Come Let us Grieve The Death of Robert Quine

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=musicNews&storyID=5365826

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 7 June 2004 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 7 June 2004 22:59 (twenty-one years ago)

there's already a thread about this on ILX.

(x-post)

I really wish I knew somebody else in this town that wants to stay up drinking all night listening to every album we've got with him on it, re-reading all of his quotes from Please Kill Me, Transformer, Let It Blurt and the two Bangs comps, and thinking about how horrifying it is that someone this intelligent, kind, gifted and insightful could discover a world of pain at 61 so great that life was no longer worth living.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

ILM, I mean, not ILX.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

It is really sad. He was one of those people who was both "technically" interesting (well, i'm not a guitarist, but it seems like if you were a guitarist you could have fun picking apart his solos) and an extremely "entertaining" guitarist. As well as fierce and just plain mind-boggling at times. He always seemed to bring more intelligence and fire to a group or record that he was on.(thus, making the whole thing swing a hell of a lot harder than it would have without him)

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Rough guide, anyone?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, Robert Quine dying from a HEROIN OVERDOSE? He might as well have left a note saying Lester was wrong and Richard was right.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I still think it's just spooky enough that Quine and John McGeoch died in the same year, seeing as both had a weirdly parallel existence as journeyman guitarists in their particular country/'scene' as broadly defined who were also innovative geniuses.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't heard enough of his more obscure works (will soon, trust me) but Girlfriend, The Blue Mask and Blank Generation are obvious choices.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Well I do have Blank Generation at least, so on my stereo it goes.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:18 (twenty-one years ago)

There are a variety of Quine photos out there but this one with the Perfect Sound Forever interview is nice because it isn't him in sunglasses cool rock dude mode -- more human, all too human:

http://www.furious.com/perfect/graphics/quine.jpg

Interview here, from 1997. No hint of turmoil -- his wife was still alive, of course -- but perhaps this is all too telling:

PSF: Where do you think you are now with your music and your career?

I'm in situation where I've accomplished something. Half the time, I can't believe that people care about me. I know that I'm known on some level and I've influenced people. On the other hand, there's some brutal years financially, like now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Lyrics to "Oh," the last song (to my knowledge) that Hell and Quine recorded together, back in 2000:

So this is where it's got to
after so many tries
all the nights and crimes I spent and I fought to
bent and I fraught to
commit, and the highs

then I step outside and
Oh, the sun is breaking through the clouds
The sky is like the face of God
And all there is to say is

The day's not been all that bad
I did this and that
but somehow I feel restless and sad
messed up and had
face pressed to the mat

but I step outside and
Oh, the sun is breaking through the clouds
The sky is like the face of God
And all there is to say is

So we'll lie down in flowers
before we die
and stare up into all those raining towers
of ancient powers
inscribing the sky

inside our eyes and
Oh, the sun is breaking through the clouds
The sky is like the face of God
And all there is to say is Oh.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

fucking hell, ALL the Voidoid lyrics on Richard Hell's site are painful right now (not to mention all the songs that AREN'T on there).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Mr. Miccio wayyy OTFM. I was about to give my lil' speech now on how boggling a suicide at 61 can appear to my young, frazzled mind.

― Fr4ncis W4tlingt0n (Francis Watlington), Monday, 7 June 2004 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I just want to remind everyone that death is inevitable in everyone's life. if he didn't die now, he would have died later. dying now, he avoided a long painful process of having his body age and decay; he avoided constant medical treatment, memory loss, loss of bodily functions, and loss of mobility. and in death, i'm certain that to a far better place he goes. there's no need for feeling too much pain and anguish over this. sure we can and will feel a loss, but death is an eventuality for everyone. definitely some mourning is in order, but remember to remain positive. appreciate whatever the dead have done for the rest of us who are stuck here on earth, and be happy that they have touched our lives. cheers.

-a regular

― A regular user who doesn't want to use his real name (King Kobra), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

if he didn't die now, he would have died later.

However objectively true this is -- and it is -- is still cold comfort.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:12 (twenty-one years ago)

This isn't really about feeling bad for Quine. The guy's dead, he's cool, he's either NO MORE - Taking The Great Nap - or hanging out with his wife, Lester Bangs and old blues musicians in some bar in heaven. If anything, my feelings are just selfish fear. And he's earned me spending at least one night tackling the idea that you're not safe from pain until you're dead.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Tonight I blast the Voidoids, but tomorrow I'm blasting Bon Scott-era AC/DC, I promise.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

"Regular" OTM. Just about the only true power we have in this world is the power to decide when and where to check out. I've been listening to RQ today without any particular sadness and with a lot of respect and admiration for the body of work. When somebody dies and we mourn, we're feeling sorry for ourselves and not for the deceased.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

(xpost)

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel sad for Quine because he was in enough pain that he took his own life. I feel sorry for ANYONE in those circumstances, so I'd say Rock Hardy is at least partly wrong there.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Goddamn, and then I remember he played the solo on Matthew Sweet's "Someone To Pull The Trigger."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel sad for Quine because he was in enough pain that he took his own life.
-- Matos W.K. (michaelangelomato...), June 8th, 2004.

Seconded.

― Fr4ncis W4tlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 01:08 (twenty-one years ago)

If I'd known about Quine's pain while he was alive, I would have felt sorry for him then, followed by relief after it was over. My mother-in-law first started showing signs of Alzheimer's before my wife and I got married. Two weeks ago was our 19th anniversary, and she's still alive. This sort of colors my perceptions about how to feel before death and after death. But I see where you guys are coming from, and I definitely regret that Quine had to go through any miseries leading up to the end. I don't think we're necessarily on different pages here.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Goddamn, and then I remember he played the solo on Matthew Sweet's "Someone To Pull The Trigger."

Actually, I was wrong. Ivan Julian played (I knew from memory that it wasn't Richard Lloyd but forgot the other Voidoid even played on Altered Beast). He did play on "The Ugly Truth," "Devil With The Green Eyes," "Reaching Out," "What Do You Know?" on Altered Beast, great songs that are even more affecting now.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I should have known you more, Robert. Bye.

― Ally C (Ally C), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

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