See No Evil

A restaurant in Los Angeles 2006 - Some songs are more than just heard, they are physically felt. Every time I hear the opening riff to Television's "See No Evil" I can feel the song on a gut level. By the time the opening chords fade, the dual guitar attack of Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine kicks in and Tom began to sing I'm already keeping time under table.

"See No Evil" is the first song on Television's first record Marquee Moon an often referenced but infrequently played classic. Television is usually considered part of the 1970's New York punk scene but they have more in common with John Coltrane than they ever did with Johnny Thunders. Television is as close as rock has ever come to the kind of precision musicianship that makes for good jazz. The thing that separates Marquee Moon from it's contemporaries is just how clean it sounds. Unlike the most of the bands that played the mid to late 70's scene in New York there's no distortion or feedback. Marquee Moon is pure, no tricks, no effects just straightforward guitar bass and drums.

When an artist sets to create something there is a vision in their mind of what it will look, sound or feel like. In the movie The Horse's Mouth, Alec Guiness plays an painter who struggles to bring his vision to life. After finding the perfect place to create his masterpiece (which happens to be the apartment of a vacationing couple who is unaware of what he is doing) Guiness spends every waking minute bringing it to life only to admit in the end that he didn't get it right. It just isn't as good as he pictured it. Most musicians experience the same frustration only sometimes it's worse because the sound in someone's head is hard to translate through electronics. By committing music to tape the artist is trying to say that THIS is what they have heard in their mind, THIS is what I have been feeling in my body and living with. Sometimes, like in the movie, the finished product isn't what the artist intended. When you add in the input of producers, engineers and record companies it's a wonder that music comes out sounding anything like it is supposed to (see Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power, or in film Orsen Wells' - Touch of Evil).

The beauty of Marquee Moon is that it feels like nothing has been changed from the band's vision. Every note is crisp and clear and every instrument is balanced in the mix. It's as if the soundboard was plugged directly into the brain, it's virtuoso rock and roll and it kills me every time I hear it. Why can't more things sound this pure? Why can't I transfer thoughts from my head to the page with this much clarity?