Robert Quine : a personal meditation

[ikeaboy]

I have always enjoyed Robert Quine's sound, and what he plays.
I fall into the: "I need this or that trap".
Thinking about gear.
I picked a guitarist who's work I'll was consistantly glad to hear and looked into that musicians gear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Quine

Robert Quine
My friend Jody Harris turned me on to Peavey stuff in the late '70s. Incredibly inexpensive, they sounded great, and the solid-state stuff could take a LOT of abuse. Most importantly, using the master volume for good distortion was an actual possibility, compared to the Fenders at that time. The only amp I ever used on the three Lou Reed albums I was on was a Peavey Bandit, upgraded with an EV speaker. The Peavey Classics—they're great-sounding. I recorded with them a lot in the early '90s, especially the Classic 20.




http://elderly.com/fmic/items/FNASS-BLK-MPL.htm
http://www.guitar.com.au/effects/ibanez/ts808_files/ts808.jpg
The venerable Peavey Bandit $299.99 street price
http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/cat/64/item/116535/number/00583640/Bandit%26reg%3B112.cfm
http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/116535/Bandit(R)%20112.cfm (http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/116535/Bandit%28R%29%20112.cfm)

Analog Man Ibanez TS-9DX/808 Mods
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you canbuy the new/modded pedal direct

This I believe represents a modest set up at a great price.
so now that I've got Robert Quines simple set up... now what?
can I play like robert quine ?
obviously not.
I don't have his perspective or talent. What he was doing was clearly his style and sound , enough so that others paid him to deliver it to their projects and bands.

and with the same gear could I accomplish the same thing that Robert Quine accomplished : establish a clear style versatile enough to fit in to a variety of musical environments and sell that stylistic/technical product? Not Yet.

finally to come the the point :horse

I need to remember that when I start thinking about gear I need to start thinking about practicing and playing and stop playing "if only"


I am not neither endorsing nor advocating use of these products or suggesting you shop at these places.

[dorfmeister]

Thoughtful post.

Major Quine fan here, too.

[kovachian]

I discovered Quine when Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" album came out only to find out that Quine's resume went way farther back. He became one of my major influences back when I played guitar, but he's still an influence on me to this day.

Btw one of Robert's guitars (http://www.vintagesilvertones.com/forsale_epiphone_casino_quine.html) has been up for sale for some time now, I'm surprised no one has paid the reasonable $1600 for a piece of punk history.

[WahmBoomAh]

He was a one of a kind brilliant , funny, twisted gentleman (in the truest sense of the word) ...probably know more about jazz than any scholar I`ve met . He claimed to be too much of a hack to try to play it though .
His worth was much more than another bopper though .
We bonded when he defiantly asked me who the greatest jazz guitarist ever was.
He asked me in his "throw down the gauntlet" sneering lovable and innocent way.
I thought and said ...."well, on any given day I might give a different answer but I`m gonna have to say Jimmy Raney "
Little did I know that was his teacher and idol practically.
Well ...his reply was ... "Have we talked about this before? "
Nope. I said ...
He then said something hilarious that`s unfortunately unfit to print here.
We would then occasionally trade short chat at times after that (when he remembered me).
Unfortunately he spent much of his last days since the death of his wife in a stupor.
He would hang out (or hide) in the back of Rick Kelly`s and withdrew into such a deep depression that he decided to check out.
Really sad because I found him to be a fascinating and beautiful guy.
I never really did check out his playing much (on my to do list) ..but from the soul I encountered I`m sure it`s bad.

[Primakurtz]

Quine is one of my idols. I saw him play with Richard Hell, and his playing was transcendent. Really. Glad to hear about his gear - thank you

[dorfmeister]

I think some of the best work of his career is on Lou Reed's "The Blue Mask" which is probably my favorite Lou Reed album (not counting the Velvet Underground).

[dorfmeister]

Have you seen this page?

http://www.robertquine.com/gear.html

http://www.robertquine.com/chain.jpg

[doublee]

I usd to play in a band with his sister Caroline in Ohio a ways back....

[ikeaboy]

I really liked live in italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_in_Italy_(Lou_Reed_album)
the blue mask really kinda raised the "how wild and wooly" level, can uncle (lou) naughty get. that certainly raised the spike in the wall.

I saw Richard Hell and the Voidoids at a club (Berkeley Square) in Berkeley Ca. eons ago and the set was inspired and sloppy but Mr. Quine held his part of the deal together. I am very glad to see that Mr. Hell is alive and well and is with us today.

Another Cleveland band, Pere Ubu With the brilliant Allen Ravenstine had acouple of guitarists early on that really could work well together. some time when is do listen to early Pere Ubu it's like two guitars creating one HUGE single guitar part.

[Primakurtz]

Pere Ubu was so cool!! I want to find a synthesist like Ravenstine, and make gorgeous noise.

[bwc3000]

I was just listening to Dim Stars last night--Richard Hell with Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley, and Don Fleming. Quine plays on several of the tracks--amazing rhythm and lead parts. My favorite Voidoids track is the last one they did a few years before Quine's death, "Oh" on Hell's "Spurts" compilation. More classic interplay between Quine and Ivan Julian!
Another favorite of mine from those very early Pere Ubu singles is Peter Laughner. His playing in Rocket from the Tombs is also stunning.

[jcs]

i've got a mint copy of 'the blue mask' on vinyl, love that record too.

the only copy i have of 'live in italy' is a cassette, i need to dig it out and listen t it again, i remember it being very good though.

i know immediately it was robert when i first heard 'matthew sweet- girlfriend' a great record as well!

i never could get very good sounds out of peaveys but the bandits had there own thing and the later classics i agree are very good (especially for the money).

[kludge]

I really liked live in italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_in_Italy_(Lou_Reed_album)


I discovered Robert Quine when a roommate brought home a bootleg copy of the Live in Italy video. It was one of those earth-shaking moments for a nascent guitar player. I watched it over and over again. His tonal clarity and sense of melody, even in such a punk context with all that gain, was enlightening.

[seiko]

Possibly my favorite guitarist ever. Love how he could go from understated chords and fills to that crazy lead style. I got to check out his stuff at Carmine Guitars after they started sell it off.

He had multiple 52 RI teles, multiple deluxe reverb reissues, all kinds of pedals, everything from a really early Fuzz Factory to at least five DOD Buzzboxes, and lots of Deluxe Memoryman delays.

[WahmBoomAh]

Possibly my favorite guitarist ever. Love how he could go from understated chords and fills to that crazy lead style. I got to check out his stuff at Carmine Guitars after they started sell it off.

He had multiple 52 RI teles, multiple deluxe reverb reissues, all kinds of pedals, everything from a really early Fuzz Factory to at least five DOD Buzzboxes, and lots of Deluxe Memoryman delays.

and tons of great "out of print" picks ..I even got a bunch of picks with "Terminal Music" written on them

[mr tom]

A genius. I've never been able to track down his solo LP - or is there more than one? I would LOVE to hear it.....huge fan of his work with Voidoids, Reed, Sweet, Material, Dim Stars, and whatever else I'm forgetting.

[tim gueguen]

Hmmm, by solo album are you thinking of the ones he did with Jody Harris and Fred Maher? I have a cassette copy of Basic with Maher, which was apparently recorded in Quine's apartment on a four track. Funny that Maher was primarily a drummer, yet all the drums on the album are drum machine(an Oberheim DMX from the sound of it).

[mr tom]

Hmmm, by solo album are you thinking of the ones he did with Jody Harris and Fred Maher? I have a cassette copy of Basic with Maher, which was apparently recorded in Quine's apartment on a four track. Funny that Maher was primarily a drummer, yet all the drums on the album are drum machine(an Oberheim DMX from the sound of it).

Yes, that's right, Basic. How is it?

[KRosser]

Quine-heads will also appreciate this:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jbfwxqthldde

[teleharmonium]

Yes, that's right, Basic. How is it?

I haven't spun that one in years but I remember it being good.

[seiko]

I haven't spun that one in years but I remember it being good.

You can get a taste of Basic on youtube. Its very much of its time with the drum machines and such but its also anticipates some of the lo-fi and "post-rock" sounds that came after. Quine did it after he'd been working with Brian Eno.

The real rare one is "Escape" with Jody Harris. There's also a good radio retrospective here, really shows the scope of his work:

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/11514

[teleharmonium]

The real rare one is "Escape" with Jody Harris.

I think I like that one better than the other, but it's been a long time since I heard either. I have them on LP.

[Paul Conway]

Loved his playing. Miss it a lot.

[ikeaboy]

Quine-heads will also appreciate this:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jbfwxqthldde

thank you very much.