Television Marquee Moon 1977, Adventure 1978

My brother plays this game I call "If Golf". He discusses a good round with me, and he'll say, "If I hadn't three-putted those last two holes, I would have had an 82", or some such thing. I tease him about it, because of course that isn't what happened. I also recognize that it is the way he analyses his game performance, and one of several reasons that he is a better golfer than I am. What's that got to do with Television?

Television released Marquee Moon in 1977 to critical acclaim and disappointing sales (except in the UK, where it made it to #30 on the charts). The next year, they made Adventure, which was again well received critically, and again didn't sell. Then the band broke up for multiple reasons, only one being their lack of sales.

But "What If" Adventure had been the debut followed by the masterpiece of Marquee Moon? Would things have been different? Adventure is a good record, and would seem to be more accessible than Marquee Moon. It may have attracted more listeners with its easier to take, somewhat less challenging sound, while still being smart art punk just right for 1977. Then Marquee Moon would have been a bold, dramatic step forward and been successful. Then maybe Television would have had a career like Talking Heads or the Ramones, two bands they shared the CBGB stage with.

Probably the records weren't marketed enough, or correctly, and that's why they didn't sell. But Marquee Moon has become such a highly praised landmark of a record, and it is such a killer, it seems a shame that it went mostly ignored when it was released. 

"What if" you wished you could hear a record with similarities to Marquee Moon? Well you can. Just dance on down to the record store, or Bandcamp, or your streaming service, and check out Evolution Here We Come from 2022 by Chris Forsyth. The guitar interplay between Forsyth and Tom Malach is interestingly angular and similar to the fascinating work of Television. Not a clone, but not so far removed  either.