Television - Double Exposure

This is two demo recording sessions from Television in 1974 & 1975. The bands highly acclaimed debut album 'Marquee Moon' was released in 1977 (Elektra Records) and was very successful in Europe however failed to enter the Billboard 200 in the USA.

Both sessions were included on the bootleg 'Double Exposure' which surfaced in Italy (No Label No. DE-92-SC), and was first released in 1992. The original bootleg included three live tracks from CBGB's in 1975, that are missing from this version.

The Television 1974 demos were recorded at Good Vibrations Studios in NYC with Richard Hell on bass, and produced by Brian Eno and Richard Williams of Island Records.

The August 1975 demos were recorded with Fred Smith on bass and were part of the session for Terry Ork of Ork Records which produced Television's first single "Little Johnny Jewel" (Ork, 1975, included on expanded re-issue of Marquee Moon).

It is fascinating listening to the early versions of these songs that eventually appeared on 'Marquee Moon'. Each session and versions are distinctly different the second having a 'harder edge' to them and closer to the final released editions.

Source: Studio Demos

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3@256 & 320kbps

Genre: Punk rock, post punk, new wave, art punk.

Set: Two studio sessions.

Track List:

1974 - Demo's

1. Prove It
2. Friction
3. Venus De Milo
4. Double Exposure
5. Marquee Moon

1975 Demo's

1. Hard On Love
2. Friction
3. Careful
4. Prove It
5. Fire Engine
6. Little Johnny Jewel (vinyl rip of Ork single)

Comments:

From wikipedia regarding the formation and early day's of Television.

Television's roots can be traced to the teenage friendship between Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine. The duo met at Sanford School in Hockessin, Delaware, from which they ran away. Later the two would move separately to New York in the early 1970s aspiring to be poets.

Their first group together was the Neon Boys, consisting of Verlaine on guitar and vocals, Hell on bass and vocals, and Billy Ficca on drums. The group lasted from late 1972 to early 1973. A posthumous 7-inch record featuring "That's All I Know (Right Now)" and "Love Comes in Spurts" was released in 1980.

In late 1973 the trio reformed, calling themselves Television and soon recruiting Richard Lloyd as a second guitarist. They persuaded CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal to give the band a regular gig at his club which had just opened on the Bowery in New York. Television was the first rock group to perform at the club, which was to become, along with Max's Kansas City, the center of the burgeoning punk scene. The members of Television reportedly constructed the first stage at CBGB's, where they quickly established a significant cult following.

Initially, songwriting was split almost evenly between Hell and Verlaine (with Lloyd being an infrequent contributor as well). However, friction began to develop as Verlaine, Lloyd and Ficca became increasingly confident and adept with both instruments and composition, while Hell remained defiantly untrained in his approach. Verlaine, feeling that Hell's frantic onstage demeanor was upstaging his songs, reportedly told him to "stop jumping around" and ultimately refused to play Hell's songs (such as "Blank Generation") in concert. This and probably the failure of a Brian Eno-produced demo to be picked up by Island Records led Hell to leave the group and take his songs with him, forming The Heartbreakers in 1975 with former members of the New York Dolls, and later forming Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Fred Smith, briefly of Blondie, replaced Hell as Television's bassist.

The 1974 demos were also released on two other bootlegs called Television with Bryan Eno and Fairland (Microphone Records (Italy) No. MPH CD 017 released 1994), which are of much lower quality than Double Exposure, being from a higher generation tape without the speed irregularities.

Reloaded - 29/May/2015 - download link in comments. 

Buy: Mp3's at Amazon.co.uk - Television