It's amazing that his name is relatively obscure when you consider who this man worked with. A guitarist with a unique almost avant garde style, he produced exactly the right sound when adapting to different genres and individuals. Richard Hell owes much of the biting punk edge of his first album to his playing.
The steel like chords of Hell's 'Blank Generation' single (see post) caught the mood of the time perfectly and produced a sound unlike any other in rock, possibly still unmatched today.
Richard Hell.. "His command of technique came from endless hours of studying the records that moved him—but it was the combination of rage and delicacy, and the pure monstrosity of invention, that set him apart".
He later session-ed on albums with Lou Reed as well as live for some years, Brian Eno (on Nerve Net, see post), John Zorn, Marianne Faithfull, Lloyd Cole, Tom Waits (Rain Dogs). Quine created a stark modernism to the song that particularly suited these artists.
The fact that he never liked touring suggests he didn't want to be far from his home for any length of time and probably also explains the lack of recognition.
Depressed after the unexpected death of his wife Alice in August 2003, he committed suicide by heroin overdose in his New York home on May 31, 2004. The two had been together since the seventies and it seemed that now life for Robert was no longer worth living.
Here's the classic instrumental "Cheyenne" from Japanese drummer Ikue Mori's album "Painted Desert". With Marc Ribot and Robert Quine on guitar. The 1909 composed tune 'Cheyenne' became a standard underscore in many early western films, over used to the point of it becoming a cliche .
In 1995 Mori, Ribot and Quine's recording fragments it's theme without ever losing the thread of the tune. Something Quine had always done so naturally. An inspirational player!
