D. Boon
Encyclopedia
d. Boon born Dennes Dale Boon, (April 1, 1958 – December 22, 1985) was an American
singer, songwriter
and guitarist
. Active between 1978, when he joined The Reactionaries, and 1985, when he was killed in a van accident, Boon was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the California
n punk rock
trio Minutemen
.
cars, and the Boons lived in former World War II
barracks that had been converted into public housing. As a teenager, Boon began painting and signed his works "D. Boon", partly because "D" was his slang for cannabis
, partly after Daniel Boone
, but mostly because it was similar to E. Bloom, Blue Öyster Cult
's vocalist and guitarist.
in January 1980 with childhood friend Mike Watt
on bass, from their previous band, The Reactionaries
, later adding former Reactionaries drummer George Hurley
. Their best known album was Double Nickels on the Dime
.
was released in 1987, two years after Boon's death.
on his amplifier so that only the treble
frequencies were heard - the bass and midrange frequencies would be turned off completely. His style had a heavy funk/blues feel which was very different from other hardcore punk
bands in the 80s.
", "Corona
", "The Price of Paradise," and "Courage." A lifelong artist, Boon also created drawings or paintings for the Minutemen releases Joy
, The Punch Line
, , The Politics of Time
, Project: Mersh
and 3-Way Tie (For Last)
.
, "The Boilerman", is about D. Boon; on the recording itself, guitarist Nels Cline
plays one of Boon's last Telecaster guitars, which Watt is in possession of. Watt also mentions his fallen friend in Firehose's "Disciples Of The 3-Way" (Mr. Machinery Operator
) and his own "Burstedman" (The Secondman's Middle Stand
).
Boon has been paid tribute by American alternative band Stigmata-A-Go-Go with the song "D. Boon", from their 1994 album It's All True, American band Uncle Tupelo
with a different song "D. Boon" from their 1991 album Still Feel Gone
, and American band Centro-matic
's song "D.Boon-Free (A Ninth Grade Crime)" off "The Static Vs. The Strings Vol. 1".
His legacy in the underground music scene around the world had made him an influence on countless musicians. In their song "minuteman", the Hardcore band Self Harm from New Zealand make reference to his musical contributions as guitarist and vocalist with Minutemen
.
In 2003, former D. Boon roommate Richard Derrick
released the CD D. Boon And Friends
, a collection of jam session tapes he recorded with D. Boon, and rare Boon solo performances, as the first release on his Box-O-Plenty Records
label. Mike Watt authorized the release and provided technical assistance and liner notes.
He is number 89 on Rolling Stone
s list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
. Active between 1978, when he joined The Reactionaries, and 1985, when he was killed in a van accident, Boon was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
n punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
trio Minutemen
Minutemen (band)
Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...
.
Youth
Dennes Boon was born in San Pedro, California on April 1, 1958. His father, a navy veteran, worked installing radios in BuickBuick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
cars, and the Boons lived in former World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
barracks that had been converted into public housing. As a teenager, Boon began painting and signed his works "D. Boon", partly because "D" was his slang for cannabis
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
, partly after Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
, but mostly because it was similar to E. Bloom, Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
's vocalist and guitarist.
Minutemen
Boon formed MinutemenMinutemen (band)
Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...
in January 1980 with childhood friend Mike Watt
Mike Watt
Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...
on bass, from their previous band, The Reactionaries
The Reactionaries (band)
The Reactionaries were a punk rock band formed in San Pedro, California in 1978. The band's continual members were lead vocalist Martin Tamburovich, guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley. The Reactionaries existed for most of 1978 and 1979, practicing regularly but rarely...
, later adding former Reactionaries drummer George Hurley
George Hurley
George Hurley is a drummer noted for his work with The Minutemen and fIREHOSE.Even though he went to the same high school as D. Boon and Mike Watt he did not meet them until around 1978. That same year, Hurley formed The Reactionaries with Boon, Watt, and Martin Tamburovich...
. Their best known album was Double Nickels on the Dime
Double Nickels on the Dime
Double Nickels on the Dime is the third studio album by American punk trio Minutemen, released on the Californian independent record label SST Records in 1984...
.
Death
The Minutemen continued until December 22, 1985, when Boon was killed in a van accident in the Arizona desert near the Californian border on route I-10. Because he had been sick with fever, Boon was lying down in the rear of the van without a seatbelt when the van ran off the road. Boon was thrown out the back door of the van and died instantly from a broken neck. He was 27 years old. The band immediately dissolved, though Watt and Hurley would form the band Firehose soon after. The live album Ballot ResultBallot Result
Ballot Result is a posthumous live compilation album by Minutemen.The story of Ballot Result starts with the Tour-Spiel EP in 1984. Minutemen had been given a copy of a tape of a live radio performance for the Virgin Vinyl Show they had done in Tucson, Arizona, four songs of which they used for the...
was released in 1987, two years after Boon's death.
Musical style
Boon's guitar style is very distinctive; he rarely used distortion and frequently set the equalizationEqualization
Equalization, is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal. The most well known use of equalization is in sound recording and reproduction but there are many other applications in electronics and telecommunications. The circuit or equipment used...
on his amplifier so that only the treble
Treble (sound)
Treble refers to tones of high frequency or range. In music this corresponds to high notes, and for this reason the treble clef is often used for instruments with higher pitch. Examples of treble sounds are guitar tones, female voice , young boy voice, etc. They have frequencies above 9 KHz. Treble...
frequencies were heard - the bass and midrange frequencies would be turned off completely. His style had a heavy funk/blues feel which was very different from other hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
bands in the 80s.
Artwork
Boon is responsible for the writing and composition of the Minutemen's most anthemic songs (in contrast to Watt's stream of consciousness lyrics), including "This Ain't No PicnicThis Ain't No Picnic
"This Ain't No Picnic" is a song by punk/alternative band Minutemen. It appears on their 1984 double album Double Nickels on the Dime, and was composed by their lead singer and guitarist D. Boon.-Background:...
", "Corona
Corona (song)
"Corona" is a song by American punk/alternative trio Minutemen from the album Double Nickels on the Dime, which was composed by the band's lead singer and guitarist D. Boon....
", "The Price of Paradise," and "Courage." A lifelong artist, Boon also created drawings or paintings for the Minutemen releases Joy
Joy (EP)
Joy is a three-song seven-inch EP by American hardcore punk band Minutemen. Recorded not long after the release of their first EP Paranoid Time, it was the first release that Minutemen had issued on their own New Alliance Records label in 1981...
, The Punch Line
The Punch Line
The Punch Line is the first 12-inch and third record release by influential American punk rock band Minutemen, and the fourth-ever release from SST Records. Less than half the length of most LPs, the total playing time for all eighteen songs is a mere fifteen minutes...
, , The Politics of Time
The Politics of Time
The Politics of Time is the seventh overall release, third album-length release, and first compilation by American hardcore punk band the Minutemen....
, Project: Mersh
Project Mersh
Project: Mersh is the penultimate release from the American punk rock trio Minutemen before D. Boon's death later that year in an auto accident.The cover art is a painting by D...
and 3-Way Tie (For Last)
3-Way Tie (For Last)
3-Way Tie is the fourth and final full-length album recorded by the American punk band Minutemen. It is particularly notable for featuring several cover songs by bands such as the Urinals, Meat Puppets, Blue Öyster Cult, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Roky Erickson and the Aliens. It was...
.
Legacy
Since the first Firehose album, Mike Watt has dedicated every record he has worked on - be it Firehose, solo, or otherwise - to D. Boon's memory. A song on Watt's semi-autobiographical 1997 album Contemplating the Engine RoomContemplating the Engine Room
Contemplating the Engine Room is a punk rock opera by Minutemen veteran Mike Watt.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Mike Watt#"In The Engine Room"#"Red Bluff"#"The Bluejackets' Manual"#"Pedro Bound!"#"The Boilerman"#"Black Gang Coffee"...
, "The Boilerman", is about D. Boon; on the recording itself, guitarist Nels Cline
Nels Cline
Nels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...
plays one of Boon's last Telecaster guitars, which Watt is in possession of. Watt also mentions his fallen friend in Firehose's "Disciples Of The 3-Way" (Mr. Machinery Operator
Mr. Machinery Operator
Mr. Machinery Operator is the fifth and last album by the American alternative rock band Firehose. It is also their second album to be released on the major label, Columbia Records.-Track listing:# "Formal Introduction"# "Blaze"# "Herded into Pools"...
) and his own "Burstedman" (The Secondman's Middle Stand
The Secondman's Middle Stand
The Secondman's Middle Stand was Mike Watt's third solo album and the first full-length recording that he had made under his own name since the release of Contemplating The Engine Room in 1997....
).
Boon has been paid tribute by American alternative band Stigmata-A-Go-Go with the song "D. Boon", from their 1994 album It's All True, American band Uncle Tupelo
Uncle Tupelo
Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville, Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their previous band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded three albums for Rockville...
with a different song "D. Boon" from their 1991 album Still Feel Gone
Still Feel Gone
Still Feel Gone is the second album by American alternative country pioneers Uncle Tupelo. It was released in 1991 on Rockville Records and re-released in 2003 by Sony Legacy.-Track listing:...
, and American band Centro-matic
Centro-Matic
Centro-Matic is an alternative country band based in Denton, Texas. It started in 1995 as a side-project for Will Johnson. It released a few singles that year and grew into a full-fledged group in 1997. The initial 60 songs recorded in a Millstadt, Illinois studio supplied the material for the...
's song "D.Boon-Free (A Ninth Grade Crime)" off "The Static Vs. The Strings Vol. 1".
His legacy in the underground music scene around the world had made him an influence on countless musicians. In their song "minuteman", the Hardcore band Self Harm from New Zealand make reference to his musical contributions as guitarist and vocalist with Minutemen
Minutemen
Minutemen were members of teams of select men from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats, hence the name.The minutemen were among the first...
.
In 2003, former D. Boon roommate Richard Derrick
Richard Derrick
Richard Derrick was born in Torrance, California in 1961, and is a lifelong resident of nearby San Pedro. He began playing music at an early age, starting with piano at age four, guitar at age ten, then learning both drums and bass guitar at 15...
released the CD D. Boon And Friends
D. Boon and Friends
D. Boon and Friends is a music CD compiling various jam session and live recordings featuring the late Minutemen guitarist and frontman D. Boon. The album is the inaugural release of the Hermosa Beach, California-based label Box-O-Plenty Records, started by Boon's one-time roommate Richard Derrick...
, a collection of jam session tapes he recorded with D. Boon, and rare Boon solo performances, as the first release on his Box-O-Plenty Records
Box-O-Plenty Records
Box-O-Plenty Records is a record label, started by Richard Derrick, a musician based in San Pedro, California. Between 2003 and 2011, the label released the following:...
label. Mike Watt authorized the release and provided technical assistance and liner notes.
He is number 89 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.