Early Life
Lurie was born in Minneapolis. Before marriage, his mother had been a painter and art teacher in Liverpool. Lurie was raised alongside two siblings, his brother Evan and his sister Liz. The family moved to New Orleans when John was six, later, they moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. In high school, Lurie played basketball and harmonica. He jammed on harmonica with Mississippi Fred McDowell, and with Canned Heat around 1968. He played harmonica in a band from Boston, but it did not work out. He switched to guitar and then saxophone.
After high school, Lurie hitchhiked across the U.S., seeing a lot of places including Berkeley, California. He moved to New York City around 1974, then briefly visited London where the punk music scene was beginning—it did not appeal to him. He was more interested in avant-garde jazz and no wave.
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