1. John C. Link | October 18, 2009

I’ve had this for awhile now. I was first hipped to it before I had befriended the generous Mr. Lippincott (your host & benefactor here) on FB. I am SO grateful for this. It represents nothing less than the 2nd “lost” Television album.
The first one is all the pre-Marquee Moon official release material- whether you want to include Eno demos, or go back to the Richard Hell days; tracks like “U.F.O.” (thanks to Steve McAvoy for teaching me how to play that one)…in fact anything they played that didn’t end up on one of the first two albums- not to slight the great eponymous third album, it was just much later.
This is the album that never was. If Verlaine ever does release these tracks without Lloyd, then, in my book, he’s releasing a Tom Verlaine solo album that has been mis-listed as Television. Television without Richard Lloyd ISN’T. It’s The Tom Verlaine Band- albeit with a great rhythm section & maybe a great 2nd guitarist too, but it ain’t Television.
I forwarded this link to my old friend Leigh who caught many a Television gig featuring these very tracks. I left NYC in 2000. I’d hear about these shows from Leigh. I almost made a few of them. I only caught these guys once, in the early 90’s in Toronto on the tour for the third album.

There is no Box Set of lost material, & precious little documentation when compared to how amazing this band was. This compilation goes a long way towards correcting that by showing us what is, up to this point at least, the last incarnation of Television….let’s just hope it’s not the final last one…Blessings!