Death of Tom Verlaine, former leader of Television and figure of the punk-rock scene

Without him, the punk-rock that emerged from the New York underground at the end of the 70s would never have had its anthem. moon marqueeThe monstrous song and flagship album of the Television group, will have been as influential as its former leader Tom Verlaine, who died at the age of 73, his family announced this Saturday.

It was his daughter Jesse Paris Smith, born from his relationship with Patti Smith, another great figure on the music scene at the time, who made the announcement at the New York Timeswithout specifying the cause of death, except that it was due to a “brief illness”.

Born as Thomas Miller, he decided to make himself known under the name Tom Verlaine, in homage to Paul, the French poet whose lyricism he will try to infuse into his texts, while playing the guitar in his own way. ethereal and aggressive at the same time. With at the end a first great album: moon marqueepublished in 1977.

Witness of an era

Ten minutes long, the self-titled single alone illustrates the richness of a movement that has created many musical territories, from the Ramones to the Talking Heads to Blondie. They all went to the same church to preach their word: CBGB’s, a feverish club on the Lower East Side of New York where the best hours of punk-rock were lived.

Nevertheless, television enjoyed relative commercial success, although moon marquee occupies a very high place in the different classifications, constantly updated, of great works, in Rolling Stonethe NME Where Gallow. After two albums, the group disbanded and Verlaine released ten solos, while he collaborated with many artists, including David Bowie and Patti Smith.

His disappearance adds to the deadly nature of the month of January for the world of music, following those of Jeff Beck and David Crosby recently.

And tributes rain down on social networks, from Thurston Moore, former leader of Sonic Youth, to Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai, two groups that owe him a lot. So did The Edge, who says he was inspired by his guitar playing to shape the sound of U2.