Gee, I stop reading this forum for a week and look what happens -- someone asks a totally legit question about that great NYC band Television and no one responds! Yep Samantha, I sure do know Marquee Moon; it's one of the seminal albums of the punk era. Just as essential as anything by Patti Smith, Talking Heads, or the Ramones.
Television was a true "guitar band," featuring the double axes of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, and they veered towards that same, very white (that is, *not* blues-based) style that typifies the Edge's playing -- exclusively electric (not an acoustic guitar in sight), often minimalistic, earthy and lyrical at the same time.
I wouldn't naturally think of Tom Verlaine's very eccentric singing as being a big influence on Bono. In his case, I think the big influences are Johnny Lydon (when he was doing Public Image Ltd.) and of course Bowie, whose influence on Bono is enormous. But, you never know.
All the bands who grew up on punk knew Television. I actually had the chance to talk to Michael Stipe after an REM concert in '85 and I asked him what all those strange songs were that they played during their encore (I was just a teen and didn't know squat), and he said, "Oh, those are songs by this band called Televsion." I bought the album the next day.
