The 500 - #130 - Marquee Moon - Television

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album: #130
Album Title: Marquee Moon
Artist: Television
Genre: Art Punk, Rock, New Wave, Garage Rock
Recorded: A & R Recording Studios, New York City, New York
Released: February, 1977
My age at release: 11
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #107, rising 23 spots
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Marquee Moon

Back in January, 2019, when I committed to this long, winding blogging journey through Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, I did what any curious music lover would do: I skimmed through the entire list to see whether some of my personal favourites had earned a place, and I was especially eager to find out what cracked the Top 20.

As I made my way through the rankings, I felt a spark of excitement each time I spotted a beloved record. There was Rage Against the Machine’s explosive debut and Peter Gabriel’s visionary record, So. Then. I spotted Elton John’s lavish, autobiographical masterpiece, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, and the genre-bending, theatrical opulence of A Night At The Opera from Queen. So eager was I to work through the list that many of these future blog posts were mapped out in my head months in advance.

Album jackets for four of my favourite records on The 500 list.

However, just as thrilling were the albums I didn’t know -- the ones that were destined to become new obsessions. These included Look-Ka Py Py by The Meters, The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs, Manu Chao’s Próxima Estación: Esperanza, and Stankonia from OutKast. These four musical revelations, as well as many others, regularly earn a spot on my weekend playlists.

Album jackets for four, of many, new records I have discovered.

And then there was Marquee Moon, the debut album from Television, legends of the 1970s New York rock scene. Its reputation loomed large, and it had been sitting on my “I really should listen to this” list for years. Somehow, I let opportunities slip by. Last week, I seized the chance, and it delivered in spades. Marquee Moon not only lived up to its towering legacy; it reminded me exactly why I started this project in the first place.

Television are (l-r) Billy Ficca, Richard Lloyd, Tom Verlaine & Fred Smith

Back in 1973, two high school chums from Delaware, Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, landed in New York City with big dreams and a couple of guitars. Before Television, they were a proto-punk/garage rock band called The Neon Boys, featuring Verlaine on vocals and guitar, Hell on bass, and Billy Ficca pounding the drums.

Album jacket for a single's release by The Neon Boys.

In March, 1973, guitarist Richard Lloyd was added and with him came the name Television, which I've recently learned was a nifty pun on the phrase "tell a vision". The group played their first gig as Television at The Townhouse Theatre, an 88-seat venue in midtown Manhattan. By 1975, Hell was out of the group and Fred Smith replaced him on bass. The group had secured a residency at the famed Bowery dive bar, CBGB's where they performed multiple sets, several nights a week, sharing the stage with other rising acts (also on The 500 list) including Patti Smith (#44), Blondie (#140), The New York Dolls (#215) The Modern Lovers (#381).

On stage at CBGB's Club in the Bowery area of Manhattan.

It is difficult to summarize Television's sound. They are often dubbed a garage band or post punk act. However, those descriptions are limited.  Unlike the blunt-force punk sound that was exploding  around them, Television played with more precision, favouring clean tones, intricate interplay, and a touch of jazz cool. It has been described as 'punk in attitude, but not in sound'. Verlaine and Lloyd didn’t just play riffs, they wove musical phrases like a conversation. Instead of power chords and distortion, they used clean tones, intricate voicings, and melodic tension, creating something radically different.

Verlaine, Lloyd and Smith on stage creating their signature guitar sound.

Marquee Moon landed like a lightning strike and was applauded by critics and revered by musicians. It was eight tracks of angular beauty that rewrote the rules for what a guitar band could be. The ten-minute title track absolutely wowed me and I couldn't wait to share it with my wife on our weekend drive to the cottage. At a time when many bands were chasing speed and aggression on their guitars, Verlaine and Lloyd were exploring clarity and, like jazz musicians before them, the spaces in between the notes.

Album jacket for Television's second release, Adventure.

Television lasted for only one more year, disbanding over creative differences in 1978 following the release of their second record, Adventure. They reunited in 1991 for a third, self-titled release. This reconnection was short lived, but their influence and impact were already monumental. Legendary acts scattered across The 500 list cite Television as an influence including REM, Sonic Youth, The Strokes, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Pixies, U2, Wilco, Joy Division and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. In the end, they truly "told a vision", and the world perked up and listened. I sure did.

The 500 - #187 - So - Peter Gabriel

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #187
Album Title: So
Artist: Peter Gabriel

Genre: Art Rock, Progressive Pop, World Beat
Recorded: Ashcombe House, Swainswick, Somerset, U.K.; Power Station Studios, New York, U.S.A.

Released: May, 1986
My age at release: 20
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #297, dropping 110 places.
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Mercy Street

In the summer of 1980, shortly after moving to London, Ontario, I visited the local library on a quest to borrow records. I returned home with two under my arm, both from English solo artists -- David Bowie and Peter Gabriel. The first was Heroes, Bowie's twelfth studio release, and the other was the third, and most recent, record from Gabriel. Like Gabriel’s two previous albums, it was untitled. However, fans dubbed it Melt because of the picture on the jacket -- which depicts Gabriel with half his face distorted as if made of candle wax.

Melt album cover - the effect achieved by smearing
portrait pictures of Gabriel taken with a Polaroid SX-70 
instant camera as they developed.

The album contained the song Games Without Frontiers, released six months earlier and a Top Ten hit in the spring of 1980. However, it was the opening track, Intruder, that immediately captured my attention. The combination of a dark narrative about a home invasion coupled with this powerful, punch-to-the-chest drumbeat was captivating. I would later learn it was played by Gabriel's former Genesis bandmate, Phil Collins. It also marked origin of the gated-reverb sound -- an audio processing technique that would dominate the 80s (and is making a comeback in the 2020s).

The final track, Biko, was an anti-apartheid protest song about South African activist Steven Biko, who died while in police custody. Infused with Soweto-inspired rhythms and traditional mbube singing style, Biko introduced me to a wider world of music, as well as amplifying the impact protest songs can have on social change.

News article following the death of Steven Biko in police custody.

This was the beginning of a Peter Gabriel fandom that continues for me to this day. He is, without a doubt, my favourite solo artist and among my top five groups of all time. His first band, Genesis, had also massive commercial success after his 1975 departure.

The classic line-up of Genesis (1975), (l-r) Tony Banks, Phil Collins,
Mike Rutherford, Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel.

Deciding what to write about for this blog post was a challenge because of the many choices between what to include and what to leave out. Much like determining what to watch on television in the age of multiple streaming channels, I am somewhat paralyzed by the tyranny of choice. When promoting this record on social media earlier this week, I joked that I could write five different posts about Gabriel.  He was a  rare artist who not only entertained but  made me a more thoughtful, socially informed and kinder person. His body of work and socially conscious, humanist philosophy and fearless creative spirit influenced me toward better, kinder and braver choices in my teens and early-twenties.

Gabriel (right) on The Human Rights Now
Tour in 1988 with (l-r) Sting, Tracy Chapman
Bruce Springsteen and Youssou N'Dour.

I have seen Peter Gabriel perform six times in four cities and each concert was memorable.

In 1987, on my 22nd birthday, I saw him at the Canadian National Exhibit Stadium (CNE) in Toronto. Over a pre-show beer I chatted with an "old" guy (he was probably 35) wearing a vintage Genesis concert shirt who had seen Gabriel with Genesis at Massey Hall, also in Toronto, in 1973. In a time before the internet, the “geezer” provided a first-hand account of the group’s storied performances.

Peter Gabriel on the 1986-87 This Way Up Tour, supporting So.

In December, 2002, after a lengthy hiatus, Gabriel released the album Up and brought his tour to Toronto's Air Canada Centre for a spectacular show on a round stage in the middle of the arena. The event included a performance of the song Sky Blue with The Blind Boys of Alabama -- a gospel group with changing members who have been active since 1939.

Sky Blue performance. The Blind Boys of Alabama at the centre
or a round stage, surrounded by Gabriel and his band.

In July, 2003, he brought a stripped down version of the Growing Up Tour to my hometown of London, Ontario. I convinced 10 friends to join my wife and me, and we had a terrific night that began and ended (in the wee hours of the morning) at our downtown apartment.

A polaroid snapshot taken of my wife and me taken by our  friend Reeny
on the night of the London Gabriel concert - July 5, 2003.

In 2010, Gabriel released Scratch My Back. Accompanied by the New Blood Orchestra, Gabriel recorded versions of 12 of his favourite songs, including the aforementioned Heroes by David Bowie, which was a bit of a "full-circle moment" for me.

Scratch My Back album cover.

A few years later, many of the same artists whose songs Gabriel had covered contributed to an accompanying record, called And I'll Scratch Yours. It featured their interpretations of songs from Gabriel's catalogue. It was a wonderful collaboration with contributions from amazing groups and artists, including Manchester's Elbow, Montreal's Arcade Fire, and New York's The Magnetic Fields.

And I'll Scratch Yours album cover.

The project culminated with a three-year, 44-city world tour by Gabriel and a 54-piece New Blood orchestra.  As a surprise for my wife, we travelled to New York City to see it at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in May, 2010.

A photo I snapped outside Radio City Music Hall prior to 
the New Blood Orchestra concert with Peter Gabriel.

I purchased the tickets through StubHub, an online ticket resale broker. They cost a pretty penny (about double the $130 U.S. face value) but secured us seats in the front row of the lowest balcony for a perfect view of the stage.

My concert ticket from the Radio City Music Hall performance
by Peter Gabriel and the New Blood Orchestra.

In September, 2023, Gabriel embarked on the North American leg of his most recent tour to promote his upcoming record I/O (initials for Input/Output). The Toronto show was on a weeknight, but we caught his Saturday night show in Ottawa which gave us the opportunity of making a weekend of it with my dad who lives in nearby Manotick.

Gabriel worked, for the second time, with Canadian stage director Robert LePage and each song was built around projected set pieces that celebrated visual artists. It was stunning and, as my wife commented on the drive home, "it had a level of sophisticated maturity that few artists would dare to attempt".

Indeed it had. Gabriel, now in his early 70s, was inviting us to connect with the fragile beauty and, sometimes, terrifying perils of life that have been an artistic preoccupation of his for more than 50 years.

A shot from the Ottawa performance of Gabriel's September 9th show from our
seats at the back of the Canadian Tire Centre.

It was on that drive home that it struck me. Peter Gabriel and his music have been part of my life for more than 40 years. He “melted” into my attitudes, memories, emotions and experiences throughout my teens, 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. I have seen him perform in five consecutive decades. He was 37 at that CNE concert in 1987 and 73 when we last shared a common space in Ottawa.

When I hear his music, I still feel the same excitement I had when listening to the Melt record in my bedroom at 14 years of age. He continues to make me think, reflect and want to be a better person.

You may have noticed that I said I saw Gabriel six times and I've only shared memories of five shows. There is one more concert I have not mentioned. In 1993, I saw The Secret World Tour at Toronto's Skydome (now Rogers Centre). I’ve decided to make that a separate post for publication later this week. It's one of my favourite concert stories of all time. Thanks for that indulgence.

The 500 - #202 - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme - Simon and Garfunkel

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #202
Album Title: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel

Genre: Folk Rock
Recorded: Columbia Studios, New York, U.S.A.

Released: October, 1966
My age at release: 1
How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: A Simple Desultory Philippic

There is a quote, often ascribed to Vladimir Lenin, which says: "There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen." During our summer of 2024, this seems powerfully applicable. We live in a time charged with international tension, wars, assassination attempts, consequential worldwide election campaigns, a humanitarian crisis, racial and cultural hostility, and environmental disasters.

1966 had its own upheavals. It, too, was time of global strife, with events that, in some ways, are eerily similar to the summer of 2024.

• Political protests against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War were raging on college campuses.
• The Mississippi Marches sought an end to segregation and advancements in civil rights, while the Watts Rebellions protested racist police actions in Los Angeles.
• Military coup d états rocked Indonesia, Syria, Burundi, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Ghana.
• Cold War Russian/U.S. tensions moved into the heavens. The Soviets blasted two Kosmos spacecraft into orbit, while the U.S. launched the Gemini program. The race for space supremacy was on in earnest.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin takes the first "selfie" from space (1966)

• A U.S. submarine lost (and then found) a hydrogen bomb on the ocean floor.
• Mao Zedong introduced China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to his people and abortion and gun-rights took centre stage in the election of Ronald Regan as Governor of California. (Spoiler: the Republican former actor wasn’t on the side you might think...for either issue.)
• Natural disasters, including earthquakes, tornadoes, record cold spells and snowstorms claimed thousands of lives.
• However, it was an avoidable, man-made tragedy that made headlines in Aberfan, Wales. On October 21, 116 children and 28 adults died when a coal waste heap slid and engulfed a primary school.

Aftermath of the coal waste slide in Aberfan in southern Wales.

Throughout this tumultuous period, arts and entertainment thrived -- perhaps fueled by chaos, acrimony and uncertainty of the times. Twelve records on The 500, including three in the Top 10, were released in 1966. An additional 19 records on the list were recorded that year and released in 1967, among them, The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which landed at #1.

Then, there was album #202, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, the third studio release from folk rock musicians Simon and Garfunkel. It was the second of three records by the New York duo to appear on the list, although Simon has an additional two as a solo artist. I shared a little about their history, as well as a story about my late "aunt" Jean in a December, 2023, post centered on their fourth record, Bookends.

Album cover for Bookends (1968).

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme includes several songs that were "recycled" from Simon's debut solo record, The Paul Simon Songbook, written during his time in England. PSR&T is considered a breakthrough record for the pair and many critics identify it one of their best. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts but eventually sold more than three million in the United States, which gave it triple platinum status.

Album cover for The Paul Simon Songbook (1965).

I was familiar with several songs from the record; however, prior to this week, I had never listened to it in its entirety. The song that struck me has a title that is a mouthful: A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission). Originally recorded on the aforementioned Simon Songbook, the tune was penned as a playful parody of American musician Bob Dylan's 1965 protest song Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Single for A Simple Desultory Philippic.

In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Simon admits he was exploring Dylan's style, saying:

"One of my deficiencies is (that) my voice sounds sincere. I've tried to sound ironic. I don't. I can't. With Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. He's telling you the truth and making fun at the same time."

With a playing length of fewer than two and a half minutes, this lyrically dense parody packs a lot of references into its three verses and six line bridge. Simon name-checks numerous contemporary politicians and artists, including Norman Mailer, The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Ayn Rand, Andy Warhol, Lou Adler, Lenny Bruce, and even his singing partner, Art Garfunkel.

Simon (rear) and Garfunkel in New York (1966).

When asked about the title in an interview, Simon offered the following:

"I was having fun. I thought it would be funny to use those unusual words 'desultory' and 'philippic,' in a song title, and I also wanted to sneak in some Lenny Bruce, who was my favorite comedian. That line, 'How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission,' is pure Lenny."

To be desultory is to be laid back or indifferent, while a philippic is a bitter, verbal attack. It's derived from a speech Greek Statesman Demosthenes delivered in opposition to the military ambitions of Philip II, King of Macedon, in 351 B.C. Heady stuff to be sure, but all presented with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Simon's clever and reference-dense lyrical satire got the educator in me thinking. I have, in the past, invited students to rewrite or parody lyrics to songs that lend themselves to that challenge -- swapping out more contemporary or personal events for a stanza in Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire, for example.

Billy Joel's 1989 song, We Didn't Start The Fire, is a fast paced list
of 119 significant cultural events from 1949 (his birth year) to 1989.

Just last year, several clever groups of Grade 7 students rewrote and performed two stanzas from The Breaks, from Kurtis Blow. The 1979 hip-hop hit, the first of the "rap" genre, features four line stanzas that follow a predictable AABB rhyming scheme. In each, Blow comically describes unfortunate situations that people encounter in life and have to deal with because, "That's the breaks."

Album cover for the single, The Breaks, Kurtis Blow (1979)

The activity, which can be viewed in its entirety here, offered students the chance to rewrite the track by humourously infusing contemporary problems. I even created a Karaoke-style track that the most courageous could use to perform their rap, while classmates supported them with the "That's the Breaks / That's the Breaks" call and response.

\My example (which I absolutely rapped for the wide-eyed class) is below.

So, after hearing Simon's lyrics for A Simple Desultory Philippic, I wondered if I could update it and infuse personal political and pop culture perspectives. 

The challenge I gave myself was to try to match Simon's overall construction and rhyme scheme, while swapping out his '60s references with my own ('80s-Present). I tried to stick to his meter, but that proved too challenging. If you are interested in seeing the original lyrics and then reading my parody of Simon's parody of a Dylan song, check it out here. I am not sure if this has "middle school lesson potential" yet -- but, we'll see.

This post and that small creative exercise were a pleasant respite from the chaos of the summer of 2024 which, sadly, beckons my return to reality. That's the breaks!  Thanks for reading.

The 500 - #266 - Child Is Father To The Man - Blood, Sweat & Tears

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #266

Album Title: Child Is Father To The Man

Artist: Blood, Sweat & Tears

Genre: Jazz Rock

Recorded: November - December, 1967

Released: February, 1968

My age at release: 2

How familiar was I with it before this week: Not At All

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: I'll Love You More Than You Will Ever Know

I'll admit that as a kid flipping through albums in the record department of the Leamington Mall I would get jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears confused with Earth, Wind & Fire, a progressive soul and funk group. I suppose I was recognizing patterns and two groups with three-part names that included a comma and an ampersand.

I was right about the fact that both groups were large ensembles with a brass section. However, had I flipped over one of the records to look at the pictures on the back, I would have realized that the members of Earth, Wind & Fire were all African-American and that the musicians in Blood, Sweat & Tears were all Caucasian.

Earth, Wind & Fire (left), Blood, Sweat & Tears (right)

When I got a little older and began to build my knowledge of music, the distinction became clear: I was never a big fan of Blood, Sweat & Tears, but I knew their hits -- Spinning Wheel, You Make Me So Very Happy and, my favourite, Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll), the cover of a song written by Carole King.

Child Is Father To The Man was the debut record from Blood, Sweat & Tears, which formed in New York City in 1967,  inspired by the brass-rock sound of another American band, The Buckinghams, who had five top-20 hits in the mid-60s including a number one, Kind Of A Drag.

Initially, B, S & T was a four-piece which played regularly at the Village Theatre (later Filmore East) in the Lower East neighbourhood of Manhattan. The members were Al Kooper (vocals, keyboards), Bobby Colomby (drums), Steve Katz (guitars) and Jim Fielder (bass). Originally built in 1926, the venue was located on a section of 2nd Street known as the "Yiddish Theatre District" or "Jewish Rialta". Kooper, Colomby and Katz, born and raised in  Jewish households in Manhattan and Brooklyn, grew up with the theatre as a significant part of their lives. Fielder was born in Texas and raised in California. He enjoyed  success with Tim Buckley, Frank Zappa and Buffalo Springfield before moving to New York City in 1966.

B, S & T expanded to an octet in the summer of 1967, adding saxophonist and pianist Fred Lipsius as well as brass players Dick Halligan, Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss. There are two stories circulating about the naming of the group. Kooper says he named them after a jam at the Cafe au Go-Go when he cut his hand on his keyboard and it was covered in blood by the end of the show. Colomby disagrees, saying Kooper got the idea either from a 1963 Johnny Cash record of the same name, or a phrase from Winston Churchill's speech to the U.K. Parliament in 1940 when his actual words were "blood, toil, tears and sweat".

Despite helping to create and name the group, Kooper  was only with them for this first record. Due to artistic differences, he left in April, 1968. Canadian David Clayton-Thomas moved in with trombonist Jerry Hyman. The musical chairs allowed the resident trombonist, Halligan, to move to keyboard. The nine-piece configuration proved the most successfu,l their second, self-titled record winning the Grammy Award for Record Of The Year in 1970.

Given the success of their second record, their self-titled album Blood, Sweat & Tears, with its three Top Ten hits and quadruple platinum certification in the United States, it is surprising it didn’t make The 500. However, their first title, Child Is The Father To Man, barely sold 40,000 units by 1970 and yet found its way onto the list despite an average review from Rolling Stone Magazine in 1968.

Bobby Colmby (mid-70s)

Fortunately, the guest on this week's episode of The 500 podcast was founding member and drummer Bobby Colomby. Podcast host Josh Adam Meyers posed the question to him – Why was this record selected for The 500 list when your second record won a Grammy?  Colomby’s answer was simple: "It's Rolling Stone (Magazine), who knows?"

That's the thing about this list that I am dutifully working through weekly. It was compiled based on the weighted votes of 273 rock musicians, critics and industry figures. For some reason, Child Is The Father To Man garnered enough votes to put it near the middle of this list. So, Colomby is right, "who knows" why? Personally, I agreed with the 1968 assessment. I'll Love You More Than You Will Ever Know and Somethin’ Goin' On are really good and the rest of the album is enjoyable. This is a record that will find its way into my listening rotation for many years to come.

B, S & T at The Filmore East

I'll also look forward to the upcoming release of a new documentary about the band. Titled, What The Hell Happened To Blood, Sweat & Tears, it documents an ill advised trip to Yugoslovia, Romania & Poland that was sponsored by the U.S. government.