adventure

Television found a more delicate expression of their textured improvisational art rock with this sublime speculation.  After the massive critical success of their groundbreaking debut 'Marquee Moon', the CBGB house band was ready to try something different.  'Adventure' was recorded at Soundmixers and Record Plant studios in New York with John Jansen and Tom Verlaine producing.  The sessions featured Tom Verlaine on lead vocals, guitar, and piano; Richard Lloyd on guitar and vocals; Fred Smith on bass and vocals; and Billy Ficca on drums.   The result is a more polished sound than 'Marquee Moon'.

Verlaine reveals:  "‘Foxhole’ has been in our repertoire for the last two years, but it didn't get on the first record. It's a dirty, violent number. The guitar solos were done in one take.  ‘Ain't That Nothing’ was written on the piano, a week before we went into the studio. It was originally about somebody specific I used to know, but now it's not. It was 12 minutes long, but we faded it early at 5½ ... I played piano as a kid. And the first thing I ever heard as a child was classical music. It may be true of any music that whatever they heard struck them as an ecstatic event because of the sound and the whole thing. I remember really being transformed by symphonies when I was 4 years old or so. I think any kid, if you put music on at that age, they're going to be riveted. Later on, I played saxophone a few years and got more into rock about '65, I think...I was aware that you could do other things. I'm really keen on staying between three to six chords. I really like the simplicity of rock and actually even folk music as well. But I'm also aware you can have a lot of fun improvising in that simple form and working spontaneously. That may set it apart from other rock music where they just can't improvise or don't want to improvise...I didn't think there was any punk and, in fact, I still don't. I think punk is slightly more aggressive bubblegum music. Structurally, musically speaking, it's pumping eighth notes, right? The punk style is totally ramped-up bubblegum, with perhaps a bit more of an angry lyric, but not always. Some so-called punk records were just as funny as bubblegum records."

Lloyd considers:    “That era was very important. In the beginning, nobody knew who did what. I used to be complimented for things that Tom did. They would compliment Tom for things that I did. Part of that was on purpose in the jigsaw puzzle, sort of clock-gear mechanism, but it’s over now...It’s not just simple ‘You rock me, you rock me all night long.’ There’s nothing wrong with good old-fashioned rock ‘n roll and blues and the other genres, but there’s something else, there’s a trascendental music that’s still rock ‘n roll...Television was that way; we were more like a sitar band than we were like ordinary guitars. We would dig and dig and dig and dig ’til we hit some fountain of living water, and people would stop breathing. And lately I’ve been getting some of those reactions, where people literally froth because of the experience of being there in front of this virtually impossible thing that happens ... 'Marquee Moon' consisted of songs we been doing live for years, whereas 'Adventure' was only half written, and knowing that Tom is diddling around for six months spending everyone’s money was a bit hard to bear. Tom can be a very difficult man to work with. While Television was still a band, it was already beginning to show signs of becoming Tom’s exploratorium, which is a horrible approach. Paying hundreds of dollars an hour and having no lyrics just plain sucks."

'Adventure' peregrinated to one hundred and thirty-three in the US and number seven in the UK.  The band would dissolve a year later.  







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'Foxhole'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKgyjw478B8



'Adventure'full album:




All tracks written by Tom Verlaine, except where indicated.

Side A
1. "Glory" 3:11
2. "Days" Verlaine, Richard Lloyd 3:14
3. "Foxhole" 4:48
4. "Careful" 3:18
5. "Carried Away" 5:14
Side B
1. "The Fire" 5:56
2. "Ain't That Nothin'" 4:52
3. "The Dream's Dream" 6:44








1. Ain't That Nothin'
2. Adventure
3. Glory
4. Days
5. Foxhole
6. Carried Away (a.k.a. The Vibrato Song)
7. Ain't That Nothin'
8. Careful
9. Glory
10. Carried Away
11. Up All Night (unreleased)
12. Grip of Love (later appeared on Tom's first solo album)
13. Last Night (a.k.a. Piano Song. This song ended up on Tom's 1st solo album)
14. The Dream's Dream
15. Glory
16. The Fire