Richard Lloyd Television guitarist — Richard Lloyd, the Television guitarist whose fluid, layered playing helped set the band apart from its punk contemporaries, died Saturday morning at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at age 75. His family said the cause was cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts; Lloyd had been diagnosed with the disease in March. His wife, Sheila, and his dog, Willie Mays, were with him, according to the family’s statement.
Though Television released only three studio albums, the first of them, 1977’s Marquee Moon, secured the group’s reputation. At a time when many punk acts relied on blunt force and speed, Lloyd and frontman Tom Verlaine built a shared language of interlocking riffs and melodic filigree, drawing on jazz, art-rock and extended improvisation. That partnership gave Television a sound that was both aggressive and ornate.
A partnership built on contrast
Lloyd was born in Pittsburgh on October 25, 1951, and grew up mostly in New York City. He started on drums but switched to guitar after what he later described as a hallucinatory experience in which the drums lost their color and a voice told him he needed a melodic instrument. One of his early guitar companions was Velvert Turner, a Brooklyn musician who was studying under Jimi Hendrix. Lloyd left high school, moved to Boston and played with John Lee Hooker, later spending time in Los Angeles before returning to New York.
Back in the city, his friend and manager Terry Ork brought him to a Verlaine performance. Lloyd recognized immediately that the two could complement each other. In a 2015 interview, he recalled thinking that Verlaine had something he lacked, and that he possessed qualities Verlaine needed. Lloyd described his own contribution as supplying the melodic detail over Verlaine’s singing and bringing what he called a rock-and-roll heart to the material.
Television’s first lineup also included bassist Richard Hell and drummer Billy Fica. Hell departed and was replaced by Fred Smith, who had been playing with Blondie. The band became a regular presence at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, released the single “Little Johnny Jewel” in 1975 and signed with Elektra, which issued Marquee Moon two years later. Adventure followed in 1978, and a self-titled album arrived in 1992.
Studio craft and a distinctive ear
Lloyd’s studio instincts left a clear mark on Marquee Moon. He argued against making a record that merely reproduced the band’s live sound, and he proposed doubling some of his most complex guitar parts. On “Venus,” he told Verlaine and co-producer Andy Johns that he could repeat his part exactly, and the result convinced them. Verlaine wanted the technique used throughout, but Lloyd chose where it served the songs, doubling or stacking parts selectively. On “Guiding Light,” he recorded eight guitar tracks, a decision he said accounted for the song’s density and power.
Commercial success did not follow the album’s critical standing, and a support slot for Peter Gabriel did little to broaden the audience. Television broke up soon after Adventure. Lloyd’s solo debut, Alchemy, arrived the following year to some positive notices but little commercial traction. His drug use worsened during this period; in his 2017 memoir, Everything Is Combustible, he wrote about repeated overdoses and a heroin addiction that made the early Eighties feel like a personal depression. He got sober in 1984 and released Field of Fire two years later.
Over the rest of his career, Lloyd issued seven more albums, among them the 1987 live record Real Time, a 2010 collection of unreleased material called Lodestones and his final solo album, 2018’s The Countdown. He toured, worked as a session musician with artists including Matthew Sweet and X’s John Doe, and taught guitar.
Lloyd took part in Television’s 1992 reunion and returned again in the early 2000s, but he left before a 2007 tour marking Marquee Moon’s 30th anniversary. He later said he was frustrated by the band’s reluctance to pursue new material, noting that eight songs had been written and demoed after the 1992 album but were unlikely to be finished because Verlaine had run out of lyrics. Verlaine died in 2023. Lloyd is survived by his wife, Sheila.
