D. Boon

Dennes Dale "D." Boon (born April 1, 1958 in Napa , California , † December 22, 1985 in Tucson , Arizona ) was an American punk rock singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was best known as the guitarist and singer of the Californian punk rock trio Minutemen, which he co-founded .

Life

Boon's father, a US Navy veteran , made a living installing car radios in Buicks . The family lived in former World War II barracks that had been converted into social housing. Boon began painting as a teenager and signed his works “D. Boon ”, partly because“ D ”was his name for cannabis , partly after the pioneer Daniel Boone , but mainly based on E. (Eric) Bloom , the singer and guitarist of the US rock band Blue Öyster Cult .

He began his music career in 1979 when he joined the group The Reactionaries . In January 1980, Boon and his old childhood friend, bassist Mike Watt , founded the punk rock group Minutemen as a successor band . Later, former Reactionaries drummer George Hurley joined them. Their biggest success was in 1984 recording Double Nickels on the Dime , published by Independent - label SST Records .

D. Boon died in a car accident in Tucson, aged 27, the following year and is counted as Club 27 .

The band then broke up, a short time later Watt and Hurley founded a new one with the name FIREHOSE with Ed Crawford . Two years after D. Boon's death, the Minutemen live album Ballot Result was released .

plant

D. Boon was responsible as a lyricist and composer for the Minutemen songs This Ain't No Picnic , Corona , The Price Of Paradise and Courage, among others . He also created drawings and paintings for the covers of the Minutemen releases Joy , The Punch Line , What Makes a Man Start Fires? , The Politics of Time , Project: Mersh and 3-Way Tie (For Last) . The song Corona became known as the theme song for the MTV series Jackass .

Aftermath

Mike Watt dedicated every piece to him after D. Boon's death. The alternative US bands Stigmata-A-Go-Go and Uncle Tupelo also dedicated songs to D. Boon. His former roommate Richard Derrick dedicated his first release on his Box-O-Plenty Records label, the CD D. Boon And Friends , to a collection of jam session recordings by both of them and rare solo appearances.

D. Boon is ranked 89th in the list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by the US rock music magazine Rolling Stone .

literature

• Michael Azerrad: Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981–1991 , Little, Brown & Company, 2001, ISBN 0-316-78753-1 .