| The Blow-Up | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 1982 | |||
| Recorded | 1978 | |||
| Venue | CBGB | |||
| Label | ROIR [1] | |||
| Television chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Blow-Up is a live album by the American band Television, released as The Blow Up on cassette in 1982. [2] [3] It was reissued in 1990 and again in 1999. [4] [5] The songs first appeared on a bootleg titled Arrow. [6]
Recorded at CBGB in 1978, the album was released four years after the band broke up. [7] [8] It contains covers of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Satisfaction". [9] ROIR allegedly acquired the recording from the fan who had bootlegged the band's shows; The Blow-Up's sound quality is typical of a bootlegged recording. [10] [11] [12] "Little Johnny Jewel" had previously only been issued as a single. [13]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [14] |
| Robert Christgau | B+ [15] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [16] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |  [7] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [12] |
| St. Petersburg Times | B [17] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 9/10 [13] |
Robert Christgau, who cowrote the liner notes, stated that, "as with so many ROIR cassettes (and commercial tapes in general), audio makes the difference between a laudable document and living history," and called the version of "Little Johnny Jewel" "definitive." [15] The New York Times praised the "lyrical, incendiary" renditions. [18]
AllMusic wrote that the album "comes awfully close to being an essential document, simply because the band's studio albums didn't always capture the rawness and spontaneity that fueled their on-stage improvisations." [14] In 1990, The Philadelphia Inquirer determined that The Blow-Up "captures the heady intensity of the best guitar band to come out of New York's late-'70s punk/new-wave scene." [19] The Vancouver Sun admired the "breathtaking dual guitar interplay." [20] Spin listed the 1999 reissue as one of the five best of the year, deeming "Little Johnny Jewel" "the height of love between man and E-string." [21]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Blow-Up" | |
| 2. | "See No Evil" | |
| 3. | "Prove It" | |
| 4. | "Elevation" | |
| 5. | "I Don't Care" | |
| 6. | "Venus de Milo" | |
| 7. | "Foxhole" | |
| 8. | "Ain't That Nothin'" | |
| 9. | "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" | |
| 10. | "Little Johnny Jewel" | |
| 11. | "Friction" | |
| 12. | "Marquee Moon" | |
| 13. | "Satisfaction" |
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