For anyone who still considers themselves a punk rocker, or a lover of rock music at all, the last 24 hours have been unbearable. One of punk's greatest voices was taken from us at far too early of an age yesterday. Jay Reatard, born Jimmy Lindsey, Jr., was only 29 years old and had already produced the finest body of "Hey Ho" throwdowns of the past twenty years. When I first heard "Blood Visions" and his stellar collections of singles I declared that Jay was the second coming to anyone who would listen, and two years later I still mean it. Immediately he catapulted himself into the upper echelon of punk musicians.
Punk is essentially three chords and the truth played really loud and fast. It began with the only holy trinity that really matters; The Clash, Sex Pistols and Ramones, it was preserved by Husker Du, and finally after so many intolerable years it found a bearer of the light in Reatard. Yes, he was that great.
Of course the greatest tragedy is that he died just as he was getting started. Like Clifford Brown, the great jazz trumpet player who could have outshined Miles Davis had he lived beyond his death at age 25, Reatard could have easily become the voice of a generation, and if those wankers weren't listening, he was at least the voice of real rock and roll. He was the most honest rock and roller playing today. Unlike his oh so politically correct peers, Jay kicked, spit, pissed, was a snotty bastard at times, and loved to post about his man versus food takedowns on Twitter. He was as real as they got. He was also incredibly thoughtful and intelligent. He was proof that dropping out of middle school doesn't always result in stupidity and failure. His lyrics were as exhilarating as his music, and his interviews were often compelling. Jay didn't deserve to die, and we didn't deserve to lose him. There is a huge hole in the indie world now and it won't be closed anytime soon.
Waiting For Something - a short documentary about Jay Reatard
Jay Reatard | MySpace Music Videos
"My Shadow" live
Pretty cool video of "Oh, It's Such A Shame" until the guy filming it doesn't realize that the guy playing rhythm guitar is not playing that searing solo, and that Jay is the one ripping it the fuck up.
An actual video for "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" that is pretty great.
Audio of "Night of the Broken Glass," my first and still favorite song of Jay's.
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