Tuesday 30 August 2011

Mint Deville

I should do a post on the 70's blog about Mink DeVille. They're the kind of band that interest me these days - the kind that fall awkwardly between the "official" and "alternative" histories of pop and rock. Willy DeVille was a Seventies rock'n'roll revivalist with a difference; his aim was to repopularise the oft-forgotten hispanic, cajun and gitano roots of popular music. Coming from the wrong (ethnic) side of the tracks, when he sang about his girlfriend's parents not allowing her to see him, there was always an uncomfortable truth to it.

Here's a late(ish) gem from his solo days. It's just a great song.....

4 comments:

Greyhoos said...

DeVille was an odd one -- didn't quite fit in anywhere on the musical landscape of the time. Played at CBGB's, but probably/almost would've been more at home on Austin City Limits.

I recall there was a time in the '80s when I'd sometimes get him and Tav Falco mixed up. (In photos, at least.)

Phil Knight said...

Greyhoos - yeah that's an honest mistake. I knew about Tav Falco (Panther Burns) before I knew about Willy Deville.

I've gone through a strange loop in that I had loads of TF records in the '80's (all sorts of odd 10" records from Demon Records etc.) before I realised that Mink DeVille were better, and with less fuss.

Again, it's a point I'm often trying to make here: the more "conservative" (personally modest) artist is better than the "hip", "obscure" one.

Although Tav Falco was pretty good on his own account.....

Greyhoos said...

> and with less fuss.

Something to be said for that as a criterion, yeah.

I recall DeVille sometimes getting a little cranky about his vague & circumstantial association with Punk. I remember him back in the early '80s complaining to some U.K. music rag: "It's reached a point where every fucking art student who plays out of tune gets rewarded with a recording contact."

Martin Wisse said...

Oh, I don't know, there's something to be said for hip, edgy, flamboyant and transgressive as well.