It's not always time for a strummed acoustic guitar and a pretty voice. Generally, I think, it's best to avoid such stuff. So, why then is this song (strummed 12-string and perspicuous voice) any different?
For many of us, when we fall in love, we convince ourselves that the love that came before was somehow less real, so that we can justify the current love as of a higher order, more meaningful.
"Soon there'll be another, to tell you I was just a lie."
Buckley captures (correct me if I'm wrong) a universal moment of recognition in a dying love relationship. That moment when we have to gather up and justify our feelings. Why has this been so important? Have I been as important to her as she has been to me? Does the fact that the feeling fades diminish or invalidate it?
We want the simply strummed, slightly phased guitar and crystal voice because we want to see through it to that moment in our life, when, still in love, we realized that we soon would not be, and feeling ridiculous, hoped that our feelings were not insignificant or impermanent. That maybe there was some way to hold on. [Buy]
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Chalk full of huge guitar talent, Television were like The Yardbirds of the CBGB’s scene.
Three things I love about this song:
1) The production - Everything Verlaine (Television’s frontman, guitarist and co-producer, as well as Arthur Rimbaud’s lover (?)) sings lingers just a moment and then evaporates into the heavy background (tightly distorted guitars, crisp drums, tubby bass).
2) The solo - It starts off like a quarter-speed Lou Reed subway solo and then turns lyrical. The band lays back, probably with nods of understated appreciation.
3) The length - Sure, I like a song that leaves you wanting more as much as the next guy. But "Marquee Moon" leaves you just as you don’t want any more, but before you’re bored. It has an indulgent length. The band knows they're on to something good and they don’t want to let it go. At one point the song stops and maybe the drummer gets up and the guitarists undo their straps, but then they look at each other, and they smile. The drummer sits down and starts playing. The guitars converse, the bass agrees.
I agree. [Buy]
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I’ve survived my first week. Barely. Sean clearly has a strong constitution and I am weak. But, fuck, it’s been fun. Any general comments? Words of advice?