This morning I awoke to the sad news that Robert Quine had died over the weekend. He was the lead guitar player in Richard Hell and the Voidoids, a band who's influence on modern punk rock/ alternative music cannot not be overstated or denied.
Without the Voidoids influence (along with several other bands that never really got their due while still active - The Stooges, The MC5, Television, Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, etc.) modern music simply wouldn't exist as it does today. Directly or indirectly they influenced punk from Sonic Youth to the Pixies to Nirvana's more twisted non-radio songs. Those bands would and will influence scores more. Malcolm McClaren took the Voidoids look and the Dolls' hooks, added some political hooliganism and sold it back to the world as The Sex Pistols.
Quine's guitar sounded like a broken mirror ââ¬â thousands of glittering gems with jagged edges. He slid back and forth between beauty and dischord. If Miles Davis or John Coltrane had played guitar, it would have sounded like him.
Later he would play with Lou Reed, Matthew Sweet, Brian Eno and Tom Waites among others.
Drummer Marc Bell would later become Marky Ramone, guitarist Ivan Julian had previously played with The Foundations (Build Me Up Buttercup) and would later work with The Clash and Matthew Sweet. Richard Hell was and remains an enigma.
We lost a good one.
Cuz love comes in spurts,
in dangerous flirts,
and it murders your heartââ¬â
They didn't tell you that part.
"Love Comes In Spurts"
ââ¬âRichard Hell and the Voidoids
