Death of Tom Verlaine, one of the first popes of punk rock

He was the Sun King of

.

Without whom, the punk rock that emerged from the New York underground at the end of the 1970s would never have had its anthem.

Composer of the monster song and flagship album

, from the Television group, Tom Verlaine has died at the age of 73, his family announced on Saturday.

It was his daughter Jesse Paris Smith, born of his relationship with Patti Smith, another major figure in the music scene at the time, who made the announcement to the

, without specifying the cause of death, except that was the result of a

.

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Born Thomas Miller, he decided to make himself known under the name of Tom Verlaine, in homage to Paul, the French poet whose lyricism he will try to breathe into his texts, while playing the guitar in a way of his own. , both ethereal and aggressive.

With at the end a first major album:

, released in 1977.

The finest hours of punk-rock

Almost ten minutes long, the eponymous single alone illustrates the richness of a movement that has created many musical territories, from the Ramones to the Talking Heads, via Blondie.

All went to the same church to preach their word: CBGB's, a feverish club on New York's Lower East Side where the finest hours of punk rock were lived.

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Television has nonetheless enjoyed relative commercial success, although

figures very highly in various rankings, constantly updated, of major works, at

, the NME or

.

After two albums, the group dissolved and Verlaine released ten solos, while collaborating with many artists, such as David Bowie and Patti Smith.

The men of this early punk rock pope flocked to social media on Saturday, from Thurston Moore, ex-frontman of Sonic Youth, to Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai, two bands who owe him a lot.

So did The Edge, who says he was inspired by his guitar playing to shape the sound of U2.

The disappearance of Tom Verlaine adds to the deadly character of the month of January for the world of music, after those of Jeff Beck and David Crosby recently.