The Blog of Death

Robert Quine

Robert Quine, one of punk rock's most talented and daring lead guitarists, died in New York over the Memorial Day weekend. The police found a note and suspect suicide as the cause of death. Close friend and guitar maker Rick Kelly, who discovered Quine’s body, said the musician died of a heroin overdose. Quine was 61.

The Akron, Ohio native always had a passion for music. As a child, he learned to play both the piano and the guitar, but was discouraged by the lack of music instructors willing to teach rock 'n roll. So he spent many years honing his skills and performing for an audience of one.

Quine delved into jazz and the blues at Earlham College in Indiana then earned a law degree from Washington University Law School in St. Louis. Upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco to revel in the sounds of The Velvet Underground. Quine taped hours of concert recordings at the band's Matrix shows, and in 2001, released a three-CD box set of bootleg Velvet Underground songs.

The law degree helped Quine land a job writing tax law for Prentice Hall Publishing, but after arriving in New York in the early 1970s, he decided to break into the burgeoning music scene instead. Quine quit the publishing gig and started working at a film memorabilia store. At night, he played lead guitar with the punk rock group, Richard Hell and the Voidoids. The band recorded two albums ("Blank Generation" and "Destiny Street") and opened for the Clash in England before it disbanded.

Over the next two decades, Quine enjoyed a career as a sought-after session guitarist. He toured and recorded with Lou Reed and accompanied a wide range of musicians -- from Tom Waits and Marianne Faithfull to Matthew Sweet and Lloyd Cole. In 1991, he and drummer Fred Maher recorded "Basic," an instrumental album that showcased Quine's guitar work.

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