DESTINY STREET COMPLETE
by RICHARD HELL AND THE VOIDOIDS

Hell's punk poet album now a Quine and company guitar showcase

By Rick Hines, July 7, 2021

Destiny Street was never my favorite Richard Hell and The Voidoids album. This release consists of three complete and separate versions of the album and a disc of singles and demo tracks. Seems like it could be a bit of over kill.

The original album is, well, the original album, but nicely remastered. It's the remaining music that really opens the door and lets the band express itself. Without going into details (which are contained in the booklet), the two remix albums have been stripped of the guitar overdubs for the most part, and more importantly, the two guitars are mixed hard left and hard right (instead of panning about the mix as on the original version). Hell provides liner notes detailing which guitarists play what where. What this does is turn the entire session into a guitar showcase, not unlike a NYC underground answer to "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs." This is one of those rare re-releases that made me completely re-evaluate the original work.

I've always been a fan of Robert Quine's guitar playing, and that's what got me to purchase this in the first place. Suddenly, you can hear every skronky riff and fractured solo. His playing is as sublime as one might expect. But it also becomes evident that second guitarist Naux was riding that same high. Both guitarists seem to duel each song out in an attempt to come up with the most bizarre, funky guitar work imaginable while maintaining the dialogue between the two instruments.

With both Quine and Naux deceased, the old tapes received some overdubs by Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and (ex-Voidoid) Ivan Julian. Again, Hell found sympathetic guitarists, and the overdubs mesh perfectly with the underlying original music of Quine and Naux. All the guitarists appear to be trying feverishly to NOT play what is expected of them. The originality almost oozes from the speakers.

Fred Maher on drums is his usual understated self, holding all the barely contained chaos together almost single-handedly. Hell supplies simplistic bass (there's a hired bassist for the demo recordings), poetic lyrics, and reveals his writer's block by including some cover songs. The band stamps the covers with the same originality they use elsewhere, with a damn-the-original-version attitude.

This is some of the greatest 80's-era NYC avant-garde guitar work I've ever heard. Too bad drugs and Hell's strong distaste for public performance brought it to an end.