ROBERT QUINE, R.I.P......Just found out that ROBERT QUINE, guitarist for Richard Hell & The Voidoids and massive Velvet Underground enthusiast/archivist, passed away over Memorial Day weekend at the age of 61 (!). Heroin overdose, likely intentional – you’ll see at this link that it’s about as sad a story as it gets. I’m kind of lukewarm on the Voidoids in general, but it’s obvious that Quine was not only a great, radically inventive rock guitarist, he was an exceptionally good-hearted, stand-up guy as well. At least in every interview I ever saw, he took a real down-to-earth, scholarly but everyman-like approach to outsider rock and roll. I liked that he remained aggressively bearded and bald & wore rumpled suits on stage during the 1977 peak of punk rock anger & differentiation. That’s pretty balls-out. Sorry to hear of him shuffling off in such a downer of a way.

posted by Jay H. at 4:18 PM