(TV) The Blue Mask & Quine

["Michael Carlucci" <michael@recordsnyc.com>]

  I was out yesterday so didn't get to see all of the Blue Mask writings.
I've always taken whatever bits of writings about Quine and forwarded them
to him. These will go as well. You can't imagine how excited we all were to
hear that Lou finally dumped those Arista guys and was stripping down to the
bare essentials, 2 guitars, bass and drums. Something he hadn't done since
the V.U. days. Not only that but Bob Quine was going to be the other
guitarist. A match made in heaven. The story goes that Silvia(then)
Morales(former Voidoids groupie) took Lou to see the band at CBGB's. After
their first set Lou grabs Quine and says sit down I want to talk to you. Lou
proceeded to tell Quine how great he was and how Hell was no singer and that
in the next set Quine should chew up and spit out the other guitarist(I'm
not sure which)because he was a hack player. Lou wanted Quine in his new
band. Quine, the #1 V.U. fan from the old days asked Lou "is this going to
be like "Growing Up In Public, because if it is I'm not interested". Lou
sais no, I want to get back to form. Quine was starting to look around the
club, at which point Lou smacked the table and said "look at me when I talk
to you, I'll slack you right in the face". Lou had Quine's attention from
there on out. Quine knew he was serious.

  We'd all see Quine on the streets and ask him how the Blue Mask was going.
He had nothing but praise for Lou's writing and especially his playing. "The
best record I've ever played on".  They did a handful of shows of which
Quine received equal praise from the press. This, unfortunately did not bode
well with Lou who subsequently sabatoged the mix of the following LP. To
hear Quine speak of the original mix you'd think that they made White Light
White Heat. Loud loud guitars, unfortunately
all that you can hear is the bass, drums, and vocals and somewhere in the
distance there are some guitar parts. Quine is convinced that Lou did this
because of the praise from the press. Not only that,
but on the next big tour Lou would mumble Quine's name when it came to
introductions from the stage.

  Quine did not play on "New Sensations" even after repeated phone calls
from Lou begging him to call him to play. Quine did however do the tour for
the money. Quine was obviously afraid that Lou would once again bury the
guitars and waste Bob's time. Quine went in with the attitude that it wasn't
for the love any longer, but for the money. That's all it was. Lou was a
star once again with the success of "I Love You Suzanne".

  There is so much tension between the two these days. They were both
recently in a guitar shop around the corner from here, the guys who work
there all froze because of this tension. "As cold as
meat freezer" was the way the described it in there. They just stared at
each other from the sides
of their eye sockets. Nothing happened though.

  Now Lou has his hack ex-brother-in-law playing guitar for him. As Quine
calls him, "a yes man,
or Lou's puppet" willing to take Lou's shit and happy to double Lou's parts.
That's not Quine which
what made them a magical pair. Too bad now that Sterling's gone the only
other player that Lou can really mesh with is Quine. One can only hope that
they can settle their differences. The problem
is that they are both exactly alike. Talking to one is like talking to the
other. It's uncanny but true.

  Quine needs to be recognized and get more work here in the states instead
of having to go to
Spain and Japan. He'd be brilliant for Sheryl Crowe even Beth Orton. I
always thought he'd get
a call from Bob Dylan. Even John Cale, imagine the Lou hate stories that
they could share.

  Anyway, that's my contribution to the Bob Quine topic. One of our own,
sadly underated
guitarists. M T C 
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