What a cool and unusual song this is. I heard it a while back but never really got it until I was on my blogging break. Kept playing it and it just goes into your head and doesn’t come out. I say that in a good way…not a bad earworm way. It’s a huge song that can wrap you around its finger.
It’s an interesting listen with moving parts all the way through. It didn’t get me on the first time but by the second and third I was hooked.
I like the guitar interplay between guitarists Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd in this almost 10-minute song. The Marquee Moon album was released in February 1977, the title track was the most radio accessible, but not something that could get radio play in America. It was also a tough sell because the band wasn’t known outside of New York. The album did peak at #28 in the UK in 1977…while the song peaked at #30. The single release was split into two parts because one side of a 45 could not contain the entire song. Part I runs at 3:13, and Part II is at 6:45. Tom Verlaine is credited for writing the song.
The song started out as an acoustic song in 1974. They kept working on the song while they were regulars at the club CBGB in New York City. That club was also the home for bands like Blondie, The Ramones, and the Talking Heads. They honed the song through live performance and diligent rehearsal, so when they recorded the album in 1976, they had perfected it. The entire album was recorded and mixed in just three weeks.
A few months after the album was released, Television opened for Peter Gabriel on the American leg of his first solo tour. They made another album in 1978, but broke up three months later, returning in 1991 with one last album.
They influenced punk and alternative music but the band is far from the prototypical punk band. This band knew how to play and play well.
Richard Lloyd: “It’s like a mini-symphony. Towards the end of the song, Tom gets a long solo, and he would often meander through parts of it, but we had it structured. I do the song on my own as well, and it’s really quite structured: There’s a part that’s loud and there’s a part that’s soft, and there’s a build-up, then there’s a climb – there’s actually three sets of climbs – then there’s what we call the ‘birdies,’ and then another section and then the verse comes back in. So it was pretty well structured after that period of time of aching to look for proper parts for it. And there’s a great deal of syncopation going on in it with the drums coming in sounding backwards and my part that trills off the one. It’s not easy to learn.”
Marquee Moon
I rememberOoh, how the darkness doubledI recallLightning struck itself
I was listeningListening to the rainI was hearingHearing something else
Life in the hive puckered up my nightA kiss of death, the embrace of lifeOoh, there I stand neath the Marquee MoonJust waiting
I spoke to a manDown at the tracksAnd I ask himHow he don’t go madHe said, “look here, junior, don’t you be so happyAnd for heaven’s sake, don’t you be so sad”
Life in the hive puckered up my nightThe kiss of death, the embrace of lifeOoh, there I stand ‘neath the Marquee MoonHesitating
Well, the CadillacIt pulled out of the graveyardPulled up to meAll they said, “get in, get in”Then the CadillacIt puttered back into the graveyardMe, I got out again
Life in the hive puckered up my nightA kiss of death, the embrace of lifeOoh, there I stand neath the Marquee MoonBut I ain’t waiting, uh-uh
I rememberHow the darkness doubledI recallLightning struck itself
I was listeningListening to the rainI was hearingHearing something else
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