Gene Vincent

Don't believe I've heard that one yet.
"Race With the Devil" is insane.

And his band members all shopped at the same haberdashery.
http://rocknrollconfidance.r.o.pic.centerblog.net/gx5msgzp.jpg

Total classic. Massively under-recognised.

Just rewatched "The Girl Can't Help It" the other night. Vincent's segment is perfection, and guitarist on the right above (Johnny Meeks?) is the shiznit.

Lots of stunning material on youtube, last time I looked.

He has a sexy voice.

Gene and Johnny Burnette >= Presley and JL Lewis.

I remember hearing "Catman" on John Peel, and thinking, "That's a total Birthday Party song", unaware that they'd already covered it.

The Birthday Party covered "Catman?????"

Where??

Interesting stuff, the stuff he did on John Peel's Dandelion label.
Obviously not really worthy of his other output but very HTF and under-discussed/appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvH1BZSmX_c

!!

Terrific stuff, but even Cave can't match Vincent for haunted intensity. Shall we mourn his decline in some thunderbird wine?

Couple of great Vincent stories: I've never been able to track the story down, and it's hardly a reliable source, but Malcolm Maclaren has always claimed that Vincent's departure from the US was hastened by his ranting that the country was being run by a bunch of fascists in a live radio broadcast.

On arrival in the UK, Rock'n'Roll impresario Jack Good decided to capitalise on his Vincent's limp by dressing him as a "Rock'n'Roll Richard III" in a black leather doublet and a regal gold chain, based on Olivier's performance in the Shakespeare play. Amazingly, Vincent went along with this outrageous strategy, and made it work. The young Ian Dury was suitably impressed.

just heard catman - 30 yrs aheadof his time?

wot's the best compilation to get? there's to many.

I just have a couple of old (but not vintage) vinyl comps, but I don't think there's really much out there that isn't great - I'd just go for the most comprehensive, cheapest or quickest to hand, depending on your priorities.

make sure Rollin' Dany's on it

"Woman Love" is so smutty sounding. One of those rockabilly songs that makes you understand why parents got worried.

if you had to start with a single disc or EP or single from gene vincent & the blue caps, which of these items would you choose?

currently leaning toward the self-titled album (their second full disc).

His stuff was so great until he started ruining it by having Jordanaires style backing vocals on every single song. In fact it might even have been the Jordanaires, I hate those bastards.

Cliff Gallup is so damn good

xgau picks, though w/o comments:

The Bop That Just Won't Stop (1956) [Capitol, 1974]
[CG70s: A Basic Record Library; CG80: Rock Library: Before 1980]

The Best of Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps [Capitol, 1985]
[CG80: Rock Library: Before 1980]

The Screaming End: The Best of Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps[Razor & Tie, 1996]
Sticking to 1956 tracks featuring the wild and quick guitarist Cliff Gallup and the propulsively light-handed 15-year-old drummer Dickie Harrell, 20 songs in 47 minutes add not so much flesh as spirit to the tales told of lesser rockabilly legends--Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Burnette, Charlie Feathers, Rick Nelson and his studio pal Charlie Burton, every one of whom this gimpy weirdo outruns to the poontang. The compositions may not be much, but that's what they said about Bo Diddley. "Race With the Devil," "Jump Back, Honey, Jump Back," "Woman Love," "B-I-Bickey Bi, Bo-Bo-Go"--they be rockin', and in a dialect no one would get so right again. A

Billy Zoom on working with Gene, from his Mark Prindle interview:

...if I'd been skinny and looked good in spandex, I might have had a whole different career. I might have jumped into that glam thing. But I didn't. And I started - well, I got that gig with Gene Vincent in '75, and that turned out to be the most fun I'd had playing in a while.

Was he friendly?

Gene?

Yeah.

Yeah, Gene was a great guy. The rest of the band sucked. The rest of the guys in the band were a bunch of hippies who thought - they weren't sure who Gene was, but they knew he'd been famous. But they were profoundly embarrassed; they said this on numerous occasions - that it was so embarrassing to play those stupid old songs in front of people. But they thought that maybe it would look good on their resume, you know? Gene was fun. We'd get him, uh - my favorite thing, I wish I'd had a tape recorder back then but I didn't. Cassettes were still kinda new when I did that. I would have really liked to get him in the motel room telling stories. Hooking Duane Eddy up with a transvestite in Soho - and not knowing that it was a guy. He had funny stories like that. About Eddie Cochran, and having adventures and stuff. I liked Gene.

Cliff Gallup is so damn good

Can you imagine hearing Cliff Gallup on your dansette in your bedroom in the Home Counties in 1956 the way Jeff Beck did? It must have sounded like it came from outer space!

OTM

Terrifying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9-ZQ9owbU0

His stuff was so great until he started ruining it by having Jordanaires style backing vocals on every single song. In fact it might even have been the Jordanaires, I hate those bastards.

― pisspoor bung probe prog (Tom D.), Sunday, 29 September 2024 17:11 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've long thought exactly the same about Elvis from 1956. On Hound Dog for example you've got this stinging solo by Scotty Moore and the Jordanaires pouring syrupy shit all over it. Ruined so much of Elvis' 50s work