Peter Laughner (August 22, 1952 – June 22, 1977) was an American

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

. A native of

Bay Village, Ohio Bay Village is a city in western Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, the city is a western suburb of Cleveland and a part of the Greater Cleveland, Cleveland metropolitan area. The population was 16 ...

, Laughner was described by

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' The Daily P ...

as "probably the single biggest catalyst in the birth of Cleveland's

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

scene in the mid 1970s."

Music career

Laughner led a variety of groups. Among them were Mr. Charlie, Cinderella Backstreet, Peter & The Wolves, The Blue Drivers and Friction. However, his most enduring contributions were to Rocket From The Tombs and the early work of Pere Ubu. In addition to all this, he wrote for ''

Creem ''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American rock music magazine and entertainment company, founded in Detroit, whose initial print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor ...

'' magazine. Laughner was a voracious rock fan and writer, and was heavily influenced by the writings of

Lester Bangs Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist and critic. He wrote for ''Creem'' and ''Rolling Stone'' magazines and was also a performing musician. The music critic Jim DeRogatis called ...

. Like Bangs, Laughner admired

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

, but also drew inspiration from folk and blues figures such as

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...

and

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...

Tom Verlaine Thomas Joseph Miller (December 13, 1949 – January 28, 2023), known professionally as Tom Verlaine, was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, best known as the frontman of the New York City rock band Television. Biography Verlaine was ...

was also one of Laughner's idols.''Peter Laughner is dead'', Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic'', collected writings,

Greil Marcus Greil Marcus (né Gerstley; born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. Biogra ...

, ed. Anchor Press, 1988. () There have been suggestions that Laughner was briefly considered as a replacement for Richard Lloyd when he departed

Television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, a band he championed from their earliest days. However, Richard Lloyd disputes this.

Death

Laughner had severe drug and alcohol abuse problems that ultimately led to his death by

acute pancreatitis Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas. Causes include a gallstone impacted in the common bile duct or the pancreatic duct, heavy alcohol use, systemic disease, trauma, elevated calcium levels, hypertriglyceridemia (w ...

in 1977 at the age of 24. Lester Bangs wrote a eulogy for him, simply titled "Peter Laughner is Dead". Rumors to the effect that Laughner was despondent, even suicidal, at the time of his death have been contradicted by Laughner's last known message, written and mailed to Cleveland singer Ruby Port on the evening prior to his death. This letter revealed his intent to move to a retreat in the Ohio countryside, where he could write new music as well as rest and regain his health.

Recordings

Laughner's only known entrance into a recording studio was for the Pere Ubu single sessions, though he left behind countless

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

live, rehearsal, and demo recordings. In 1994, Tim/Kerr label released ''Take the Guitar Player for a Ride'', a 15-track LP drawn from these tapes, later re-released as a CD. This compilation sold poorly and has since gone out of print. Fans continue to circulate bootleg recordings and a Cleveland-based label, Handsome Productions, offers a comprehensive collection of his music on CD, officially endorsed by his estate. On October 3, 1973, Pete Laughner appeared as the hour's musical guest on the weekly ''Coffee Break Concert'' series broadcast over WMMS in Cleveland live from their studios. In June 2019, the Smog Veil record label released a 5-disc Laughner box set (with tapes procured from Handsome Productions, Pere Ubu's David Thomas, Tim Wright, and others). In addition to solo recordings, Laughner's live guitar and vocal work is available in the posthumous Rocket from the Tombs album ''The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs''.

Music career

Death

Recordings

References

Further reading