Punk icon Tom Verlaine dies at age 73

Founding member of Television and an innovative guitarist, Tom Verlaine has breathed his last at 73 in Manhattan.

According to The New York Times, the late popstar daughter, Paris Smith, confirmed the news, revealing the musician's cause of death was a "brief illness."

Critic Robert Palmer stated in “Rock & Roll: An Unruly History” (1995), “When the punk rebellion began taking shape in the mid-seventies, Television in particular carried on the [Velvet Underground’s] legacy of street-real lyrics and harmonic clang-and-drone, with appropriate nods to John Coltrane’s modal jazz and the Byrds’ resonating raga-rock from lead guitarist Tom Verlaine.”

“He was my guitar hero at a time when I needed one most,” Wynn said in a statement.

“I spent the entire year of 1981 practicing daily to Marquee Moon. Tom Verlaine’s soloing (and Richard Lloyd‘s as well, of course) showed me you could be a virtuoso and dangerous at the same time, more Coltrane or Ornette than the arena rockers of the day.

Part of rock band Television as frontman, they have bagged three UK Top 40 hit singles and were lauded for their albums Marquee Moon and Adventure.