The bulk of the messages regarding the sudden--untimely--passing of Robert Quine have already been composed and pasted; however, I needed a few days to analyze the thoughts and ideas I wanted to paste because--whether you love him or hate him--Robert Quine is such an important, influential guitarist. He is--along with Lou Reed--one of the greatest guitar players of all time; very, very few could strike the obscure note the way RQ could--see "Liars Beware" or "Betrayal Takes Two" or "Waves Of Fear" from Lou Reed's "The Blue Mask" LP.

I didn't personally know RQ. I live about two-and-a-half hours from NYC, and whenever I go up, I would always hang out at Carmine Street Guitars hoping to maybe run into Lou or Bob while Rick Kelly would build another amazing guitar. As a novice guitarist--I bought an American Deluxe Fender Strat--RQ is very, very important to me--when he plays a single note, you know he's the man in charge. He is more than worthy of admiration and idulation. It's upsetting for me because RQ was brilliant, and for a man of his caliber to act so selfishly, I can't help but wonder why the music--his true love, along with his wife--couldn't resurrect his spirit. Nevertheless, you can garner a fairly impressionable observation about a guitar player from the records he makes, and RQ is a hero to me. If Shakespeare survives for eternity in his sonnet lines, then RQ shall survive for eternity in those sweet solos on the Voidoids and Reed albums. Thank you for the six-string magic, RQ. RIP.

Connie