Venus - Television

Venus - Television
3:49
Marquee Moon, 1977

Written by Tom Verlaine

Fred Smith, guitarist for Television, died a few days ago.  I could not have named the man before today, but he helped shape some of the most important and let's face it, downright cool music of the 1970s.  This brief but entrancing song pulls together everything great about rock of the era — surreal, image-driven lyrics and extraordinary, interlocking guitar lines — then filters it through the harder, cleaner lens of late-'70s production. Dreamlike, dislocated lyrics ("Broadway looked so medieval, it seemed to flap like little pages / And I fell sideways laughing with a friend from many stages") sit alongside an anecdote about "Ritchie" (Richard Hell) and the suggestion that they "dress up as cops."  That single detail grounds the song in an actual scene, even as the druggy imagery and spiraling guitars make it feel slightly out of this world. It's street-level and cosmic at once, which is exactly Television's sweet spot.  And in addition to all this, it's also a genuine pop song. Amid the bending riffs and nervous fire of Television's playing, there's a sense of structure and immediacy that gives the track lift. It manages to be a great rock song and a great pop song at the same time, without sanding down either quality.