nourishing obscurity

Occasionally, a musical evening is particularly special to your humble blogger and this is one of the few. It’s from a tour just before the artist died, at the Museumplatz in Bonn and there are far too many tracks up on youtube to include.

Without further ado – Mink de Ville’s best known track, Spanish Stroll:

Daily Telegraph critic Neil McCormick wrote, of Mink de Ville:

Willy was an entirely different creature, a macho dandy in a pompadour and pencil moustache, with the dangerous air of a New York gangfighter and an underbelly vulnerability that came out through the romanticism of his music. Springsteen sounded like he was your friend in desperate times. DeVille sounded like he couldn’t quite decide whether to serenade you or pull a knife on you.

This track below showed his eclecticism – raw singing, sometimes discordant riffs but underlaid by a powerful, almost wave like, massaging rhythm. May I humbly suggest that this needs good speakers or earphones, with the volume cranked up just a wee bit to catch those opening chords. If the audience puzzles you – they’re German and probably can’t understand his lyrics in their entirety, not that it’s important on this track.  Check the slide guitar work:

Mink de Ville arose out of punk but with elements of Muddy Waters, Elmore James, the Drifters and Santana. Ben Edmonds of Capital records said:

They seemed to contain all the flavors of their New York neighborhood, from Spanish accents to reggae spice.

It might have been one reason why they didn’t become more mainstream. Not unlike this blog itself, it was a bit of this, a bit of that and though it was original, the front man was a person you either had affection for or you wouldn’t give the time of day to.

Willie’s vocals, quite frankly, were harsh but he’d had a harsh life, a street life and a drugs problem, he was intensely shy, had that dandyish look, not particularly prepossessing or good looking and he could be cold, seemingly arrogant but very vulnerable, all in one. You could admire him but it was hard to love him.

Yet he was capable of songs like this:

You promised me just a kiss and a slow embrace, you promised me, like I promised you to stand by me and I would stand by you … and the choir sang Ave Maria. I look into your eyes that say a million things, cathedral bells, they start to ring and you were mine, yes, you were mine, you were mine forever and ever, heart and soul.

I didn’t include many tracks due to lack of space but this one is a slow blues number he opened the concert with and this is one of his rockier numbers.

Here’s one of his earlier performances of Love and Emotion and two from a different concert:  Across the Border and Carmelita.

This second last track is dedicated to someone still special to me whom I was in contact with yesterday.  The last thirty seconds say it all:

The last track this evening shows Willie’s awkwardness with audiences – watch the flower throwing at the very end, as he doesn’t really know how to sign off.  By the way, from 3:50 to 3:52, there’s a dark-haired lady in the front row, wearing blue, with a blue, burgundy and white bangle on her left wrist [or maybe a swatch] whom I’d quite like to meet.

Some of the lyrics:

I don’t believe you know what’s right or wrong – this is the price I pay for feeling so strong over you. You know that all of the time, I laid my heart on the line and how I was so blind – I’d only see the good side of you …

I remember that night, I remember the rain, I wandered the streets, lost in this pain over you. Yes, I wish I could take you away from your friends, dragging you down but you’re still hanging round with them …

Oh and one last thing, if I may – this is my favourite Mink de Ville track, especially the last minute or so where it picks up:

Hope you enjoyed them all.

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