Although the New York group of the 1970s had only a relative commercial success, the American influenced many guitarists thanks to his inventive and aggressive game.
MO12345lemonde with AP and AFP
Tom Verlaine, guitarist, singer and co-founder of Television, New York Training of Rock from the 1970s who influenced many groups, died on Saturday January 28 at the age of 73.
It was his daughter Jesse Paris Smith, born from her relationship with Patti Smith, another major figure of the music scene of the time, who made it the announcement to the New York Times, without specifying the cause of death , except that it resulted from a “short illness”.
“Tom Verlaine has passed through the beyond that his guitar game was still pretending,” tweeted Mike Scott of the Waterboys. “He was the best guitarist in rock and roll of all time, and like Hendrix, he could turn the spheres of the Cosmos at rock garage. This requires a particular grandeur,” adds the Scottish musician.
Homage to the French poet Paul Verlaine
Born Thomas Miller, the American decided to make himself known under the name of Tom Verlaine, in homage to Paul, the French poet whose lyricism he will try to instill in his texts.
Although Television has never been a great commercial success, the inventive and aggressive game of Tom Verlaine, who was one of those groups with two guitars, influenced many musicians, especially during his services at the CBGB, Mythical concert of the New York Center, alongside Ramones, Patti Smith and Talking Heads.
Television released his first album Marquee Moon in 1977 – including the eponymous song of almost 11 minutes, as well as elevation.
“” Marque Moon “has become a kind of independent rock of rock in the years that followed, wrote Billboard magazine in 2003. He clearly influenced artists such as Pavement, Sonic Youth, The Strokes and Jeff Buckley. “
The growing tensions between Tom Verlaine and his guitarist colleague Richard Lloyd led Television to dissolve after his second album Adventure, released a year after Marquee Moon. The group reformed for an eponymous album in 1992 and some sporadic appearances on stage.
“We wanted to strip everything as much as possible, move away from the theatricality of glitter groups, blues and boogie”, writes the co -founder of Television, Richard Hell, in his autobiography I Dreamed I was a very clean tramp. “We wanted to be austere, hard and torn, as the world was,” he explains.
dark month of January for rock
Tom Verlaine then released a dozen solo albums, while collaborating with many artists, such as David Bowie and Patti Smith. The latter shared a farewell message on Instagram, posting a photo of them, accompanied by the sentence: “It was a time when everything seemed possible”
Many online tributes have also been rendered, from Thurston Moore, ex-leader of Sonic Youth, to Stuart Braithwaite that of Mogwai, two groups that owe him a lot. Susanna Hoffs and Billy Idol said that Verlaine’s music had influenced the American and British punk scene. And The Edge says he was inspired by his guitar game to shape the sound of U2.
The disappearance of Tom Verlaine adds to the deadly character of January for the world of rock, after those recent of Jeff Beck and David Crosby.