Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1935. After
leaving school he joined the Navy and was sent to Korea. Returning to
the US, he was involved in a severe motorcycle accident in 1955 while
he was a naval dispatch rider. The accident shattered his left leg but
he refused to have it amputated, and it left him with a permanent limp
and chronic pain for the rest of his life.
It was Vincent's lame leg which instigated his singing
career when the injury put an end to his promising future in the Navy.
A local Disc Jockey encouraged Gene, and together they wrote the song
that would start it all - Be Bop A Lula.
This debut became an international hit in
1956 - a breathy shuffle punctuated by yelps of delight and a simple
but striking guitar solo - but Vincent did not achieve continued chart
success although he remained popular and proved influential on all manner of
subsequent bands and performers.
His backing band, The Blue Caps, were an excellent
band of fiery young rockers - indeed, many rate them as the first real
white rock group, with their two electric guitars, bass and drums
line-up that was to become the standard format. On stage and on
record, they were consistently exciting, yet commercially they failed
to sustain momentum.
Perhaps the reason was Vincent's appearance: he was
gaunt, angular, awkward in motion - compelling to watch but not
conventionally good looking. Perhaps it was his voice, a rare sound
caused by his exceptionally arched palate - beautiful on ballads but
weirdly distraught and frequently incomprehensible on up-tempo
material. mainly, though, it would seem that Gene Vincent and The Blue
Caps were just too primitive for mass acceptance.
At the end of the 1950s Vincent moved to Britain,
where he was decked out in black leather by impresario Jack Good and
enjoyed renewed popularity among rock-starved European fans. After
further injury in the car crash - on April 17, 1960 - which killed his friend
Eddie Cochran, he gradually deteriorated. Following a severe
psychopathic seizure on Christmas Day 1963 - when he tried to stab
manager Don Arden before clubbing his wife with his crutches - Vincent
was forced to seek psychiatric help, the benefits of which sadly
proved inadequate. He became increasingly prone to stalking hotel
corridors carrying a pistol and sporting a thousand-yard stare,
roaring "I'm a-gonna kill somebody!".
Gene Vincent eventually died from a ruptured stomach
ulcer - the result of long-term alcoholism - on October 12 1971
while visiting his family in California. He reportedly died on his
knees at his mother's feet, screaming in agony through vomits of blood
as his ulcer burst. His last words: "Mama, phone the ambulance
now". He was only 36.
TRIVIA NOTE
Legend has it that when Elvis Presley's
backing group first heard Be Bop A Lula on the radio in 1956,
its sex-crazed velvet purr was such that they were convinced The King
had surreptitiously recorded it under an alias.
| The
Blue Caps |
Cliff Gallup
Lead Guitar |
Willie Williams
Rhythm Guitar |
Jack Neal
Bass |
Dick Harrell
Drums
|
|
