Television Marquee Moon--Demo

[@RichardLloyd1951]

This was NOT produced by Brian Eno. Richard Williams from Island wanted to record the band and described that he would like to bring Eno along because Richard didn't know anything about how to record in studios. So we said OK, but didn't use a single idea that Eno brought. And then listening back we realized that Richard Meyers:(Hell) couldn't play bass with Billy all over the place so he soon after left and we brought in Fred Smith, and the music got much more stable. This version is too fast.

[@christurner5788]

Thank you for sharing and thank you so much for your music!

[@hive1904]

yea, you guys sounded worlds better with Hell. and he could always play, yall were just always to straight to feel his playing is all. the truth is, you all liked Ayler and coleman and stuff back then but truth is you wouldnt have known black music if it bit you guys on ur ass. hell had more soul in one hand then all of later television did. smith played just fine, but yall got so boring. love you tho lloyd ur just known for re writting history is all

[@icebat000]

@@hive1904 OK Richard Hell

[@theindoctrinated6936]

Primary sources kick ass. Thanks for the info!

[@zetton3711]

@@hive1904 No way in hell.

[@TheEmptyPainting]

The chorus sounds more like a chorus. I love that you can hear the VU influence

[@nandoblondemobydick5438]

it is the NY sound, all USA was hyppie idealism but in NYC the things was very different, the NYC bands paint a reality in the picture inherent in the big city, which had nothing to do with that stunned hyppie movement

[@folkienumnums]

Marquee Moon one of the greatest albums all time. This version of the song is so different but great. Thanks for posting!!!

[@BobbyGeneric145]

Its a masterpiece.

[@ethanbuller]

this version is unbelievable

[@DfactorPop]

I was re-reading Velvets to the Voidoids this weekend, and everything that Richard described below about this recording is all right there on pages 136-137. I kinda like Hell's thumpy, punky bass on this version, but I could see where Verlaine s trip was at then....

[@mikeraabmusic]

I like this...sounds a lot different than the final version, definitely reminds me of the velvet underground's sound

[@ryandannar8869]

Wow, thanks for the background info, Richard Lloyd! Awesome that you chose to post about the track. I don't suppose I need to mention that I think the world of Television's first album. Hearing this alternate version of the title track is a treat.

[@judahwarsky8723]

This is history in the making, no less

[@drstevie]

Fkn hell....GENIUS...THANKS for uploading these !!!!!!!! X

[@HorkingBrahma]

This is one of my all-time favorite songs - really appreciate the posting.

[@bobdc]

Wow, Ficca really had his whole part together this early in the song's life.

[@robertogreen]

this is just...wow. amazing.

[@sdw1106]

Fantastic to hear this....

[@Admiralex91]

Tom Verlaine just has a signature voice

[@bongisland2762]

I just realized.... did the band pick its name... because his initials are TV??? !!

[@duzskii]

@@bongisland2762 it's for "tell a vision"

[@written12]

@@bongisland2762thanks. That never occurred to me. It has a certain rightness and truth even if it wasn’t consciously chosen.

[@written12]

So well said. So much was unique and brilliant about this band, but certainly his voice, the attitude in its hesitations, makes these songs fresh decades later.

[@blakewhittington4336]

Very cool this stuff exists and you can see what it became

[@charlyW34]

Historic and wonderful. A brain treat. cheers.

[@ryanatkinson8067]

The guitar solo is still amazing, though. Sounds like they were listening to a lot of Velvet Underground’s 1969 Live. Yeah, this demo is not as mind-blowing as the 1977 Elektra version, but for a run-through 2 1/2 years earlier, it still rocks a damn fine bit.

[@sakotakanonosue]

Wow! Love this version, too!!

[@florianvo4323]

Und noch mit einem "I´m waiting for my man"-Piano. Schick. Und interessant, wie sehr hier noch der Velvet-Underground-Einfluss zu hören ist.

[@eccles8118]

doesn't soar in the same way as the popular version but it's got a frantic energy that I like. cool.

[@bongisland2762]

i maybe like TV's vocals on THIS a bit better -- more raw, in your face, vulnerable -- but the music is far inferior to the final version IMO.

[@popancake]

@@bongisland2762 I am in total agreement. The 'orgasm' at the end of it has never been equalled or bettered. Rock and roll at it's heights!

[@kevinloignon7943]

I have this on a bootleg vinyl LP. Got it in the 70's. These guys were great.

[@TehGav]

@worldcommunity Um, Marquee Moon with "less of those rambling prog breaks" is like James Brown with less rhythmic, dance-inspiring minimalism. That 12" version may be 10+ minutes long, but the vinyl album version is definitive because it's infinite. When the volume fades at the end, you could keep listening to it forever if you could infinitely crank your volume knob. If Marquee Moon ever stops, the universe will end in a giant Mixolydian crescendo and you'll be like, OMGWTF?

[@bongisland2762]

yeah, i'm SHOCKED how different this is!

[@Beersforyears]

That some good ass shit right there

[@hotdog-nq3kz]

The album version is better overall but that part before the chorus is so wonderful. i can't stop listening to it and it makes me wish they recorded more stuff with richard hell

[@plev10]

Love the backing vocals. Wish they kept them on the album.

[@strexus]

Whip it on the Jim. Whip it on the Jim.

[@suzesrc]

thanks a great band !

[@rossturcotte419]

lovely

[@sernic1251]

Que sonido de bajo tan hermoso

[@curly_wyn]

I like this version way better. It’s way more bass and rhythm-driven, which is what post-punk is supposed to be, instead of being produced like a Rolling Stones album.

[@JWD1992]

Apparently the mastering on the recent Rhino reissue really ups the Stones-y (i.e. Andy Johns) element that the mastering on the original pressing subdued. So definitely avoid that reissue to avoid that sound.

[@grazianeddu]

imho better than the official version.

[@Bobjb999]

Fortunately, this recording's taken from a different source than the vinyl LP bootleg whose cover's shown.I bought the LP late in '79 I think, & it was unlistenable 'cause the recording was drastically slowed,making everything both slow flat.It wasn't a little bit off, it was way off! Whoever put out the LP was Television-ignorant&guessed at the song titles.A few mos. later, I was pleased to acquire a bootleg cassette that was on key & sounded great, much like like this YT version.

[@krisscanlon4051]

Eno trying to one up Cale as both wanted claim to the NY Punk. Its funny that the Dolls started this scene and TV berthed it at CBGB. There was so much fertile ground there. Cale got Patti Smith but not the T Heads. Eno finally got his Velvets band as its pseudo 5th member for 3 years.

[@strexus]

The Dolls rebooted the Warhol,or Velvets scene, to be precise. Television were more VU for sure. For once I'm glad Eno's great version was turned down. The album version is a masterpiece!

[@krisscanlon4051]

strexus I agree with most of that. it's just geniuses of the alternative scene constantly rebooting the excellent standards of The Velvet Underground. the factory, Max's Kansas City the old welfare hotels and cbgb's.

[@chipstern1]

Hell's BLANK GENERATION with Robert Quine is an old fave of mine, but he just doesn't fit here--he is very scattershot in his approach, and not suitably focused, whereas Fred Smith as a bass player was/is gifted with the cloak of invisibility, his bass serving a foundational role, which doesn't mean you have to spend all night going Root-Fifth, but there is a certain discretion and sense of...not the lowest note, or the loudest note, or the most notes, BUT THAT ONE NOTE WHICH TIES EVERYTHING TOGETHER, Without Which None Of The Other Notes Make Any Damn Sense; and by Transmuting The Harmonies and Melodies Of the Guitars To The Rhythm, And Reinforcing The Foundational Force of the drums so that EVERYTHING In Turn DANCES AND SINGS and allows the drummer to engage the guitars in a free flowing conversxation without things getting all unhinged. So, a lot of times, the bassist who does the least, makes the greatest impact, again, not finding the most notes, but the most meaningful--discretion being the better part of valor.

[@JEFY1971]

I find this version too fast, prefer the official version's speed, the vocals are definitely better on this version, though, and yes this DEFINITELY sounds like the Velvet. Great find

[@TheSimbita]

thakns for the upload :)

[@deadheaders86]

Jonathan Richman wrote this.

[@cultvult]

Thanks Richard Lloyd! Question; Did Eno produce ANY of the early demos, or does what you posted go for all the work he supposedly did with you guys? Did the legend just get jumbled because he's a big name? And yea, one of the best debut album's a bands ever had! One of my top ten favorites of all time! Still so cool!

[@michaelk3078]

That's a good question because I know that Eno is often credited with Bowie's Berlin trilogy, but Bowie had the same producer (Tony Visconti) from his second album through Scary Monsters, then 4 throughout the 2000s.

[@krisscanlon4051]

I don't think Eno actually produce artist. I think he just did his thing in the studio with treatments and effects and really was just a sophisticated engineer arranger. He sets the stage for the group to flourish. He was overly obsessed with John Cale and his work with the Velvet Underground & his seminal work producing people. Eno was chasing and emulating Cale

[@bongisland2762]

@@krisscanlon4051 also... "producer' is a VERY amorphous term in music. EX: when P Diddy "produces" your album, that means he shows up months later, when all the songs are done... he smokes a blunt... listens... and says "track 5 should open the album, and you should ditch track 10".... and for that he gets a larger profit than the songwriters and creators!!!.

[@beat.spectral]

vive la difference !! ... AWEsome no matter how you slice it ... dat bass doh !! ... this a rehearsal, yo !!

[@florianvo4323]

Wow, 1974, und schon so weit ausgearbeitet. Alle Demos von Television aus der Zeit, die ich bislang kannte, waren lang nicht so gut. Spielt da auch noch Richard Hell mit? Müsste eigentlich..?

[@Reprodestruxion]

I hear it, sounds present enough

[@AndrewWatson401]

Appreciate bass being turned up high

[@bentrend]

Inferior to the final version, but at the same time packed with energy that the album never came close to. 4:50 onwards is the hardest I’ve ever heard them go. Rest in peace Tom Verlaine!

[@XxSTACKxX]

Didn’t even know he died. I think he had a KZbin channel and he definitely commented on some of their live recordings of songs they never recorded. Damn

[@joethelionjoethelion]

Do we know exactly what eno did here? To my ears I like this better than their self produced first album!

[@lostaglio6666]

is this hell on bass?

[@patricshaw]

this sounds like a muddy demo, anyone could hear the potential

[@Reprodestruxion]

I like this pared down version much more than Vrlaine's own business.it sounds cruder, with more balls than he thinks. The rambling soloing was going nowhere. This version has meat & potatoes

[@eoinryan3275]

Does Richard Hell play on this?

[@RubenFrankinproject]

Wait, what!? Brian Eno, cause who's Bryan Eno?!?!?!?!?!

[@sunburststratocaster]

love eno but honestly the production on the album was so much better. i don't know why. like verlaine said , the recording is more brittle than the album's production. much less guitar-centric

[@weemoxy2]

+aa357 to be fair, the playing has evolved somewhat by the time the album was recorded, as were the arrangements, the demos are charming in their own way though.

[@sunburststratocaster]

+weemoxy2 Yeah I can hear the difference in arrangement but the guitars are pretty low in the mix and they just, like he said, don't have any "resonance".

[@curly_wyn]

I think that’s good. Post-punk is supposed to be bass and rhythm driven. The final album sounds like The Rolling Stones. 😒

[@Reprodestruxion]

Verlaine went paranoid and thought Eno was filtering ideas off to Roxy Music.

[@pronoun_dilemma]

Not a patch on the original.

[@heinklug2655]

Those who write BRIAN (Eno) "BRYAN" probably have no BRAIN! 😂

[@woodybowen5362]

What’s with this Stones comparison? I love the Stones but other than the instruments used I see no similarity.

[@edwardharrington8904]

Stodgy sound-lacks the clarity of the final version- .

[@thekkdjalskjdlfkjalksd]

I think it's great to finally hear a legendary punk band actually sound like a punk band. By the time they recorded their debut, they had already all gotten on junk, kicked out Dick Hell (not on the LP, kids), fucked and gotten dumped by Patti Smith and/or the rock paparazintellegesia of NY at the time and gone around in general taking themselves WAY too seriously. Punk was nothing but a side article in the fucking Sunday Times by 78 and it's thrilling to get the real shit. Why can't I buy this?

[@PurpleTreeHerbs]

sounds like the start to Interpol Obs 1 kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXSYq3t3eN6hiJYsi=I84O4wK4uilFdEsr

[@lo3396]

tell ya what, if Tina Weymouth hadn't already start playing like Hell(Meyers,) then Eno certainly instructed her to start doing so. really hurts to hear how much this band was ripped off sometimes-

[@AlongtheFarClimbDown843]

سید محمد رضا

[@johndowling656]

This is a bootleg. Eno bailed out after one session

[@sirphineasluciusambercromb9114]

1974. Progressive punk.

[@user-qb3jg8ep9t]

This sounds just wrong

[@curly_wyn]

You’re just mad that the production doesn’t sound like The Rolling Stones like on the final album instead of like punk here like it’s supposed to.

[@stephanecanoen5263]

terrible

[@curly_wyn]

Awesome you mean.