It’s hard to imagine a world without Marquee Moon. Despite it hailing from the same golden time of 1970s New York when CBGB’s doors were wide open, it had something else to say than its contemporaries. It is inexplicably different in its earnestness, double guitar hooks weaving back and forth as Tom Verlaine’s prose slowly starts to feel like a sacred prayer. “I woke up and it was yesterday.” It is a testament of youth, poetry and lower Manhattan, a truth that still lingers if you listen closely enough. Somehow, Verlaine managed to fit an entire world into fourty-five minutes – a world that, despite how overwhelming the real one can sometimes feel, remains as magical as it did the first time you heard it.

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In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Television’s Marquee Moon, Modern Girls brings you the original track-listing as viewed through Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays.

See No Evil, Television

Venus, Television

Friction, Television

Marquee Moon, Television

Elevation, Television

Guiding Light, Television

Prove It, Television

Torn Curtain, Television

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Words by Vanessa. Graphics by Megan. 

The Inflammatory Essays were created by Jenny Holzer between 1979 and 1982. 

Marquee Moon can be purchased on CD and vinyl via Amazon / it is also available for streaming