TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. David Thomas, lead singer and principal songwriter for the band Pere Ubu, died on April 23 at age 71. Thomas and Pere Ubu emerged from the Cleveland punk rock scene in the late 1970s and were immediately recognized as unique artists. Our rock critic, Ken Tucker, reviewed the band's 1978 debut album, "The Modern Dance," for Rolling Stone, describing the music back then as harsh, ugly, vivid, and exhilarating. Here's Ken's appreciation of David Thomas' work.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NON-ALIGNMENT PACT")
PERE UBU: (Singing) I want to make a deal with you, girl, and get it signed by the heads of state. I want to make a deal with you, girl, and be recognized around the world. Oh, it's my non-alignment pact, non-alignment pact. You better sign it. Non-alignment pact, non-alignment pact.
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: In 1978, that was most people's introduction to David Thomas' voice, the central sound of Pere Ubu, on the opening song of their debut album, "The Modern Dance." Everything Thomas would do for the next 47 years was already in place - the high-pitched growl and prickly phrasing, his stop-start way of blurting out the lyrics, the surrealist approach to imagery. The band's personnel would change regularly over the decades. The one Pere Ubu constant was David Thomas - his singing, his songwriting and his immense physical presence on stage. Not for nothing was one of his pre-Ubu stage names Crocus Behemoth.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVELY DAY")
PERE UBU: (Singing) It's a lovely day by the sea. Mr. Potato Head is strumming a guitar. The beggar on the bench is acting lewd and crude. Weekend father's got his kid out for a stroll. Wind turbine off-shore's shredding the seagulls once more. So that's good. And it is as it should be on a lovely day by the sea.
TUCKER: Thomas' death at age 71 brings to a close one of the most significant avant-garde experiments ever conducted within the confines of pop music. Emerging from Cleveland, the band was as inspired by the clanking sounds of the city's industrial factories as it was by the blues that David Thomas loved. As he said more than once, we don't promote chaos. We preserve it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT I HEARD ON THE POP RADIO")
PERE UBU: (Singing) Save the emotional garbage for someone who's going to pretend much better than I do. Gut up. Shut up. Take it like a man. A baby-voice gangster dreamboat. A bearded toff who sings like a girl. They got something they're going to want to sell you. Gut up. Shut up. Take it like a man. You got delusions. You have intentions. You think that this is real. Gut up. Shut up. Take it like a man.
TUCKER: Over the years, certain themes recurred in Thomas' songwriting. He wrote lyrics that revealed a deep knowledge of 20th-century hard-boiled fiction. Novelists like Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson and James Crumley would have covered their ears at Pere Ubu's noise, but they'd recognize a kindred spirit in the man who wrote repeatedly about desperate getaways in the ink-black night, about cynical men and tough women trying to make emotional connections.
In the extraordinary song called "Irene" from 2014's "Carnival Of Souls" album, Thomas steals a phrase from '50s rocker Screamin' Jay Hawkins to tell Irene he thinks their love is probably doomed. For a few moments, the harsh clatter of Pere Ubu music subsides. His croon only underlines his despair.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IRENE")
PERE UBU: (Singing) I put a spell on you 'cause you're mine. I put a spell on you, Irene. You will say you love me. And I will say it's all going to go wrong. It's not going to turn out very well at all.
TUCKER: Thomas' go-to facial expression was the scowl. He liked to come off crotchety and did not suffer fools gladly. In his later years, he'd sing while seated in a chair on stage, like a king surveying his subjects, like, in fact, the mad king Ubu in Alfred Jarry's 19th century absurdist play that inspired the band's name. This Pere Ubu enunciated like a man caught mumbling in a dream to convey the sound of distraction, confusion or pure bliss. In the song "Mandy" from the 2013 album "Lady From Shanghai," Thomas sings the line, I could sleep for a thousand years.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MANDY")
PERE UBU: (Singing) Another crazy jukebox is playing at the bottom of a hole in the holy. That's not good, my soul and my soul's out. I could sleep for a thousand years. I could sleep for a thousand years. Would you come out to play with me, Mandy? Would you come out to play?
TUCKER: The people overseeing Pere Ubu's Facebook page included this statement in announcing his death. David Thomas and his band have been recording a new album. He knew it was to be his last. We will endeavor to continue with mixing and finalizing the new album so that his last music is available to all. I can not wait to hear it.
GROSS: Ken Tucker is FRESH AIR's rock critic. David Thomas died April 23. He was 71. Tomorrow, our guest will be Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Michelle Williams. In the new limited TV series, "Dying For Sex," she plays a woman who finds out she's dying of cancer and decides to leave her unhappy marriage and her life behind to seek pleasure and sexual satisfaction. She'll tell us about portraying characters experiencing grief, loss and resilience. I hope you'll join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WORRIED MAN BLUES")
PERE UBU: (Singing) Takes a worried man to sing a worried song.
GROSS: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Bodonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Our cohost is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WORRIES MAN BLUES")
PERE UBU: The night is a river that hides the further shore and a bottom deep. When I woke, shackles bound my heart. Twenty-nine links of chain. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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