David Thomas And The Legacy Of Pere Ubu
Photo: Mik Mellen
One would think Pere Ubu emerged from the galactic gestures of 1970s Germany, or the iconism of the Italian prog pandemonium during the divine dawn of progressive performance, but they didn’t. Instead, they belonged to our fragile and fickle here in the States, and thank Christ, they even existed in the first place. With the radioactive rise of punk rock and the early ecosystem of the new wave scene simmering in a nearby sweltering swamp, the oddest and most unique bands have come from the ‘Buckeye State’ over the decades. From Devo to the Isley Brothers, Scott Walker, Guided By Voices, and James Gang to name a few, the Cleveland, Ohio-based, multi-faceted universe known as Pere Ubu, a name that refers to “Ubu Roi,” an avant-garde play by the French writer Alfred Jarry, began unfolding from the dynamical debris of the short-lived local outfit Rocket From The Tombs, led by the great David Lynn Thomas (Crocus Behemoth) before the band fully came into poetic perspective in 1975. Testing the toxicity levels of a narrative-driven approach through the corrupt core of the US during the Watergate scandal, the oil crisis, the rise of stagflation, and the end of the Vietnam War, members Allen Ravenstine, David Thomas, Scott Krauss, Tom Herman, and Tony Maimone put something together that, to this day, is still be discovered, universally understood, and sophisticatedly studied under the mother of all microscopes as the band’s rich, and legitimate legacy continues to inspire, and move its past, present, and future listeners half a century later.
Photo: Dan Seifert
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, in the summer of 1953, Thomas eventually relocated to the Midwest, quickly becoming one of the most influential figures of his generation behind the mic with his larger-than-life personality that would pour from the stage and into the ears and eyes of any audience lucky enough to be blessed by his perfected presence throughout the years. While cities like LA, New York, Boston, and Washington began taking over, Ohio, a state so many people agree would rather not exist, and its particular blue-collar culture reigned with an iron fist in a way that was most profound and contemplative of great cosmic connections through its merciless music scene. Having a voice, Emerson Dameron famously described as "James Stewart trapped in an oboe," Thomas’s entire being was expressive. From his toes to his elbows, wrists to lips, from the top of his head, and beyond, the late singer embodied the ethos of what makes a frontman a frontman, sporting a spiritual suite to carefully project his perfected performance as intensely as possible.
“My name is David Fucking Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock n roll band in the world.”
Breaking the world in two with the band’s 1978 debut masterpiece “The Modern Dance,” quite possibly one of the most influential records of its decade, Pere Ubu quickly redefined rock n’ roll in the later half of the 1970s by introducing textural chaos, elements of free-jazz that even Coltrane could get behind, and of course, those brilliantly demented pop melodies that soared across tracks like the album’s epic opener “Non-Alignment Pact,” “Chinese Radiation,” and the near-perfect ender “Humor Me” that punched through mind’s ceiling belting, “It's just a joke man!” Like a flaming grenade chucked across the flat farmlands that make up so much of the 17th state, its aluminum pin released by the fingertips of Thomas’s maniac mastery, the existential explosion could be seen around the world as the late musician sat back in contemplation of his challenging character in the arts, ego, and the overall observatory of calculated chaos within the band’s complex, and complicated existence. From his solo career that was just as rich and ravishing as Pere Ubu, Thomas was an artist’s artist and a writer’s writer. Occupying a countless treasure trove of bands and projects like The Eggs, David Thomas and Two Pale Boys, David Thomas and His Legs, The Pale Orchestra, and The Wooden Birds, his output was pure genius, with a harmonious hint of melodic madness, and feverish freedom that so many desire in their careers, and only a few have truly ever unlocked. Thomas was 71.
