Fred Smith, Bassist Who Left Blondie for Television, Dies at 77

Fred Smith, the bassist who left Blondie in April 1975 to join Tom Verlaine’s band Television and who supplied the melodic bass lines on the group’s landmark debut, "Marquee Moon," died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 77. The cause was cancer, his wife, Paula Cereghino, said.

Smith was the fourth and final member of Television’s classic lineup, anchoring the interplay between Verlaine, Richard Lloyd and drummer Billy Ficca. Television was often labeled an early punk band, but the group also drew on jazz improvisation and psychedelic effects; critics and peers credited Smith’s bass with grounding the band’s experiments.

"Marquee Moon" was greeted as a major statement and was later described by a New York critic as "a signature statement that would become a cornerstone of indie-rock." Born Fredrick Edward Lefkowitz on April 10, 1948, in Manhattan and raised in Forest Hills, Queens, he taught himself guitar and bass as a teenager and was already playing with members of the Ramones family before graduating high school in 1966.

United States, Manhattan

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