Top 10 Musical Pseudonyms

6. Tom Verlaine (Television)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtZYdVNflsA Television are the only band that I€™ve ever heard being described as €˜proto-punk€™, €˜punk€™ and €˜post-punk€™. Maybe it was their sneer and demeanour that earned them the former two labels but conversely, perhaps it was their mix of complex guitar interplay and jazz-influenced tuneage that hinted at something more progressive and sustainable than the three chord formula and simplistic riffs of their contemporaries. Certainly, critics have always praised their technical proficiency and often recognise them as the most accomplished outfit to emerge from the mid/late-€˜70s CBGBs punk scene, an accreditation of which the band themselves were fully aware. This is reinforced by Tom Verlaine€™s dismissal of close friend, Richard Hell, from an early incarnation of the band due to supposedly inadequate bass playing, showcasing the ruthless streak of a man who would not let lacklustre musicianship hinder the quality of his band. Indeed, first-hand testimonies (check out the scathing Verlaine anecdotes in one-time Blondie bassist, Gary Valentine€™s, superb autobiography) regularly allude to the front man€™s pretensions, prejudices and cocksure belief in his band€™s rightful place alongside Patti Smith at the top of the New York punk hierarchy. It seems fitting then that the artist born Thomas Miller would select a nom de plume that paid homage to one of the most respected, precocious and lauded poets of the French tradition, Paul Verlaine. True to his namesake, Verlaine€™s lyrics contained a tortured poetic heart and employed abstract, rather than obvious, language, to convey the tensions and troubles of €˜70s America in an era where most bands favoured the real over the fantastical. The co-author of some of music€™s most revered albums, Verlaine€™s arrogance may not be to everyone€™s taste but if you€™d written an album as definitive as Marquee Moon, I€™m sure you€™d be shouting about it too!