D. Boon was the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the California punk group The Minutemen. The band was known for their intelligent, yet radical, songs and minimalist approach to music. A typical Minutemen live performance would cram 50 songs into less than 40 minutes. The Minutemen released a series of albums and EPs between 1980 and 1985. Their most notable release was Double Nickels on the Dime, considered to be D. Boon at his best in both songwriting and guitar playing.
On December 22, 1985, Boon was in a van in the Arizona desert near the Californian border on route I-10. He had been sick with fever and decided to lie down in the rear of the van without a seatbelt. Boon’s girlfriend was driving when the rear axle broke and 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 Minutemen were one of those bands who truly sounded like no one else (and to this day no band sounds like them). D. Boon was a master musician who didn’t just make the kind of cromagnon punk rock that so many other SST artists were making at the time. Given the complexity and excellence of the Minutemen’s records, there’s no telling what the world lost when D. was killed.
I was about to leave a comment until I read the comment by “E.” above. Whoever that is, should write music reviews. What a talented writer! Is he in the music business? After reading that, I feel compelled to rush out and listen to some Minutemen music for the first time! Oh…great illustration by the way!