Willy DeVille

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Willy DeVille
Origin Flag of the United States San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genre(s) Punk, Rock, Rock, Cajun, Soul, Latin, Cabaret
Years active 1976 — present
Label(s) ERA Records
Atlantic Records
Capitol
Associated
acts		 Mink DeVille
Image:Willy DeVille horse of a different color.jpg
Willy DeVille on the sleeve of his 2001 album, Horse of a Different Color

Willy DeVille (born William Borsay, 27 August 1950, New York) is an American singer and songwriter; he was the lead singer and composer of the rock band Mink DeVille. Critic Robert Palmer wrote about him in 1980, "Mr. DeVille is a magnetic performer, but his macho stage presence camouflages an acute musical intelligence; his songs and arrangements are rich in ethnic rhythms and blues echoes, the most disparate stylistic references, yet they flow seamslessly and hang together solidly. He embodies (New York's) tangle of cultural contradictions while making music that's both idiomatic, in the broadest sense, and utterly original."[1]

Contents

As a teenager, DeVille had a band named Billy and the Kids. He moved to London looking to form a band, but was unsuccessful finding like-minded musicians. Eventually, he landed in San Francisco, where he formed a band with bassist Rubén Sigüenza and drummer Tom "Manfred" Allen. The band played under the names Billy DeSade & the Marquis and the Lazy Eights before settling on the name Mink DeVille. Later, DeVille took the band to New York City, where they hired guitarist Louis X. Erlanger, whose arranging skills helped further shape the band's sound. Mink DeVille became one of the original house bands at CBGB, the New York nightclub where punk rock music was born in the mid 1970s. By Mink DeVille's fourth album, Coup de Grâce in 1981, the original members of the band except Willy DeVille had left. DeVille began recording under his own name in 1987.

The typical DeVille song — if any of his songs can be called "typical" — is filled with romantic conviction and yearning. Latin rhythms, blues riffs, strains of country music, and echoes of early-1960s uptown soul can be heard in DeVille's work. "Spanish Stroll" was a hit in the U.S. and the UK in 1977; "Storybook Love" (nominated for an Academy Award in 1987) is the theme song of the movie The Princess Bride; DeVille's "Just to Walk that Little Girl Home" (co-authored with Doc Pomus) can be heard in the movie "The Pope of Greenwich Village"; and his "It's So Easy" can be heard in the movies "Cruising" and "Grindhouse: Death Proof." His song "Assassin of Love" was used in the British film version of Martin Amis' novel The Rachel Papers in 1989, which helped make him known in the UK.

DeVille acted in two films in the 1980s, playing a hustler in Va Banque (1986) and a bodyguard in Homeboy in 1988.

Why DeVille isn't as popular as, for example, Bruce Springsteen, and why DeVille isn't as popular in America as Europe, will always be a mystery to his fans. DeVille suffered from drug addiction for many years, which stifled his career. Among musicians and songwriters, he is highly respected. Songwriter Doc Pomus said about Deville, "He knows the truth of a city street and the courage in a ghetto love song." Critic Robert Christgau was not as kind, calling him "the songpoet of greaser nostalgia."[2] However, Robert Palmer wrote, "Certainly his music had an authenticity, a kind of New York soul, that few of his fellow travelers on the punk-rock circuit even aspired to."[3]

DeVille has homes in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Venus of Avenue D; Little Girl; One Way Street; Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl; Gunslinger; Can't Do without It; Cadillac Walk; Spanish Stroll; She's So Tough; Party Girls
Guardian Angel, Soul Twist, "A" Train Lady, Rolene, Desperate Days, Just Your Friends, Steady Drivin' Man, Easy Slider, I Broke that Promise, Confidence to Kill
This Must Be the Night, Savoir Faire, That World Outside, Slow Drain, You Just Keep Holding on, Lipstick Traces, Just to Walk that Little Girl Home, Turn You Every Way But Loose (American release only), Bad Boy, Heaven Stood Still, Mazurka (European release only)
Just Give Me One Good Reason, Help Me Make It (Power of a Woman's Love), Maybe Tomorrow, Teardrops Must Fall, You Better Move On, Love & Emotion, So in Love Are We, Love Me Like You Did Before, She Was Made in Heaven, End of the Line
Each Word's a Beat of My Heart, River of Tears, Demasiado Corazon, Lilly's Daddy's Cadillac, Around the Corner, Pick Up the Pieces, Love's Got a Hold on Me, Keep Your Monkey Away From My Door, Are You Lonely Tonight?, The Moonlight Let Me Down
In the Heart of the City, I Must Be Dreaming, Italian Shoes, Slip Away, When You Walk My Way, A Woman's Touch, Easy Street, Little By Little, There's No Living (without Your Loving), Something Beautiful Is Dying

(Due To) Gun Control, Could You Would You, Heart and Soul, Assassin of Love, Spanish Jack, Miracle, Angel Eyes, Nightfalls, Southern Politician, Storybook Love
Hello My Lover, It Do Me Good, Key to My Heart, Beating Like a Tom-Tom, Every Dog Has Its Day, Big Blue Diamonds, Teasin' You, Ruler of My Heart, Who Shot the La-La, Junkers Blues
Empty Heart, All in the Name of Love, Lonely Hunter, Even While I Sleep, Voodoo Charm, Come to Poppa (CD only), Chemical Warfare, Hey! Joe, I Call Your Name, I Can Only Give You Everything (CD only), Jump City, Bamboo Road, All in the Name of Love (Salvation Army Version) (CD only)
Lilly's Daddy's Cadillac; This Must Be the Night; Savoir Faire; Cadillac Walk; Bamboo Road; Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl; Heart and Soul; Can't Do Without It; Maybe Tomorrow; I Must Be Dreaming; Heaven Stood Still; Demasiado Corazon; Spanish Stroll; Stand By Me; Hey! Joe
Jump City, Every Dog Has Its Day, Hello My Lover, Key to My Heart, Bamboo Road, Iko Iko, Meet the Boys (on the Battlefront), Just Off Decatur Street, Leasing You, Beating Like a Tom-Tom, Who Shot the La-La, Voodoo Charm
No Such Pain as Love, Running through the Jungle, When You're Away from Me, Angels Don't Lie, Still (I Love You Still), White Trash Girl, You'll Never Know, Ballad of the Hoodlum Priest, Heart of a Fool, Asi Te Amo, Loup Garou, Time Has Come Today, My One Desire (Vampir's Lullaby)
Gypsy Deck of Hearts; Across the Borderline; Lay Me Down Easy; Goin' over the Hill; One Love, One Lifetime; Needles and Pins; 18 Hammers; (Don't Want You) Hanging Around My Door; The Downing of the Flamingo; Bacon Fat; Time to Time; Chicken
St. Peter’s Street, Betty & Dupree, It’s Too Late She’s Gone, Spanish Harlem, Trouble in Mind, Storybook Love, Big Blue Diamonds, Shake It Sugaree, Let It Be Me, This Is the Way to Mend a Broken Heart, Hound Dog, Junkers Blues, You Better Move On, Nightfalls, Since I’ve Met You Baby, Heaven Stood Still, Well It’s True So True, Keep a Knockin’ – Sea Cruise, Shake Rattle and Roll, One Night of Sin, Steady Drivin’ Man, Goin’ over the Hill, Bamboo Road, Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot, Carmelita, All by Myself, Billy the Kid
  • Crow Jane Alley (Eagle) 2004
Chieva; Right There, Right Then; Downside of Town; My Forever Came Today; Crow Jane Alley (For Jack); Muddy Waters Rose out of the Mississippi Mud; Come a Little Bit Closer; Slave to Love; (Don’t Have) a Change of Heart; Trouble Comin’ Everyday in a World Gone Wrong
  • Pistola (Eagle), 2008 (to be released in February)

  • Live at CBGB’s (Omfug) 1976
Cadillac Moon, Let Me Dream if I Want To, Change It Comes
"Heat of the Moment," "It's So Easy," "Pullin' My String" (Columbia; JC 36410)
"Storybook Love" (Warner Bros.; WARN 25610)
"The Lovers (Les amants)" (Amherst Records; AMH 5500-2)
  • The Orleans Records Story 1999
"Jump Steady Come My Way" (Orleans Records; OR 2311)
"It's So Easy" (Maverick, Warner Bros.; AWAR 106172)

  • The Berlin Concerts – EMS (2dvd special edition) 2002 [Disc one - Unplugged in Berlin Columbia Hall / Disc two - Live at The Metropol - Berlin]
  • Willy DeVille Live in the Lowlands (Eagle Vision) 2006

  1. ^ Palmer, Robert (September 18, 1980) "Pop: Willy DeVille Band." New York Times; p. C32.
  2. ^ Christgau, Robert (1978) Mink DeVille Consumer Reviews.
  3. ^ Palmer, Robert (April 20, 1981) "Willie Deville and Band." New York Times.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_DeVille"
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