(SOUNDBITE OF TELEVISION SONG, “VENUS”)
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Richard Lloyd, one of the legendary dueling guitarists of the band, Television, has died at age 75.
(SOUNDBITE OF TELEVISION SONG, “VENUS”)
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The band got its start in the gritty downtown music scene of 1970’s New York, at the same club that later helped launch Blondie, the Talking Heads and the Ramones.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RICHARD LLOYD: We’re the band that needed a place to play, so we found a dump on the Bowery called CBGB’s.
DETROW: As Lloyd recalled in a video for Guitar World, the group didn’t quite fit into the musical genres the club’s founder, Hilly Kristal, had in mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LLOYD: We’re the band that convinced Hilly to have music other than what his initials stood for, CBGB’s, which stood for country blues and blue grass and other music for undernourished gormandizers.
(SOUNDBITE OF TELEVISION SONG, “MARQUEE MOON”)
LENNY KAYE: They made experimentalism accessible. When you listen to, especially the first Television album, you hear a band that is writing very strange songs with a pop aura.
PFEIFFER: Lenny Kaye, the longtime guitarist for Patti Smith, says he and Lloyd bonded over the guitar.
KAYE: We were guitar brothers. We would have this thing at CBGB, where – ’cause the Patti Smith Group and Television shared bills for about seven weeks in early 1975, and we’d go next door to the Bowery Palace Hotel (ph) entrance, which was a flophouse, essentially, and we’d share a joint and talk about guitar tips.
PFEIFFER: Lloyd had an impressive command of music theory and also a specialized workout, as he told WNYU in 1986.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LLOYD: I do calisthenics for my forearm…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Right.
LLOYD: …You know?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Really? You’re fretting arm, or…
LLOYD: I, like, have this rubber doughnut that I’ve been squeezing…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Laughter).
LLOYD: …to, like, you know, strengthen my grip.
DETROW: After Television broke up in 1978, Richard Lloyd went on to record nine solo albums, including his debut, “Alchemy,” in 1979.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MISTY EYES”)
LLOYD: (Singing) Misty eyes, don’t you recognize me?
DETROW: One of Lloyd’s musical collaborators, James Mastro, remembered him this way on Instagram. There were many Richards to know – guitarist, songwriter, scientist, teacher, curmudgeon, comedian. I love them all and will miss each one of them.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MISTY EYES”)
LLOYD: (Singing) I’ve got a vague, vague, vague recollection from somewhere in the distant past. We were playing, just playing in the backyard. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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