Marquee Moon is the debut studio album by American rock band Television, released on February 8, 1977, by Elektra Records. In the years leading up to the album, Television had become a prominent act in the New York music scene and generated interest from a number of record labels, eventually signing a record deal with Elektra. For Marquee Moon, Verlaine and fellow guitarist Richard Lloyd abandoned contemporary punk rock's power chords in favor of rock and jazz-inspired interplay, melodic lines, and counter-melodies. The resulting music is largely hook-driven with complex instrumental parts (particularly on longer tracks such as "Marquee Moon"), while evoking themes of adolescence, discovery, and transcendence through imagery in urban, pastoral, and nocturnal modes, including references to the geography of Lower Manhattan. Influenced by Bohemian and French poetry, Verlaine's lyrics also feature puns and double entendres intended to give the songs an impressionistic quality in describing his perception of an experience.