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Tom Verlaine

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Musician

The Resume

    (December 13, 1949-January 28, 2023)
    Born in Denville, New Jersey
    Birth name was Thomas Miller
    Vocalist and guitarist for Television
    Recorded the solo albums 'Tom Verlaine' (1979), 'Dreamtime' (1981), 'Words from the Front' (1982), 'Cover' (1984), 'Flash Light' (1987), 'The Wonder' (1990), 'Warm and Cool' (1992), and 'Words and Other Things' (2006)

Why he might be annoying:

    He took his last name from dissolute Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine and noted, 'In retrospect, it would have been better to have picked 'Johnson' or something since, thirty years later, folks still ask about it.'
    During early Television shows, he and Richard Hell got into screaming matches onstage.
    He originally played guitar on David Bowie's cover of his song 'Kingdom Come,' but Bowie was dissatisfied with the result and rerecorded it with Robert Fripp on guitar.
    He said, 'I like thinking of myself as invisible. I find it a very advantageous way to live. Unfortunately, it's not the way the music business works.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He dated and played with Patti Smith.
    'Rolling Stone' critic Rob Sheffield called him 'the greatest American guitarist not named Hendrix.'
    'New York Times' music critic Robert Palmer wrote, 'Tom Verlaine is the guitarist to mention these days if you're a young rocker with some pretense to intelligence and originality.'
    He noted about Television's album 'Marquee Moon,' 'It seems to get rediscovered by a new generation every ten years or so, which is kind of cool.'
    Bands citing him and Television as influences include REM, U2, Sonic Youth, Pere Ubu, Pavement, and Wilco.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 57 Votes: 64.91% Annoying