The History Of Bones

The History Of Bones
John Lurie
448 Pages
ISBN: # 9780399592973
Random House
2021

If you are of a certain age (John Lurie was born in 1952) you probably, at one time wanted to be John Lurie. After reading his memoir The History Of Bones, maybe not so much. At differing times in his life he has been a musician, bandleader, painter, actor, director, producer, and film composer. It might be safe to say that Lurie himself also wanted to be The John Lurie, but now not so much. This book, an account of his rise and fall, and rise again, and fall again, could have been subtitled with the mashup of David Bowie and an Edwin Starr's Motown song: Fame huh/what is it good for?Absolutely nothing/say it again.

Born in Minneapolis to an American father and a Welch mother, Lurie's story begins in Worcester, Massachusetts where he describes himself as "strange and skinny." When Lurie was 17, his father died and he and his brother became like feral animals. Lurie was a self-taught artist and musician, and more important to our story, he was a spiritual seeker. Even if the religious traditions he employed were found objects mixed with copious amounts of drugs, but as Lurie says, "Unless you are Rumi or Lao—tzu, descriptions of the journey of the spirit perhaps should be left alone." You probably guessed it, he can't.

Fast forward to June 4, 1979, The Lounge Lizards first gig. That name of his band The Lounge Lizards was a mistake that would mark him and revisit Lurie throughout his career. Once when asked what kind of music the band played, he flippantly said, "fake jazz." Not the right answer in a time when conservatory trained Brooks Brothers suits wearing Neocon jazz musicians would be dominating the record sales and music press. Note to today's silly-named bands like GoGo Penguin and Snarky Puppy, things won't end well. Lurie wanted to be considered a serious jazz musician, but that name and movie star fame seemed to always get in the way, but we'll get to that later. The original Lounge Lizards were John (saxophone), Evan Lurie (piano), Arto Lindsay (guitar), Steve Piccolo (bass), and Anton Fier (drums). Their music was born in the No Wave era where seemingly every creative person in New York's East Village had a band. The Lizards performed alongside groups like Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, DNA, and Theoretical Girls. Lurie notes that his North Star was John Coltrane, meaning he was serious about his music. But there was always that name and the scene and of course, no money.

So what happens? He meets filmmaker, better yet film student Jim Jarmusch. Soon he is involved in creating the story and then starring in Jarmusch's film Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and Down By Law (1986). Fame is his. Not gained through music, but film. At the same time he become close friends with the meteor that would become Jean-Michel Basquiat. The painter would become Lurie's best friend, painting partner, and antagonist. If by 'antagonist,' we mean a good thing. Basquiat and Jarmusch would become superstars in the art world and, by Lurie's account, treat him poorly. The book sometime reads like The Andy Warhol Diaries (1989) with Lurie describing encounters with among others, Debbie Harry, Madonna, David Byrne, Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog, Willem Dafoe, and Warhol. He even has an incident in a restaurant with Donald Trump! Although is fame came about from film, Lurie's ambition was music. During Lounge Lizards' tours, journalists frequently wanted to interview him about Hollywood instead of the band's latest release. The burden of fame almost became too much. Ok, it was too much. It was as addictive as the heroin, cocaine, and sex he describes in the book.

He just wanted to make beautiful music. That sounds naive, but John Lurie is and was truly unpretentious. The music he made with the Lounge Lizards and after that in film scores and under a pseudonym Marvin Pontiac is beautiful. It certainly deserves to be re-examined in a new light. Life though has a way of stealing what you value most. Lyme disease and its neurologic side effects took away his music and almost took his life. Lurie has lived nearly ten years on an undisclosed Caribbean island, painting. He released an HBO series Painting With John (2021), and even though he hasn't discarded that fame thing, this memoir at least makes peace with it.