Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Robert Quine

Hangover Hop (Live WFMU radio broadcast) 1992 Brian Redman, Me, Robert Quine.
Me, Jeremy Tepper, Quine, Hangover Hop 1992. photos by michael macioce
Since the old links don't work, I thought I should re-post this, since there's no other way to hear this music. These are the last recordings done by Robert Quine whom I've already posted on. Today is his birthday. He would have been 67. He was one of my closest friends and I miss him something awful. These recordings were done for the soundtrack to a film made by a neighbor of his. I've never seen the film and have no idea if it was ever released, or even what the title of it is. It was done in his home studio, he's playing all the instruments (guitars/bass and drum programs). You can get a good idea of what a tortured state of mind he was in in those final months. When these recordings were made it had been five months since his wife Alice Sherman Quine passed away. These recordings show that Quine was playing better than ever in his last days, and also that his style had changed a bit. He was no longer was using the whammy bar or even his trademark Stratocaster, having made the switch to the Telecaster a couple of years earlier. I think some of his best playing can be found on these tracks.
I have already posted on Quine, his life, and death and my friendship with him and have nothing to add to what I've already written. Here's the music:
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19 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 30, 2009 at 6:09 AM

    Thanks a lot for these lovely things... The last link appears to be broken, though.
    x

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  2. J.D. KingDecember 30, 2009 at 6:22 AM

    Thanks for reposting this stuff, Hound. It's fantastic.

    Quine was a visionary, on par with Sonny Sharrock, another guitar great who never got proper recognition.

    As I recall, you're not a Matthew Sweet fan, but I love the stuff Quine (and Richard Lloyd) recorded with Sweet, especially the album, "Girlfriend."

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  3. The HoundDecember 30, 2009 at 6:57 AM

    "The last link appears to be broken, though."

    Should be working now.....

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  4. michael macioceDecember 30, 2009 at 4:55 PM

    Excited to learn about your blog yesterday. Upon my first check in I see the photos I took at Brownies back then.
    Sorry you lost your friend Jim.

    -macioce

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  5. The HoundDecember 30, 2009 at 5:01 PM

    forgot to credit you, will add credits!

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  6. Lord AskibarDecember 31, 2009 at 6:16 PM

    Thank you so much for reposting!!

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  7. amyJanuary 1, 2010 at 7:58 AM

    Glad you put this up, I had missed your Quine post. One of the great moments of my life was him coming in to play on the Shams album.

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  8. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2010 at 9:57 AM

    Refering to your older Quine post, I remember seeing the Counterpoints back in the early 60's in the Akron Canton area. They were rather popular amongst the twist and frug crowd. Wonder if Quine was in the version I saw?

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  9. The HoundJanuary 2, 2010 at 9:00 AM

    "Wonder if Quine was in the version I saw?"

    If the bass player was refusing to do the dance steps it was Quine.....

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  10. roscoeJanuary 2, 2010 at 2:12 PM

    hats off to Quine

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  11. Along Came JonesJanuary 4, 2010 at 2:21 PM

    Whatever happened to the plan for a Robert Quine retrospective CD? Also, I heard he made great mix tapes for friends...wonder if it would be possible somewhere to see some of the lists of those mixes.

    Wish I had had the chance to bump into him at Subterranean or wherever...

    Thanks, Quine.

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  12. The HoundJanuary 4, 2010 at 2:58 PM

    " I heard he made great mix tapes for friends...wonder if it would be possible somewhere to see some of the lists of those mixes. "
    I have dozens of tapes Quine made for me, just need to get a working cassette deck again...
    "bump into him at Subterranean "
    home of the methadone spitback....

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  13. Barry_SJanuary 5, 2010 at 2:18 PM

    I was the other guitarist in Bruce's Farm, a band with Quine in the 60's in St. Louis. We kept in touch for over 30 yrs through Lou Reed, Matthew Sweet, Lloyd Cole, etc. Miss him terribly, but am gratified so many remember him. Wish that memorial CD would get made. Thanks, Hound.

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  14. The HoundJanuary 5, 2010 at 4:43 PM

    "I was the other guitarist in Bruce's Farm, a band with Quine in the 60's in St. Louis."

    Quine once told me about a band he had in St. Louis called the Garbage Venders, in which he played guitar and rack harmonica a la Jimmy Reed, he even had a photo, him and three black guys w/conks...did you ever see or hear of them?

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  15. planckzooJanuary 5, 2010 at 9:29 PM

    Thanks for posting this and also your excellent memories of Robert Quinne. One of my all time favorites.

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  16. ibJanuary 8, 2010 at 8:06 AM

    Late to the trough as usual, but...

    Thank you for your reminiscences on Quine, the film score, and your earlier post plotting his progression from Akron to NYC, via St. Louis.

    A couple of years back, Probe Is Turning On The People! provided an excellent selection of Quine's coveted vinyls from the 50's. Most of these I freely confess to never having heard previously, being way too young and geographically distanced from those minor label imprints. The first I heard Quine's playing was on those Void-Oids 45's released on Stiff in the UK, and eventually Sire.

    I remember thinking his beard hopelessly contrived and out of place, too. In retrospect, given Richard Hell's artful self-consciousness - to say nothing of his later cultivating a goatee in an attempt, one suspects, to get 'serious' - that seems wholly juvenile and absurd. Of course. The two most intriguing guitarists of that period were Quine and Verlaine. That much is inarguable.

    Anyway. Thanks.

    And thanks, too, for that pic of Joey Dallesandro beasting into Jane while Serge gets all artistic. What a woman. And what a great film.

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  17. The HoundJanuary 8, 2010 at 12:38 PM

    " The two most intriguing guitarists of that period were Quine and Verlaine."

    there's an old nyc guitar store joke that goes--wanna hear my tom verlaine impersonation? then the player plays a major scale for six minutes.....just thought I'd share that .....

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  18. ibJanuary 8, 2010 at 12:43 PM

    Ha! And here was me dishing it out hard to Alvin and Albert Lee in much the same fashion.

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  19. Barry_SJanuary 16, 2010 at 3:43 PM

    I think Quine was putting you on about the Garbage Vendors. We were pretty constant companions during the late 60s, and I can't imagine he wouldn't have told me about this. Can't explain the photo, though.

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