Tom Verlaine, Founder of Influential Punk-Era Band Television, Dies at 73

Tom Verlaine, who redefined rock guitar in the punk era of the 1970s with his band Television, died Saturday in Manhattan. He was 73. Verlaine’s death was confirmed to the New York Times by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine’s peer and former partner Patti Smith. She shared that the musician had died “after a brief illness.” Staking out Hilly Kristal’s funky club CBGB on New York’s Bowery as its laboratory, Television advanced an expansive, ecstatic style that counterpoised Verlaine’s askew, chiming playing against fellow guitarist Richard Lloyd’s more conventionally bluesy yet equally lyrical work… read more >