When Television first began working out their arrangements on the Bowery, electric guitar music took a sharp turn away from standard blues progressions. Richard Lloyd, whose disciplined fretwork formed the bedrock of that sound alongside Tom Verlaine, died on Saturday, November 7, at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was 75. Lloyd had been ill with cholangiocarcinoma, a form of bile duct cancer, and passed away with his wife, Sheila, and his dog, Willie Mays, by his side.
Lloyd had publicly shared his diagnosis earlier in the year. By August, as he continued medical treatment, Television stepped in to coordinate an online fundraiser aimed at helping him and his wife handle the financial strain. The band confirmed his death on social media with a short note of mourning, stating that they were deeply saddened by the loss and sending condolences to Sheila as well as his broader family and circle of friends. He leaves behind his wife and his son, Dylan.
Television got their start in 1973, when Lloyd teamed up with Verlaine, bassist Richard Hell, and drummer Billy Ficca. Born in Pittsburgh in 1951 and raised in New York, Lloyd proved to be an essential piece of the puzzle. The group soon earned a regular slot at CBGB, establishing an anchor point for the downtown Manhattan circuit that would subsequently host acts like Blondie, Ramones, and Talking Heads. After Hell left the lineup, bassist Fred Smith stepped in, and the band honed a crystalline, tightly constructed style that set them apart from their contemporaries.
That approach crystallized on their 1977 debut, Marquee Moon. While most rock records of the era kept rhythm and lead duties strictly separated, Lloyd and Verlaine treated their parts as independent, intertwined voices. Spiraling melodic figures wrapped around one another across the record, none more famously than on the title track, which ran past the ten-minute mark and helped outline the artistic boundaries of early post-punk. Television followed it with Adventure in 1978, but mounting internal strains pulled the original lineup apart before that year was through.
Lloyd moved quickly into independent work, releasing his solo debut, Alchemy, in 1979. Over the decades that followed, he issued several more solo records and earned a reputation as a keen studio player, lending his guitar work to sessions with artists including Matthew Sweet. Television eventually got back together in the early 1990s, recording a self-titled third LP that landed in 1992. Lloyd remained on stage and in the studio with the reformed group until his departure in 2007.
Tributes from fellow players underlined how much his peers valued his contribution. Johnny Marr, whose early writing in The Smiths showed a clear debt to Television, reflected on Lloyd via Instagram. Marr described him as an inspiration both with and without an instrument in hand, noting that it had been an honor to know him and a blessing to count himself among his fans. Singer and songwriter Lloyd Cole also weighed in on X, recalling seeing the band live just once and realizing that Lloyd was the player responsible for the driving riffs at the core of those tracks.
Lloyd is the third member of Television to pass away in recent times. Verlaine died in January 2023 at 73, and Smith died this past February at 77. Decades after those early downtown gigs, the structural clarity Lloyd brought to Television remains an enduring lesson in how rock instrumentation can be at once intricate and direct.
