Willy DeVille and Me…

DeVille knows the truth of a city street and the courage in a ghetto love song. And the harsh reality in his voice and phrasing is yesterday, today, and tomorrow - timeless in the same way that loneliness, no money, and troubles find each other and never quit for a minute. But fighters always have a shot of turning the corner, and if you holler loud enough, sometimes somebody hears you. And truth and love always separates the greats from the neverwases and the neverwillbes.
Doc Pomus
I still remember listening to bands like the Drifters…It was like magic, there was drama and it would hypnotize me. Listening to the radio and the songs I would get, you know, like images of the story in my head, like reading a book and you imagine what’s going on. I would see the music like that too, in my head while listening…
Willy DeVille

I still have the voice; it's better than ever, and I look great. I still have the clothes and the moves. For me, rock & roll has always been about the theatrical show as well as the music. They dig that in Europe. They dig mystique; they dig sincerity; they dig that the music, the words, are still about simple street poetry; they still dig soul music, too... It's simple. We offer simple songs about common and complicated experiences. That's what good rock & roll music does. It's real on that stage; it's a good show, the songs are, they make me proud. They come from the places I live and they scare even me sometimes.
Willy DeVille - 2006
I've been an admirer of Willy's since hearing his stunning voice on the radio for the first time. He has an enormous range, with influences from all corners of the country, from Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and New Orleans music to Latin, folk-rock, doo-wop, Ben E. King style soul and R&B – all part of the New York mix. The songs he writes are original, often romantic and always straight from the heart. He can paint a character in a few words. When we worked on his Miracle album I enjoyed the occasional opportunity to offer a chord or two to go with his great lyrics.
Mark Knopfler

***Savoir Faire (1981) signed by Willy***

Willy DeVille, the pride of Avenue A and the Lower East Side, is one of my favorite musicians. Born William Paul Borsey Jr. in Stamford, Connecticut, Willy dropped out of high school when he was 16 and started playing in local bands and hanging out on the Lower East Side and the West Village. In 1971, he traveled to London in search of a sound. He found none. When he returned to the United States two years later, Willy bought a van and drove to San Francisco, and the remnants of the psychedelic guitars and music he found there left him wanting. He finally found some like minded musicians in 1974 and formed Mink DeVille. Willy described the name's origin: "Well, we were sitting around talking of names, and some of them were really rude, and I was saying, guys we can’t do that. Then one of the guys said how about Mink DeVille? There can’t be anything cooler than a fur lined Cadillac, can there?"

One day, while looking at a week old copy of the Village Voice in the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, Willy saw an advertisement for a house band audition at a fledgling New York City club, CBGB. Willy jumped at the opportunity, "So I had convinced the guys that I could get them work, and we climbed in the van and drove back the other way. We got here and auditioned, along with hundreds of others, but they liked us and took us on. That was like '74-'75, and we played there for three years. You know, during that time we didn’t get paid more than $50 bucks a night." And the $50 was for the entire band! No wonder, when CBGB was closing in 2006 after its historic thirty three year run, Willy wanted no part in the celebrations. He felt no love for owner Hilly Kristal, three years of low wages had left a permanent singe in his psyche. And wallet!

CBGB, in the Bowery in New York City, quickly became ground zero for the American New Wave/Punk Rock scene. Blondie, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Television and Patti Smith performed regularly at this groundbreaking club. The Bowery, in those days, was hardly gentrified. It was rough and tumble, and Willy and his burgeoning heroin addiction were most welcome. In truth, Willy had little in common with his CBGB counterparts. Willy was a classic romanticist and a powerful, emotive singer and songwriter. Willy wrote ballads which fused blues, Latin, soul, even French cabaret with classic rock and roll rhythms. His heroes were The Drifters, Darlene Love, The Ronettes, Tito Puente, and the songwriters of the Brill Building - Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Doc Pomus, and so many others. In fact, Willy collaborated with Doc Pomus (who wrote "A Teenager In Love", "Little Sister", "This Magic Moment" and "Save The Last Dance For Me") on several songs including the heartbreaking, barroom closing ballad "Just To Walk That Little Girl Home." The opening stanza sets forth the forlorn yearning:

It's closing time in this nowhere café
There's no way in the world I'm gonna let that girl
Let her slip away
No I can't explain just what's happening to me
I can tell that guy who's sticking close by her side
Knows her more than just casually

I mean, Debbie Harry of Blondie was beautiful and sang some catchy songs, but she didn't have the chops to write with Doc Pomus! Not many did.

***Where Angels Fear To Tread (1983) signed by Willy***

Willy recorded his first album, Cabretta, in 1977 and he enlisted Jack Nitzschke to helm the production. Nitzschke was Phil Spector's right hand man and was responsible for the orchestration on Ike & Tina Turner's transcendent "River Deep, Mountain High", the choral arrangements on The Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and the production on "A Man Needs A Maid" and "There's A World" off Neil Young's Harvest, to name a few credits in his illustrious career. Willy and Jack (Willy's "mentor and tormentor") would collaborate on two more albums, Return To Magenta (1978) and Coup de Grace (1981), and months before he died in 2000, Jack said that Willy DeVille was the best singer he ever worked with. High praise from a studio magician who also worked countless sessions with The Wrecking Crew, a Los Angeles based group of first call musicians like Hal Blaine, Leon Russell, Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, and Steve Douglas. Cabretta featured the songs, "Venus Of Avenue D", "Spanish Stroll", a cover of The Crystal's "Little Boy" (rechristened "Little Girl") and "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl", which Willy described directly: "It's about a woman I know who was a drug addict. She was mixed up and she was shook up. That's what it's about." Admittedly gritty subject matter, but Willy wrote what he lived.

if Willy was mistakenly miscast as a New Wave artist, he was decidedly Old Wave in his songwriting. Inspired by the recordings of Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel, Willy went to Paris in 1979 to record his third album, Le Chat Bleu. For the rest of his career, Willy tried to recreate the magic he heard on the vinyl of Piaf and Brel. These songs were drenched in the pathos of cabaret and chanson, the sounds of accordions, flamenco guitar flourishes, and lavish string arrangements by Jean-Claude Petit and Charles Dumont, the writer of Piaf's signature, "Je Ne Regrette Rien." Capitol Records was none too pleased when Willy returned to New York with the master tapes.

As Willy explained, "On Le Chat Blue we had all these great people involved, you know, and we thought we had something great. I came back to America, and my label at that time said, 'Well, we think we should put it on the shelf for a while.' This was right before Christmas for God's sake when you know people are going to be buying stuff, so I asked them what the problem was. They said they had never heard anything like it before and didn't know what to do with it. We had Charles Dumont, Elvis's goddamned rhythm section, and they say they've never heard anything like it. I was heartbroken and angry. Finally Maxime Schmidt from my distributor in France (EMI Paris) phones and he says, 'Willy what's going on?' So I told him. He said, 'Don't worry, we'll release it over here.' We did, and then it became a matter of not what are we going to do with Willy Deville, but who the hell let him get away. As an import it was racking up great sales here. Capitol finally went and released a copy of it..."

***Le Chat Bleu (1980) signed by Willy, panther tattoo on Toots, Willy’s first wife***

I saw Willy DeVille (he dropped the band name Mink DeVille after ten years because he was tired of people calling him Mink!) at Tramps, 51 West 21st Street, in New York City in 1998. Tramps was a good size venue with great sight lines and seats for 800-1,000. As an intro, Willy's band did an instrumental version of "Slow Drain" which sounded like some "funkafide filth" dragged from a muddy New Orleans bayou. A Hammond B3 added to the grease, and a bumpin' three piece horn section with congas helped syncopate the grooves. Awaiting his arrival, Willy's mic stand was entwined with a dozen or more red roses. In mid-song, Willy entered, smoking a cigarette to great applause. A cigarette would remain lit for the entire show, smoking bans be damned! Willy and his band went through his catalog, including an anthemic "This Must Be The Night", the salsa exuberance of "Demasiado Corazon" and "Spanish Stroll" (with shout outs to Tito Puente and Ray Barretto), a flamenco infected "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl" and a mariachi horn fueled cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe." It was a remarkable performance that highlighted Willy's range and depth.

Willy also performed "Storybook Love" - his Academy Award nominated song from The Princess Bride. He mentioned how difficult the session was with former Dire Strait Mark Knopfler who served as producer and guitarist. They got a memorable song but it was contentious. As Willy admitted, "Nothing good is going to be easy." In a later interview, Willy revealed, "I was half asleep when the phone rang. It was the Academy of Arts and Scienceswith the whole spiel. I hung up on them! They called back and Lisa (his wife) answered the phone. She came in to tell me that I was nominated for "Storybook Love." It's pretty wild. It's not the Grammys — it's the Academy Awards, which is different for a musician. Before I knew it, I was performing on the awards show with Little Richard. It was the year of Dirty Dancing, and they won."

After the show, I went in search of the Tramps' dressing room. I saw some security in the basement so I decided a frontal assault might not work. So I worked a flank approach which meant going through a labyrinthine maze through a back basement entrance which ultimately led to Willy's dressing room. It was nothing formal, no door to knock on, just a curtained off portion of the basement. Willy stood to greet me and he was very warm and welcoming. He was tall, at least 6' 3", rail thin, black hair swept back in his trademark pompadour, pencil-thin mustache with soul patch, and a ruffled shirt modestly unbuttoned. His eyes were clear. I told him how much I enjoyed his show, he thanked me, lit up a cigarette, grabbed a pen and started signing the vinyl. I asked him about New Orleans. He said, "I really enjoy living there, there's always lots of great music." I told him how much I loved Victory Mixture, a CD he recorded in New Orleans with local legends Dr. John, Eddie Bo, and Allen Toussaint. "Maybe, I'll record another...." and his voice trailed off. I thanked him again for his great music and split with my loot.

Sadly, Willy passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2009. I guess, his hard living, incessant smoking, and drug abuse caught up with him. But what an amazing discography he left. His songs are like three minute cinematic treasures, and his music holds up very well thirty-five years later unlike some of his CBGB brethren. No less a figure than the American Bard, Bob Dylan said In 2015 that Willy should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "(DeVille) stood out, his voice and presentation ought to have gotten him in there by now."

I agree with Dylan. Here's hoping Willy DeVille gets the recognition he richly deserves. As Willy once said, "... I have to wonder about the music business. It's just like everybody wants to be a star, but doesn't really care what they put out as long as it makes money. Nobody wants to be the poet anymore, because there ain't any money in it."

Thanks for all the poetry, Willy, and the tunes!

Choice Willy DeVille Cuts (per BK's request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoP2R_yEPtg

"Amazing Grace" Solo - Willy on slide, yes he was!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqUud79kPaE

"Just To Walk That Little Girl Home" Live 1980

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XIMx6ULepI

"Hey Joe" Willy takes Jimi South of the Border

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDBfH3TOSug

"Demasiado Corazon" - Bring on the dancing girls!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uipDEjfLsg

"Mixed up Shook Up Girl" Live at The Olympia - 1993