Television's "Adventure" lp: your opinion

(I just realized that the Guy in this thread and the Guy who wrote the letter to MOJO in 2001 that I reproduced are likely one and the same! Hello Guy!)

 

Hey Research Boy, you make it sound like I made that up!

I heard or read that account a few times, but I can't point to a source. I know there was a test pressing of Adventure for sale at Subterrannean Records, but I don't think it was a nine-song version of the album. Maybe I heard it from all the other Television-worshippers that hung out at the store.

Also, the layout of lyrics on the inner sleeve of the original LP has Side Two opening with Carried Away, two four-song sides of wildly-imbalanced duration. It really looks like the lyrics to Adventure were removed from the artwork layout at the last minute.

There are other disputed legends about the band. The way Marquee Moon starts-in again at the end and faded-out on the LP... later restored to it's conclusion at the end of the repeated verse. I think Billy Ficca says they were just launching into another take in the studio, that it wasn't the arrangement performed live. I honestly can't remember after all these years, but I don't think most live performances on bootleg tape finish with a repeat of the first verse.

 

According to Verlaine, he wanted "Marquee Moon" to have a circular, never ending quality, so he went with the fade. And I've got a boot from Portland where "M. Moon" goes back to the first verse and then ends. After 20 some odd minutes I guess that was the only way to go.

 

That Portland show was probably after the album came out so they might have changed the arrangement in '77.

Regarding Adventure... my recollection about the title track being dropped is that Verlaine talked about it in an interview. In [what I think was] the same interview I remember him saying he wished The Dream's Dream could have gone-on for a full LP side. I guess they didn't consider doing a double-album, but he was generally grousing about the limitations imposed by the vinyl LP and the effects of groove-cramming on fidelity.

When the Rhino remasters were being worked-on I know there was talk of a double-disc set at one point; a friend of a friend was involved in the project. I don't know if there are that many alternate takes or outtakes or if they were considering including the Waldorf radio broadcast as part of the package or what. But when I heard that rumor I was hoping we'd see an 18-minute take of The Dream's Dream. That never happened.

 

There are pretty decent recordings of both nights in circulation. I think the shows were taped by Jim Jones, but I could be wrong about that.

The band is in total control at those shows and I would have loved for them to make an album in the summer of '75. Marquee Moon was still just a "song" of 4-minutes or so; Kingdom Come and Breakin' In My Heart were the extended epics. No more than a few people in the crowd had ever heard them before and it's funny to hear the opening chords of Marquee Moon... it gets no audience reaction the way it always did in later years.

 

You and me both. And you're right about "Kingdom Come" and "Breakin...",
the latter was the first set closer (or second set opener) and "Kingdom Come" was usually the last song of the evening, sometimes stretching past the 10 minute mark.

 

Great album that had the misfortune of following one of the classic records ever released.

Verlaine's solo debut is great as well - "Breakin' in My Heart" is as good as anything he did.

 

You're probably right about Jim Jones, I think he was doing sound for RFTT.

I had never heard them before, but Pete Laughner was a friend of mine and he told me "You've gotta be there and hear this band!" Pete's taste was impeccable, so my friends and I headed to Cleve City from Akron and were totally blown away.

 

I just scored a NM promo copy and it sounds really, really great. I always liked this album, but the little added depth makes it come alive for me. I can't stop playing it.

 

I love the Adventure album, still have my original vinyl copy and Marquee Moon. I also like my rhino cds with bonus tracks.
I have a recommendation for Tom Verlaine fans, his solo album, Songs And Other Things -from 2006. Excellent album.

 

I love this as much as "Marquee Moon" myself & apparently so do quite a few other folks...including...the great Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo...

Baker's Dozen
All The Glitter: Ira Kaplan Of Yo La Tengo's Favourite Albums
April Clare Welsh , March 14th, 2013 07:01
Yo La Tengo’s frontman leads April Clare Welsh through a selection of his most played LPs

Television – Adventure
I think that as great as Marquee Moon is, I love Adventure just as much. There's that truism, that cliché, that you have your whole life to create your first record and a year to create your second one and Marquee Moon has obviously got that sort of perfect quality to it like they'd been planning it for ages. You hear it in their demos, working towards how great 'Venus' is going to be and how great 'Marquee Moon' is going to be; they had so many amazing songs in that period. You look at the cover of Marquee Moon and 'you're like, where's 'O Mi Amore', where's 'Adventure'?' and it comes to their second album and they still don't have these songs. All these great songs that they had in their repertoire aren't even on their second record. Marquee Moon is perfect but I don't think perfection is necessarily the be all and end all. There's something so beautiful and so human about Adventure. I do think the fact that it's not considered as good definitely made me gravitate towards it but I just love every song on that record as much as anything on Marquee Moon.

http://thequietus.com/articles/11644-yo-la-tengo-ira-kaplan-favourite-albums?page=10