Television – Marquee Moon | Vinyl Monday
What I want, I want NOW!
Welcome (or welcome back) to Vinyl Monday! This is my series where I give the who/what/when/where/why and how I feel about classic albums in my collection. My thoughts on Television’s debut, Marquee Moon (released 1977.) Subscribe for more Vinyl Monday!
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I cohost the Dolls Podcast!: https://open.spotify.com/show/4JsH0rsXUNjgvFLIbwYgnK?si=798d0d6d67864c4e
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unveiling-the-legends-dolls-of-the-60s-70s/id1749327932
SCREEN GEMS review!: https://trackingangle.com/features/every-picture-tells-a-story-harvey-kuberniks-screen-gems
Timestamps:
intro – 0:00
art/packaging/personnel – 0:40
Television – 4:59
Marquee Moon – 21:16
track listing/release – 25:15
my thoughts – 28:29
thanks for watching! – 47:28
Music:
Intro Music: Yeah Yeah Yeah (Long) by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Outtro Music: Ticket To Nowhere Man by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Vinyl Monday logo by Callum: https://www.youtube.com/@clynaack
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@abigaildevoe
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
what’s your favorite television song? comment below!
@ezechielpequay5894
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
45:16 False, he said himself that Coltrane was his main influence and even played saxophone before he began to play guitar.
Concerning "Torn Curtain" this is the perfect ending to the album, and this is NOT a parody. This song is anxious, grimly and certainly about rape. It's sounds like a Dramatic play that never end, a nightmare that seems to be infinite…that's very dark.
And the guitars are not "clean" they sound dirty and clean at the same time, very Velvet Underground.
Your video great, but here are the three points I do not agree with as a hard-core Television fan.
@some-bugs-I-found
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Omgg mapplethrope!!!
@jameskostrewa9861
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
My first time watching your Chanel … THAT WAS FUCKIN AWESOME…. Deep dive on the history.. great presentation… I’m sending this to all my friends who love music history … well done !!!
@derfgerps4016
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Side two is awesome but still the tracklist has always been weird
@derfgerps4016
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Way better than Is This It.
@balso_snell
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
"Jim Morrison? He's a drunken buffoon posing as a poet." – Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous
@balso_snell
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Swear enough times, and we'd hear the entire opening guitar riff from Marquee Moon…
@scottmayhew9754
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
First timer who didn't know you were in costume lol. Binge initiated.
@michaelclark2697
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
This is an album that grew on me slowly over the years, revealing a little more with each play. The intro to "Friction" with its prickly slide down the musical scale is especially memorable for me. And then there's the epic title track with its surreal, vaguely apocalyptic imagery and amazingly inventive guitar work. The pretty, chiming notes near the end after the tension lifts reminds me of the intro to "Sweet Jane". An incredible song from a great album, and an excellent Vinyl Monday. Thank you, Abigail!
@graymra6882
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Bought this album in June 77 on the strength of an A+ from Robert Christgau ( I was a Cream reading social outcast), and was hooked on the first riff. I loved the lyrical but pointed, unpretty and gorgeous, guitar work. The up-tempo songs weren't just fast, they were driven. The down tempos not soft but challenging. I'm on board with punk is about revisiting youth. When I first spun it, I got a vibe that these were already mature men trying to envisage what guitar-based rock should have sounded like but never did (until then). Saw Verlaine's lyrics in the same vein, thinking "I'm going to work on my poetry for ten years, so I can writer like this when I'm 27.
@gardenia81
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
I first heard about Television when The Strokes debuted and critics were comparing them to Television. I remember Julian Casablancas repeatedly telling interviewers that he had never heard of them and the band was mostly influenced by The Doors and Guided by Voices.
@justinblumberg8101
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
"Elevation" was my first experience with Television and I found it to be interesting enough for me to give Marquee Moon my attention. I agree with you, Abby, about the track listing — it could have been done better, but overall Marquee Moon is a pretty good album.
@ronaldwilliams2456
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Abby, you absolutely MUST see Cabaret! It is a totally marvelous movie!
@coreyrini550
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
OK Ms. Abby..definitely owe you a song now…I had never heard of the "13th floor elevators" – soon as you mentioned them I downloaded their album – it has the rock man! (I particularly like 2nd track splash, as I'm a sucka for psychedelic reverb-drenched guitar…just that plus the fact that you're an MC5 fan makes you like soo freaking cool man!! BTW great review of a truly classic and (still) highly influential album!! (nota bene: I think me and my fellow millenials are the true 'blank generation')
@wowster-so8sx
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
During this Television video a commercial popped out
@yup4021
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
You’re so goated!
@brentwillis260
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Interesting point about the song sequencing on Marquee Moon. I've never had any problem with it but now I'm having second thoughts. Still not as bad as the worst sequenced album of all time, the first Stooges album. We will Fall belongs at the end of side two not side one. I don't mind MM being at the end of side one although the brutal fade out is a bit complexing. I think Torn Curtain does work well as the dramatic finale though.
@DylanPank71
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
My favourite album and band ever. Can't pick a favourite other than to say I maybe like love Prove It and Elevation a little less than the others, but lyrically the latter fits perfectly with Verlaine's B Movie film noir influence.
I think there's an error in this video though, there's the suggestion that on the original LP, that the song fades out after the trilling "birdsong" section but actually the first verse comes back and it fades out during that reprise. I've come to prefer that version. There's a finality of the band finishing together on the CD/reissue version, where as the 70s fade out suggests an infinite loop.
Good video, but I'm baffled by this and so many other creators' policy of "I need to swear lots in the video but then censor it so YouTube will can deliver it to children".
@Scotttyist
May 5, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Great stuff. I can't be the first person to point out the self-reference in Elevation, surely ("Television, don't go through my head.") I was surprised to hear you down play it somewhat. I like everything about this LP. Keep Rockin'