Verlaine is known for his jagged guitar playing style that involves heavy vibrato and distortion as well as off-topic lyrics.
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Gus Stewart/Redferns
Verlaine is known for his jagged guitar playing style that involves heavy vibrato and distortion as well as off-topic lyrics.
Gus Stewart/Redferns
Tom Verlaine, the father of American punk and a fixture of the New York rock scene of the 1970s, died Saturday in Manhattan from a brief illness. He was 73.
His death was confirmed to NPR in a press release from Jesse Paris Smith, daughter of collaborator Verlaine. Patti Smithwho also dated the artist.
“I met Tom as a child, not long after my father passed away,” Jesse Paris Smith wrote in a statement to NPR. “In him, I feel the energy of a father, a man to hug, to laugh, to share naughty jokes with and wild imagination.”
Verlaine is best known as the singer and guitarist of the influential rock band Television. TV’s first two albums, Moon Marquee and Adventure, received a critical acclaim, if not a sales spike. These albums laid the groundwork for alternative rock music.
Verlaine is known for his jagged guitar playing style involving heavy vibrations and distortions and out-of-sync lyrics, such as “Life in the hive puckered up my night / A Kiss of Death, the Gravity of Life”. from the chorus of Moon Marqueemain song of.
In a musical career spanning five decades, Verlaine also achieved success as a solo artist. He’s collaborated with the likes of David Bowie and Sonic Youth.
Younger musicians admire him, such as Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate and Nels Cline of Wilco. On his last album, Canadian indie pop band Alvvays named a song after him.
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Thomas Miller was born in Denville, NJ, Verlaine grew up in Wilmington, Del. and developed an interest in music and poetry at an early age.
He adopted the stage name Tom Verlaine in honor of 19th-century French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine after moving to New York City in the late 1960s.
Verlaine has developed a large following throughout his career, but has never achieved mainstream status and stayed out of the limelight. “When asked how his own life should appear in a biography,” a 2006 New York Times The article said of the artist, “Mr Verlaine thought for a moment before uttering his favorite self-deprecating quote: ‘Struggling not to have a professional career.’ “
Patrick Derivaz, Verlaine engineer and longtime collaborator told NPR: “Playing, recording, and simply being friends with Tom for over 30 years and to the very end has been an amazing journey and a privilege. “.
“Tom and I have had a hilarious conversation spanning 42 years,” guitarist and TV member Jimmy Rip wrote in a statement to NPR. “He’s blindingly smart, insanely good at reading as well as incredibly silly! Stand 10 feet away on stage night after night and STILL trying to figure out how he did what he did! doing is a great honor [and] joy of my life.”
