Profile of Robert Quine on Famous Like Me

Robert Quine (December 30, 1942 - May 31, 2004), a native of Akron, Ohio, was a guitarist known for his innovative guitar solos. Quine worked with a wide range of impressive musicians, though he himself remained relatively unknown in comparison. His collaborators include Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Lou Reed (notably on The Blue Mask), Brian Eno (on Nervenet), John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Marc Ribot, Marianne Faithfull (Strange Weather), Tom Waits (Rain Dogs), the Patti Smith Group, Matthew Sweet, and many more, including a rare 7" by Lester Bangs.

After graduating from Earlham College in 1965, and then earning a law degree from Washington University in St.Louis, MO., he spent a number of years working towards a legal career before giving up on it, and he happened to be working in a movie memorabilia store in New York City with Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine. Later he was invited by Hell to join his new band The Voidoids, thus making punk history and beginning his musical career.

Noting Quine's influence is Marc Ribot, who has stated, "in terms of punk rock guitar soloing, he could definitely be called the inventor."

Quine continued recording into his 60s. Depressed after the death of his wife Alice in August 2003, Quine committed suicide by heroin overdose in his New York home on May 31, 2004.

Quine was a nephew of the philosopher W. V. Quine.

Lester Bangs once said of him:

"Someday Quine will be recognized for the pivotal figure that he is on his instrument — he is the first guitarist to take the breakthroughs of early Lou Reed and James Williamson and work through them to a new, individual vocabulary, driven into odd places by obsessive attention to On the Corner-era Miles Davis."

Quotes

"You gotta hear this new box I got, it creates the most offensive noise ..." (to Lester Bangs)

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