Mink DeVille
Mink DeVille often seemed to be the odd men out at New York's punk
mecca, CBGB's, in the mid 1970s. They headlined with Television,
Blondie and Talking Heads, but their rock 'n' soul music was a
post Brill Building blend of American gumbo: New Orleans funk,
Latin salsa, Zydeco and doo-wop.
Frontman Willy DeVille (aka Connecticut-born William Borsey)
cut something of a 1950s figure, with his sharp suits and pointed
Italian shoes topped off by a pencil moustache and the kind of
pompadour Little Richard might gasp at.
DeVille's gravel voice helped propel Spanish Stroll -
from the Jack Nitzsche-produced debut LP, Cabreta - into
the UK Top 20 in August 1977. DeVille always claimed his one
ambition was "to play music that would make the glasses
dance on the bar" and, with Spanish Stroll, he
achieved just that - an effervescent cocktail of Lou Reed
and Ritchie Valens, with a Rock & Roll
swagger Springsteen would die for.
Nitzsche stuck around for Return To Magenta before
DeVille sacked all but one of his band and decamped to Paris for
his masterpiece 1980's Le Chat Bleu.
His songwriting partner on a record soaked in accordion and
cabaret music was the mighty Doc Pomus, who observed "DeVille
knows the truth of a city street and the courage in a ghetto love
song".
DeVille battled heroin addiction in the 1980's, but his song Storybook
Love - from the film The Princes Bride -
was Oscar nominated in 1987.
Recent albums - especially 2005's Crow Jane Alley,
seemed to confirm him as clean and creative once more, but
sadly Willy DeVille passed away in 2009. He was 59.
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