As the gravely voice wrapped around the music of Atlanta's Smoke and the Opal Foxx Quartet, a punk drag queen and self-proclaimed speed freak, Benjamin left a peculiar mark on the world. The labels he so easily acquired never accurately captured the confrontational eloquence of his music and his life.
As a musician he faced the dark side of humanity with poetic fervor, crafting an empire of songs that touched the carnal desires and self-destructive habits that were brashly reflected in his own lifestyle. After dying of complications related to Hepatitis C and HIV on January 29, 1999 -

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his 39th birthday - Benjamin seemed doomed to obscurity, having left only a handful of scattered, out-of-print recordings in his wake. If not for the release of the 2000 documentary Benjamin Smoke, directed by Jem Cohen (Fugazi's Instrument) and Peter Sillen (Speed Racer: Welcome to the World of Vic Chesnutt), his work may have been lost forever. The film, which chronicles Benjamin's life all the way to the inexorable end, is currently available on DVD from Plexifilm.
Five years after his death, Benjamin's presence lives on, not in chords, melodies and harmonies, but in the philosophies of national artists as varied as R.E.M., Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt and Cat Power, and local acts American Dream, Ladies Night and Hubcap City (From Belgium).

Development of a Foxx
Throughout the '80s, Benjamin instigated a legacy of impudence, beginning with his first band, a provocational punk-inspired outfit called Eastern Stars, and later in Freedom Puff. It was during these seminal years that Benjamin, born in 1960 as Robert Dickerson, caught the eye of Glen Thrasher, publisher of LowLife magazine. The two became friends, roommates and even bandmates in the group Medicine Suite. Thrasher (also the driving force behind the annual Destroy All Music festivals in the '80s, and host of the noise radio show of the same name on Georgia Tech's radio station 91.1 FM/WREK) became one of Benjamin's earliest proponents. Over the course of their 20-year friendship, he played Benjamin's recordings on the radio, published interviews in LowLife, and even included a few songs on compilations that came with the last few issues of the magazine.
"We first met at a club called 688 [a former Atlanta punk and new wave venue] where he took one look at me and said 'I can tell that you're evil,' and we were friends ever since," recalls Thrasher. "He started out just doing drag numbers where he would lip sync and do insane things like going to the 'Mr. Macho' contest at 688 and dress up in drag and dance to the Sonic Youth version of 'I Want to Be Your Dog.' From there he started playing in bands that were all very unmusical."
As time wore on, the "unmusical" nature of his groups developed a distinctive - and listenable - approach, which came to fruition in the Opal Foxx Quartet, fronted by Benjamin's drag alter ego Ms. Opal Foxx. The group played regular shows at the Little 5 Points Pub, now the 9 Lives Saloon.
It was during this era that Benjamin made the acquaintance of Athens' urban folk fixture Vic Chesnutt. The two met at an OFQ show in Athens at The Downstairs (now D.T.'s Downunder).
"I was a big fan of Benjamin's music, even before I had ever released any of my own records," says Chesnutt. "We became close friends and he always said that I was his favorite male vocalist, so whenever I was playing, and I knew was he listening, I was so scared to death. I had to be good and it made me so nervous. The song 'The Fox and Little Vic' [included as an exclusive extra feature on the Benjamin Smoke DVD] tells the story about the first time I met him. It was important that he like me, since I thought he was so fucking cool," Chesnutt continues. "Man, he really scared the fuck out of me."
In 1993, the group teamed up with R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe to produce The Love That Won't Shut Up. Artistically, the record succeeded, but after a less-than-enthusiastic response from the labels to which the group offered the recording, OFQ called it quits. Smoke formed soon after and in many ways was Benjamin's defining artistic gesture.

If You Can't Eat You Got to Smoke
Smoke formed in the summer of 1992 when Benjamin moved away from his drag alter ego. The group settled on a line-up that featured Brian Halloran (cello), Coleman Lewis (guitar), Tim Campion (drums), Bill Taft (cornet and banjo), and a few other occasional players. The group focused on writing original music that leaned toward a more sincere and refined approach than any of his previous endeavors.
"I knew Benjamin for more than 20 years," huffs Thrasher. "He spent the first half of that time absolutely pushing the edge. He had these ideas that he could do anything he wanted to do with art and if people were offended by it that was their problem, not his. He spent the other half just trying to make his music. At the time, I thought it was really tame and paled in comparison to what he had been doing in his previous group, but in hindsight, I can see that it was some of the best stuff he ever did and it's that music he'll be remembered for."
Finding a home amongst the remains of Atlanta's former cotton mill community, Cabbagetown (pre-gentrification), Smoke's sound wafted between Appalachian folk-art primitiveness and coarse urban decay. Themes of absurd surrealism and tragic beauty wove in and out of sparse string arrangements and carnival-esque dirges about everything from Luke

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Perry's feet to depression to awkward relationships. Comparisons to Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave were ever present, but fell short of conveying the rickety Southern murk of songs like "Curtains," "I Do" and "Clean White Bed."
"Benjamin was the best collaborator I ever had the chance to work with," says Taft.
He continues: "I always tell people he was the only honest man I've ever met. He would tell you straight up, 'Look, I want to fuck, I want to get high and I'll steal your shit. We're going to play shows together and that's all we're going to do.' That gave all of us in the band the option of saying, 'Hey man, don't steal my shit, don't get high until after the show and don't try to have sex with me, even though we all love you,' and with that understanding we made beautiful music together.
"Benjamin reminded me of a golf player. Instead of clubs he would have sheets of paper with lyrics on them and he would listen to the music the same way a golf player would look at a shot and then decide on a sheet of words to go with the music. If it worked, he would keep doing it. We got together every Tuesday night and practiced, and it was always very improvisational in terms of songwriting. Even with the structured songs we had, we never had a meeting about it or anything; it was all very easygoing."
The group released only two full-length recordings: its 1994 debut, Heaven on a Popsicle Stick, followed a year later by Another Reason to Fast, both issued by Atlanta label Long Play. Since then, both recordings have drifted in and out of print (though currently available through CDBaby.com), only adding to the group's mystique and increasing the price existing albums will fetch.

With Beauty, Hazard
As time marched on, Benjamin's unapologetic drug habits and unhealthy life style spiraled downward, and eventually he contracted HIV. Though hazy recollections, and a reluctance by most anyone who knew him to speak on record about Benjamin's drug habits further add to his mystique, problems became apparent. "They were dangerous times and Benjamin was a dangerous person," admits Thrasher. "Everyone walked a thin line back then."
"To tell you the truth," says Chesnutt, "I encouraged a lot of his lifestyle choices and engaged in a lot of his unpopular activities many times; we were notorious for it back then. In many ways it strengthened our relationship. But I also encouraged him to be strong and he always encouraged me to be strong as well, and not to kill myself... because I always wanted to, for one strange reason or another."
He continues: "I wasn't shocked when I found out he was sick, but I was so sad. When he died, the only positive thing that came out of it was that his suffering was over. Everything else just sucked."
Smoke never officially came to an end until Benjamin died. "We were really together up until the very end," adds Taft. "He was our center of gravity and we stuck together until it was no longer possible."
After his death, the group's members went their separate ways. Both Campion and Halloran moved away from Georgia. Taft continues playing in his own group, Hubcap City (From Belgium), while Lewis plays guitar in Cat Power.
"Benjamin made every one of us feel beautiful and gifted and excited to be making music," adds Taft. "He had a real knack for supporting everyone he wanted to work with and was able to bring out the best in his collaborators. That will always stay with me. I'm just as self-destructive as anyone else, but I've always thought that if Benjamin believed in me, then maybe I should too."

Chad Radford

See next week's Flagpole for more on the status of unreleased Smoke and Opal Foxx material.