Let us celebrate the memory of singer, guitarist and songwriter Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who would have turned 65 today, if he hadn’t passed away in 1996 at the age of 38. He was the frontman in the American band The Gun Club, who played a mix of punk, garage rock and country. The Gun Club could be quite shambolic at times, but when they got it together, they were very good. Jeffrey Lee Pierce also did a small handful of solo albums, and to celebrate his memory I’ve chosen a track from his solo debut Wildweed, the long and epic song The Midnight Promise.
I did see Jeffrey Lee Pierce live once in the mid 1980’s, during his tour for the album above. It was rumoured that he was pretty wasted around that time, but the concert turned out good. During the encore, Tom Verlaine of Television entered the stage, and they did Wild Thing together. Good memory.