I didn’t know Jay Reatard. Never even met him.
But his passing on Wednesday was definitely felt by me and countless others in the music community. When I was hosting the Memphis Beat on WEVL, I spun many a Lost Sounds (Jay’s band with Alicja Trout) record as well as his various other side projects and even the occasional revisiting of his teenage band, The Reatards (“Loretta,” anyone?). On The Music Lovers, where I focused more on mainstream acts, Jay still got many plays since his solo career pushed itself beyond the local scene and into the musical scene at large. Two years ago, Jay’s single “I’m Watching You” reached Number 21 on The Music Lovers’ Best Songs of 2008. And this past year, I went back and forth between Jay’s “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” and Nathan Williams’ Wavves “So Bored,” which is funny since the two artists had a well publicized feud that ended with Jay’s backing band leaving Jay and joining up with the Wavves. Drama. Jay’s life seemed to have many moments of drama, as his erratic behavior was often reported as being childish and arrogant. Still, I doubt that was who Jay was 24/7.
Jay was also a success. In fact, I would say he was one of the biggest names to ever come out of the indie/alternative/punk (whatever you want to call it) scene in Memphis. Even bigger than The Oblivians , Reigning Sound, and The Grifters. When MTV’s Five Dollar Cover came out I was surprised that Jay wasn’t featured on it. But, the truth is, Jay was already too big. When Jay signed with the major label Matador, his older fans started to whine that he was selling out. And when his punk records became more and more pop sounding, some of those fans jumped ship. (This criticism of his developing sound seemed strange to me since his music always had a melodic undertone.) Whatever old fans he might have been losing, though, he was gaining new ones daily.
The thing about Jay’s success is that he earned it. When I saw the reports of his death, I was first surprised to learn that he was only 29 because it seemed like he had been around forever. Which I guess he really had, starting his recording career at the age of 15. Not only did Jay have the experience, but he was an extremely hard worker. The man was recording so feverishly that you would think that he knew his days were numbered. And as an artist, Jay was clearly going somewhere with his music, evolving a new sound for himself with each record. It’s a shame that we’ll never know how it all turned out.
Below, Jay performing at the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2008:
