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Farewell to Tom Verlaine, for some of us the greatest American rock guitarist not named “Hendrix.” Verlaine, who died Saturday at 73, could hit cosmic heights that no other guitar virtuoso could reach. He made his bones in the 1970s with Television, the garage band who created a new kind of psychedelic sublime in the Cbgb punk scene. Television made two of the Seventies’ best guitar albums, Marquee Moon and Adventure, until they fell apart, just as they were hitting their musical peak. But the music Verlaine got out of his...

Tom Verlaine, frontman and guitarist for seminal NYC punk band Television, has died at 73.

The New York Times reported that the punk pioneer died Saturday in Manhattan. Jesse Paris Smith, daughter of Verlaine’s ex and frequent collaborator Patti Smith, told the outlet that Verlaine died “following a brief illness.”

Born Thomas Miller in Denville, New Jersey, he met Richard Meyers at a boarding school in Delaware, with the two moving to New York City and changing their names to Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, respectively, to form the band Neon Boys along with drummer Billy Ficca.

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That band didn’t last, but then reformed as Television, adding guitarist Richard Lloyd. Television quickly became the darlings of the budding NYC punk scene, gaining a following with performances at legendary clubs CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City.

Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Chris Stein, and many more artists have paid tribute to Tom Verlaine, the influential singer and guitarist for punk legends Television, who died following a “brief illness” at the age of 73.

Smith — Verlaine’s former partner and regular collaborator — posted a photograph of them together on Instagram. “This is a time when all seemed possible,” she captioned the Instagram post. “Farewell Tom, aloft the Omega.”

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“I have lost a hero,” Michael Stipe wrote,...

Tom Verlaine, the frontman of the band Television, which heavily influenced the New York punk rock scene in the 1970s, has died. He was 73.

The Hollywood Reporter learned on Saturday that the guitarist and songwriter died following a short illness in New York City, surrounded by close friends.

Born in New Jersey on Dec. 13, 1949, by the name of Thomas Miller, Verlaine grew up during most of his childhood in Wilmington, Delaware. Around five years after he moved to New York City in 1968, the musician founded the band Television in 1973 with Richard Hell, Billy Ficca and Richard Lloyd. Fred Smith was brought in after Hell departed the band two years later.

After eventually signing with Elektra Records, the band released its debut album, Marquee Moon, in early 1977. While the album got the attention of critics, it didn’t bode well for American audiences, but it did reach the charts in the U.

Tom Verlaine, singer and guitarist for punk legends Television who crafted the band’s 1977 masterpiece Marquee Moon, has died at the age of 73.

Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Patti Smith, confirmed Verlaine’s death following a “brief illness” to Rolling Stone on Saturday. “He died peacefully in New York City, surrounded by close friends. His vision and his imagination will be missed,” Smith wrote.

“This is a time when all seemed possible,” Patti Smith wrote in a tribute on Instagram, which included a photo of her and Verlaine. “Farewell Tom,...

Sometimes it's about trying something new, and sometimes it's about finding an old groove. When Matthew Sweet cut the 1991 album Girlfriend, he bundled his obsessions into tight, starry-eyed, dark-hearted songs that sounded forward-looking in spite of their debt to '60s pop. Much of the album's distinctive sound came from punk-era guitarists—Robert Quine and Television's Richard Lloyd—who dropped carefully implemented bits of chaos into songs brought to life by an assured band that included session ace Greg Leisz and drummer Ric Menck. Quine and Lloyd stuck around for two more almost-as-good albums, and Sweet never soared as high with subsequent lineups. Sunshine Lies reunites that team in part for the second time this decade. (Lloyd, Leisz, and Menck previously rejoined Sweet for the little-heard 2003 album Kimi Ga Suki—originally a Japan-only release—and Quine's 2004 death then made a full reunion impossible.) Sunshine Lies doesn't quite capture the old.