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jamesgeraghty
Sep 18, 20226 min read

Forgotten Greats: The Gun Club

"Oh, mother of Earth, the wind is hot,

I tried my best, but I could not,

And my eyes fade from me in this open country."


When we talk about The Gun Club, we are referring to the life and work of Jeffrey Lee Pierce.

Photo credit: Ed Colver

Pierce was born in Montebello, California in June 1958. His dad was a Korean War veteran and union man, his was Mexican and a stay at home mum to Jeffrey and his sister Jacqui. They moved to Granada Hills, a suburb of the San Fernando Valley when he was a teenager. He had been playing guitar since the age of ten, and now got into experimental theatre.

Pierce with Debbie Harry - 1977

To begin with, he was listening to a lot of glam and prog rock, like early Genesis and Roxy Music, before later discovering reggae (after seeing Bob Marley live). He was also a big fan of Debbie Harry and Blondie and was, in fact, president of their west coast fan club.


He was a regular contributor to Slash, a popular punk fanzine - writing about punk, 30s blues, 50s rockabilly and reggae, under the name Ranking Jeffrey Lea - which included an interview with Bob Marley.


The pivotal moment came after watching a Pere Ubu gig in 1978 with his friend Brian Tristan. Tristan, who became known as Kid Congo Powers, encouraged Pierce to develop his musical style and form a band. The result was Creeping Ritual, who eventually morphed into The Gun Club, with the addition of Terry Graham and Rob Ritter.


"The Gun Club drew deeply from the well of American vernacular music and infused it with the stripped down energy and elemental values of punk rock." (Louder Sound, 9 May 2016)


In 1981, they released their debut album, Fire Of Love, of which Pierce was later to say, "I can't even remember making it." It includes early popular songs like Sex Beat and She's Like Heroin To Me, as well as a "possessed" cover of Robert Johnson's Preaching The Blues.



Pierce was back on the Blondie radar with the band signing for Chris Stein's Animal Records label, although Powers had by now been pinched by The Cramps. In 1982, it was Stein himself who produced the follow up record, Miami, with Harry providing some backing vocals, credited as D.H. Lawrence. The album was considered to be 'too trebly' but includes a great cover of Creedence's Run Through The Jungle. An interesting note is that Billy Idol, who had first met Pierce around this time, admitted years later, that his White Wedding was an attempt to emulate Mother of Earth (which I think has a bit of a Nick Cave vibe).



The first concerns about Pierce and his erratic behaviour, started to emanate in 1983 with two band members quitting on the eve of their Australian tour. Of the third album, 1984's The Las Vegas Story, the Independent notes, "Pierce's boozy and druggy lifestyle had started to overshadow the music." Powers was back onboard though, and the music had some be-bop and beat literature influences.


1985 saw the band break up - Pierce was routinely drinking to the point of blackout and band relations had deteriorated too far. Pierce ended up in Egypt with his new girlfriend Remi Mori, before heading on to London, playing some solo shows billed as the Astro-Unicorn Experience Jazz Ensemble. He also released a solo album, Wildweed and toured as the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet.


In August 1986, Powers was persuaded to join a reformed Gun Club line-up. He was living in Berlin by now, and playing as a Bad Seed with Nick Cave, but agreed to try and fulfil both roles. Mori also joined the band, on bass. Powers said of this time, "This could be really good but you're really f---ing it up. You're really pushing everyone away from us."

The resultant record, 1987s Mother Juno, saw another change of tack, with Robin Guthrie of The Cocteau Twins taking the controls this time. The band went into the legendary Hansa Studio in Berlin and the album answered the question. "what would happen if this blues band played a Cocteau Twins song?" Pierce was now coming across as very bitter, even referring to his own work as being "full of weaknesses."



There isn't a huge amount musically to report in the following few years - Pierce was slowly sliding into heroin addiction through 1991 and 92 - although he did manage another solo record, Ramblin Jeffrey Lee and Cypress Grove, consisting mainly of old blues covers.


In 1993, the final Gun Club studio album, Lucky Jim, came along, with the band down to a trio of Pierce, Mori and Nick Sanderson. Trouser Press said, "the manner in which he replaces post-adolescent rage with full blown adult emptiness is mightily impressive." The album is particularly haunting (see the title track below) and revisits some of the swampy blues that Pierce loved so much.



Pierce started to hang out with the Bad Seeds more and more, joining them on tour in 1994, before again reforming The Gun Club in September 1995 for a couple of shows in LA, before what ended up being the last live show - 18 December 1995 at The Palace in Hollywood. In early 1996, Pierce and Powers were again discussing the possibility of more Gun Club work.


Long term alcohol abuse had given him cirrhosis, but going sober had actually hindered Pierce's ability to perform live. On 25 March 1996, Pierce was found unconscious at his father's house in Salt Lake City. He went to hospital in a coma, having suffered a cerebral haemorrhage, before passing away on 31 March.


What Others Say:

Nick Cave said, in 2012, "With Jeffrey, you pretty much entered his world when you saw him. His obsessions crawled all over him. But in Jeffrey's world, sometimes it was very inspiring and illuminating and other times it was painful and depressing."


When he was presenting his Artist in Residence feature for Double J radio in Australia, Henry Rollins played Bill Bailey by The Gun Club first. He said, "Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a very good friend of mine and I miss him horribly. I play a lot of his music because I miss him and I want people to never forget The Gun Club."



Cave was regularly in touch with Pierce in later times. "He was physically suffering. And then he went to Japan. I think he got involved in some kind of relief work, helping earthquake victims. This seemed to have a positive effect on him, you know, spiritually."


Pierce went back to the US. "The phone calls that I got from him there, he seemed really well. Or comparatively well. And happy, you know. And then, I think, Henry Rollins phoned me to tell me that he died."


The impact of The Gun Club on later blues-punk bands like White Stripes, Black Keys and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is clear. The White Stripes were known to play For The Love Of Ivy and Jack On Fire live, and in a 2007 Guardian article, Jack White said, "Sex Beat, She's Like Heroin To Me and For The Love Of Ivy... why are these songs not taught in schools?"


In Pierce's obituary in the Independent, Pierre Perrone said, "All of those musicians who never quite fulfil their potential yet follow their destiny to its inescapable conclusion."


Powers said of the band that gave him his start, "The Gun Club made things appear on their own terms.... It was about making good music and that became our means of survival."


Pierce on himself:

"Always tell the people what they don't want to hear."

Photo credit: Yves Lorson

"I write a lot of despair songs. They're 'on-God-why have you forsaken me' songs with themes about shut-off emotions and loss of faith. That's part of the human condition, being so jaded that the soul dies. It has nothing to do with living in Los Angeles. T.S. Eliot said the same thing.


"Not believing in anything can be very depressing, but it can also be very creative, because you can look at everything with objectivity. There's a feeling that you can do anything because nothing really matters."


To sum up:

As ever, there was someone else who could sum things up on this subject much better than I ever could. In this case, the late Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees) wrote this in his autobiography, Sing Backwards and Weep.


"When I put on Fire of Love, a minute into hearing Sex Beat for the first time ever, I knew I was going to be a singer too - something that had never crossed my mind before. The Gun Club felt as though their music was speaking directly to me and Jeffrey Lee Pierce's singing and lyrics made me feel that anything was possible. At a time when I was living hard, directionless and down, The Gun Club instantly validated my existence and laid out the map I was going to follow for the rest of my life, the most powerful musical experience I've ever had..."


One more for luck.


From:

Louder Sound

The Independent

Far Out Magazine

Wikipedia

LA Times

The Guardian

Sing Backwards and Weep - Mark Lanegan

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