sporadic, revered live appearances until Verlaine's death.

Influences

  • The Velvet Underground — Television covered 'What Goes On' and took direct cues from the deadpan, street-level poetry of Lou Reed. You hear it in Verlaine's talk-sung, fractured vocal phrasing and the relentless drone underneath their live sets. They took Reed's minimalist urban realism and turned it inside out.
  • The 13th Floor Elevators — Television regularly played a cover of 'Fire Engine' during their formative CBGB sets and the Marquee Moon tour rehearsals. Roky Erickson's jagged, acid-fried lead lines directly informed Richard Lloyd's bright, biting solo attack. It gave their austere New York sound a jolt of raw psych energy.
  • John Coltrane — Verlaine repeatedly cited Coltrane's modal jazz runs and free improvisation as the actual template for Television's extended guitar solos rather than conventional blues. You hear those sheets-of-sound ascensions and modal scales exploding across the climax of 'Marquee Moon.' They approached dual guitars the way Coltrane and Eric Dolphy traded horn lines.
  • Love — Arthur Lee's baroque arrangements on Forever Changes provided the structural model for intertwining clean electric guitars. The chiming, acoustic-style chord shifts on tracks like 'Guiding Light' directly mirror Lee's orchestral folk-rock approach. It was their secret weapon against the prevailing mid-seventies punk noise.
  • The Rolling Stones — Television hired Andy Johns to produce their debut specifically because of his engineering work on Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. You hear the Keith Richards-style rhythmic snap in Fred Smith and Billy Ficca's tight, un-rushed pocket. It anchored their avant-garde compositions to pure, street-level rock and roll.

Discography

Their records — most-collected first.

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