Remembering JEFFREY LEE PIERCE - 27. June 1958 - 31. March 1996

L-R: Kid Congo Powers & Jeffrey Lee Pierce.
Photo by Richard Dumas

Here's a great photo of JEFFREY LEE PIERCE and KID CONGO POWERS of THE GUN CLUB (posted on facebook by Powers who was also in another awesome band, THE CRAMPS). Jeffrey Lee died today in 1996.

I got to see The Gun Club at the Town and Country Club in London in 1990 when they had reformed. Jeffrey was probably a tortured soul but his records are great. I bought my first Gun Club records in 1987 (both on the same day and incidentally their best and their worst!). Gone too soon.

9 lives no. 3: THE GUN CLUB - "mother juno" lp, "the breaking hands" 12", "the berlin tapes"

I got THE GUN CLUB's fantastic album "MOTHER JUNO" yesterday. On CD. I bought that record on vinyl in 1990 but haven't been able to listen to it for a long time (as my record player died on me a few years back). This is really cool. I remember reading someone saying the GUN CLUB sounded like they came from the swamp but I always thought they sounded like the desert.

The CD set also includes the wonderful 12" single "BREAKING HANDS" as well. I remember buying that along with the LP back then. The same year I also got to see THE GUN CLUB at the Town & Country Club in London with my friend Michelle G. Unfortunately, lead singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce died a long time ago. The CD set also contains the unreleased "THE BERLIN TAPES". It's part of Flow Records' (in Holland) sadly aborted "9 LIVES" re-release series of GUN CLUB albums with extra CDs.


Two tracks from the LP and "Noboy's City" from the 12":



"The Breaking Hands"


"Yellow Eyes"

Ghost on the Highway (USA, 2008)

Yesterday, I received the film GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY about the band THE GUN CLUB and its charismatic frontman JEFFREY LEE PIERCE and being a long time fan I could do nothing but dig into it right away!

What immediately struck me is a note on the back of the cover that states the film doesn't contain any music by the band whatsoever!! I've later learnt that the director tried to get music from the first two LP's but didn't have the money.

Too bad but in a way it's actually not that much of a loss as it keeps the documentary from becoming somewhat of a concert movie which often happens and which would have annoyed me endlessly. I'd rather see and listen to interviews by the people who where there. And we get that. Actually that's ALL we get!

There are interviews with the original old "disgruntled" (as Jeffrey Lee called them on the back of the cover of the album "Danse Kalinda Boom") members WARD DOTSON, TERRY GRAHAM and JIM DUCKWORTH. DEE POP (who was in the band on the "Death Party" EP is there too and thankfully also KID CONGO POWERS (who was also in THE CRAMPS of course). The always interesting HENRY ROLLINS is there too and so is MIKE MARTT from the awesome band TEX AND THE HORSEHEADS.

And there are more people who dealt with Jeffrey and the band too. Oh, and LEMMY from MOTÖRHEAD is interviewed (at a bar of course) but, uhh, don't get me wrong I love Lemmy and Motörhead but I fail to see why he's in the film. He's got nothing to say about the subject matter and he probably never even met THE GUN CLUB.

In about 95% of the film everyone talks shite about Jeffrey Lee and says what a cocksucker he was (except for Kid Congo) but I guess that's alright if that's how they feel. I would rather they spew out bile than give us the usual polished Hollywood bullshit in which previous back-stabbers kiss arse to make it seem like they were the main character's fucking soul mate or some such. You're hardly gonna get THAT impression of neither Ward Dotson nor Terry Graham after this documentary. I'm not blaming them by any means. If everyone says he was a dick then chances are he probably was.

But on the other hand sometimes the best and truest artistic creations come from people who lack basic skills in the social department. Artists who focus all their energy on creating something unique. And the music of Jeffrey Lee Pierce has been amongst my fave music for almost 30 years now and I don't see my love for that change just because it turns out he was a dick.

However, having said that, I do wish they would have found some old interview bits of Jeffrey and given him his own voice so to speak. He doesn't get to say his own piece in this film while almost everyone else is dissing him and that's not fair. It's a one-sided story.

Anyhoo, this is a crappy review so I suggest you go here and here to read some more incisive ones. The film runs around 96 minutes and despite its shortcomings it is highly recommended.

I ordered the DVD from CDBABY in the States. 25 dollars + postage.




By the way, I actually got to see THE GUN CLUB once. Like Jeffrey Lee Pierce I spent the late 80s in London and in 1990 I saw them at the Town & Country Club. I bought the "Mother Juno" LP the same year (check out the awesome track from it that I'm posting here). There were a couple of support bands, one of them being THESE IMMORTAL SOULS. I had the bootleg poster from the gig (it cost £1!) on my wall until very recently.

I woke up and there was a big ugly fly walking around in one of my slippers

And I thought, Yep, it's my birthday. >_<

Anyhoo, here's the GUN CLUB doing their awesome "Texas Serenade". It's from the "Miami" album and the uploader obviously used the old LP version. Unfortunately "Miami" never got the attention it ought to have had simply due to a terribly weak production. When Sympathy For The Record Industry re-released it on CD a few years back they remastered it and the album finally got the power it ought to have had from the beginning. I know-I know, the CD is a victim of the Loudness War and the music is compressed too much or whatever. But it STILL sounds better on my cheap ghettoblaster with its more powerful sound than the MUCH too weak vinyl version. If I had expensive stereo equipment then it might be a problem. As it is it isn't. So sue me. xD

Best ever toon on a Monday night

I bought the two Gun Club LP's "The Las Vegas Story" and "The Birth, The Death, The Ghost" in one go thru mailorder in circa 1985. I saw them at the Town & Country Club in London in 1990 when Jeffrey Lee Pierce had re-formed the band. When I returned from Australia in 1996 I turned on the radio and heard he'd died. This track is from "Lucky Jim", their awesome swansong from '93. Jeffrey's music is always described as swamp rock. Personally, I've always had images of the desert flash on my inner cinema when I hear their music.