Premier Rock Forum

IMO these are the two greatest masterpieces from the NYC underground 70s punk era. Which do you choose? I'm going with Horses, but it's a tough choice for me.

Never got "Horses" at all; it's more "Horseshit" to me with rock-poetry and what sounds like the E street band trying to play 60s garage rock. "Marquee Moon" has a flawless A-side with some of the coolest guitar interplay in the history of rock. B-side never really resonated with me but it's still good; Television by a landslide...

Not a Television fan but I can appreciate the musicianship. Very high watermark for dual guitar playing, really expansive and pristine.

Dunno if the punk label has ever been helpful for them, now I hear it as a sophisticated, urbane art school take on the psych-hippy country(ish) sound (The Dead, Country Joe & the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service) with all the acid wrung out. Just no audience for it in 77.

Dislike Patti's music quite a bit. Always found it dull and smug.

Marquee Moon

M.H wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2023 7:30 am

Dunno if the punk label has ever been helpful for them, now I hear it as a sophisticated, urbane art school take on the psych-hippy country(ish) sound (The Dead, Country Joe & the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service) with all the acid wrung out. Just no audience for it in 77.

In terms of the guitars, I agree but I think the rhythm-section and-duh!-vocals puts it firnly in the "New wave"/(proto) punk category

jakethesnake wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2023 7:38 am

M.H wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2023 7:30 am

Dunno if the punk label has ever been helpful for them, now I hear it as a sophisticated, urbane art school take on the psych-hippy country(ish) sound (The Dead, Country Joe & the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service) with all the acid wrung out. Just no audience for it in 77.

In terms of the guitars, I agree but I think the rhythm-section and-duh!-vocals puts it firnly in the "New wave"/(proto) punk category

Yeah, I hear you.

Just altogether too ornate and country / folk inspired to sound like it was *new*. Similar vibe to Mission of Burma where you could see the prog beginnings showing. They never seemed as contemporary as their contemporaries.

Not that this is a musical issue.

I will agree that side two of Marquee Moon doesn't hit *quite* as hard as side one does. But I still love it. It's calmer, more polite, more pastoral

Also, Adventure has to be one of the most criminally underrated albums ever. I like it only slightly less than MM.

InMySoul77 wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2023 8:07 am I will agree that side two of Marquee Moon doesn't hit *quite* as hard as side one does. But I still love it. It's calmer, more polite, more pastoral

Also, Adventure has to be one of the most criminally underrated albums ever. I like it only slightly less than MM.

ADVENTURE is good but with 1-2 exceptions, it feels more like a collection of "strong b-sides" than the heavy hitters you hear on side 1 of Marquee Moon. I'm too young to have been there but I can understand why people found it disappointing, at least initially because its charms are more subtle. I think it's more of a "grower" and those albums always suffer in comparison...

Lenny Kaye is cool, but I don't care for Horses. Okay, "Gloria" is decent. MM is amazing and one of the best guitar records. It's funny how similar their guitars can be to Wishbone Ash.

MM is one of my all time favorite albums so I'll get that out of the way and vote for it. But come on, Horses is iconic. There's nothing like it. It might not be a MM, but it's remembered for a reason.

Also of note: Tom Verlaine and Patti Smith have almost the same delivery, cadence, range and weird twist of a NY accent. Like, they could take lead vocals on each other's songs and the effect would be similar.

I always come back to these NY acts to show how artistically liberating the punk scene was before it was codified. Get early Talking Heads in the party and it feels like rock and roll can express so many things no one has heard yet.

Marquee Moon for me. I think it’s great from start to finish, and I love Adventure too.

Never “got” Patti Smith. I’ll keep trying.