PREACHING THE BLUES

Every music fan has one deceased musician they are obsessed with, someone whose legacy outlives their lifespan; someone with so much legend and mystique surrounding them, their existence almost seems incompatible with reality. Think about someone like Jim Morrison or Kurt Cobain. For me, this person is Jeffrey Lee Pierce. 

Of course, I don’t mean to be disrespectful for immediately mentioning JLP’s passing, but it is an essential part of understanding his legacy and how he was cultivating his own legend when he was alive. He lived his life just like the destructive blues figure he portrayed himself as, fueled by his own chaos, imagination, and immense talent. 

I am endlessly fascinated by JLP. He’s a one-of-a-kind figure in music, hugely influential, but still remains an outsider that occupies a niche space within alternative music. He didn’t look like anyone else, he didn’t sound like anyone else, and he didn’t write like anyone else. It’s obvious that JLP was a true visionary. Much of that can be attributed to him being an obsessive and curious person, constantly seeking out interesting art, information, or writing that would inspire his own work. His eclectic influences and imagination is what allowed him to create his singular sound, persona, and legend. Who else was drawing inspiration from early blues, voodoo, southern gothic aesthetics, and murder ballads in the late 70s L.A. punk scene?  

JLP being an outsider is essential to his legend. He sought out to write about “the drifters and the loners that make up the American wandering underclass,” but this effort seemed more out of kinship, rather than just mere fascination. JLP described feeling alienated socially and culturally growing up, and even within the L.A. punk scene, the Gun Club were outsiders as compared to bands like the Germs or X. It wasn’t just that JLP was an outsider socially, culturally, or musically, he seemed to be an outsider to his present time. This is affirmed by the influences, aesthetics, and motifs of his work. His interest and use of American blues music is the most telling. It makes perfect sense how he resonated with the social alienation and nonconformism of punk, and combined that with an even older counterculture movement for outsiders. The result is a persona and writing that is so convincing, sometimes it’s hard to believe JLP was a real person and not a mythical folklore character. 

Through JLP’s music, he’s somehow from everywhere, but belongs nowhere. This mirrors his own experiences going from country to country, which also affirmed his identity as always being an outsider. JLP derived a lot of inspiration from faraway places like Japan, Vietnam, and Egypt, along with environments like the desert, swamp, ocean, and jungle. All this helps to create more captivating imagery and affirm his persona, but I also think it’s coming from a place of disillusionment and detachment from society and the culture around him, particularly in Reagan's America. But JLP was truly the tragic wanderer he portrayed himself as, making this one of the most compelling aspects of his work. 

Coming from his experiences as an outsider, the feeling of loneliness is one of the most recurring themes of the Gun Club. It seeps through every aspect of the music: in lyrics, sound, and emotion. JLP’s voice both embodies and intensifies this feeling to a devastating degree, as heard on “Mother of Earth” or “Idiot Waltz.” His voice has a mystical aspect to it, something totally indefinable that gives it its allure; maybe it’s the loneliness it evokes, maybe it’s the yearning, maybe it’s the emotions and experiences behind it, I don’t know. It feels pointless to try and figure it out, you hear his voice and know. 

One of my favorite JLP lyrics is from the opening track to Mother Juno, “Bill Bailey:”

“So deep, deep inside the Marianas Trench

My life will always find you there”

While this song was written about Nick Cave, I think this lyric is prophetic in capturing the essence of JLP and his legacy. Even in the deepest, most faraway places of the world, you’ll find his spirit because that’s where he situated himself musically and creatively. By creating his own legend, JLP allowed himself to drift anywhere in search of inspiration, meaning, exploration, or whatever else. There’ll never be another person like him, long live Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club!