Several of the bands that came out of New York's CBGB scene managed to make it big. Blondie, Talking Heads Patti Smith and The Ramones moved on to long and successful careers. Television, IMHO, was one of the best of these bands. Their long term success was not to be. They were signed to Elektra during the first wave of signings from that scene They released two great albums, Marquee Moon and Adventure before breaking up.
Before they got signed, they released this indie single on Ork records (named for their manager, Terry Ork).
Televison - Little Johnny Jewel (Part One) b/w Little Johnny Jewel (Part 2)
Above all, Television was a guitar band. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd traded solos and licks. Their drum/bass combo kept things steady while the guitars swooped and soared. Their best tracks were the ones that had extended jams (not very punk, but it seemed to work within the confines of the genre). Little Johnny Jewel is one of these.
After the breakup, Tom Verlaine released a series of decent solo albums. His biggest break was having one of the tunes from his first solo album covered by David Bowie. To Kingdom Come was included on Bowie's Scary Monsters album. It pays to have fans in high places.
The rest of the band vanished into obscurity only to emerge for the one-off reunion in the 90's.
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