Robert Quine with Richard Hell

Blank Generation was a short, sharp shock when it was released in 1977, but it wasn't until 1982 that a second album, Destiny Street, was released.  By that time, Ivan Julian and drummer Marc Bell had left.  Hell didn't have a lot of new songs.  Three of the album's ten tracks were covers (Dylan, Kinks, and Tommy Scott's "I Can Only Give You Everything"). 

After the basic tracks were recorded, Hell went MIA.  Quine later said, "We had a week and a half for me and Naux [aka the late Juan Maciel of China Shop] to do overdubs. I did backwards guitar, feedback guitar, speeded-up guitar. I got that out of my system for once and for all."  Hell hated the result.  For years, he tried to buy the master tapes so that he could remix the album.  He eventually found a tape of the basic tracks.  After Quine died, Hell invited Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Ivan Julian to record new solos over those tracks, and the result was released in 2009 as Destiny Street Repaired.

It received a mixed response. Some felt that Hell had repeated the sin committed by Lou Reed by burying Quine in the Repaired mix. (Hell responded, "His rhythm playing is there, but he hadn’t played his solos yet.")   Hell finally got the 24 track masters, and reworked them with the help of Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  in 2021, Destiny Street Remixed and the Destiny Street Demos were released.  

The title track "Destiny Street" is a song about meeting your younger self. Forty years after the recording sessions, Hell was able to present these songs from his younger self as he wanted them to be heard.  In a way, he also honored Quine by stripping back the excess overdubs. My own younger self had no problem with the sound of the original LP.  (Too much Quine?  No such thing!)  

Robert Quine was capable of restrained, lyrical playing when the song called for it -- not just unconventional atonal excess. (Quine's work on Tom Waits' "Downtown Train" is just one example.) Hell said, "He could just as well play a brilliant gorgeous, laid-back sweet passage or solo that had nothing to do with spectacle or shredding or anything like that."  

Richard Hell points to the demo version of "Time" (included in today's share): "It’s just gorgeous playing, and he could do it in this whole range of moods and styles. He was just absolutely tasteful in a way that encompasses Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, as well as Jimi Hendrix, or back to Jimmy Reed or Link Wray.” 

Today's share is a compilation of Hell and Quine from the two Voidoids albums, singles and demos, and Quine's appearance with Dim Stars.  In case you missed them, there are two other sets: Quine with Lou Reed and Quine Guest Spots.