Anyone else love that first Mink DeVille album from way back in 1977? Sometimes called just Mink DeVille, and sometimes (and I think more properly) known as Cabretta, which is how it is titled on the back cover. But no matter what it's called, it is and always has been a classic in my mind. Just 10 songs clocking in at about 35 minutes, like so many of the LPs back in those days, yet sequenced with the fast and slow songs interspersed giving it a nice ebb and flow. Still goes by pretty fast. I guess it's partly because I like all the songs so much. Nothing to drag it down. Anyway, great album. Willy has a very distinctive and soulful voice and a very tight band working behind him on this one. Add in a well written collection of tunes with a couple well chosen covers and add a top producer in Jack Nitzsche and the scene was set. I read a nice interview awhile back with Willy DeVille which ends with a very telling line, something that seems to characterize a lot of classic albums - that being the artist really had no idea at the time how good it was, nor exactly where the magic came from. Guess that's why they seldom recreate that greatness again .... "Jack and I hit it off beautifully. It's a real spiritual relationship. Sometimes it's like looking in a mirror with him . . . it got to the point where I didn't even have to talk, just say, 'Jack . . . ' and he'd say, 'Yeah, I think so . . . ' It was very tight, very magic -- a lot of pressure, but good, positive pressure. It snowballed. There is something in that album that I don't even understand."

Yep - I had Cabretta somewhere on my Listmania. One of my all-time faves.

Yeah, looks like it's just you and me Radcliffe. How can such a nice album be so underappreciated? I mean, sure it's not Wolf Parade, but c'mon, it's a semi-classic! Hehehe, do you have a link handy to that listmania of yours? I never got involved in those but I'm sure it would be fun to check out some of them. You never struck me as a list maker type of guy

And just to be fair to old Willy, I loved some of his subsequent albums too, with and without his brother and the rest of the crew, just not quite as much. Those were special days.

Nah, there are other fans. This is a great, great album. He had such a great voice. About this time I saw Mink Deville (which was the Band, yes? Willy is the singer) headline at the Santa Monica Civic... Aerosmith opened for them. He was so soulful live...well, recorded too.

Yeah I'm a fan too...

Speaking as someone completely oblivious to Mink DeVille -- I thought it was just your typical 80's fare, a la Corey Hart, etc. Judging by the cover, that is...I will have to check it out...

Because knowing who Jack Nietzche is is enough to get you 10 years in Gitmo..what are you gonna be pumping next "St. Giles Cripplegate"?

--And if you DO, I want BOTH

Sometimes I feel like I need a translator around here

Not sure Jack Nitzsche ever generated enough controversy to get me a vacation in Gitmo, although he did go off the deep end on occasion, but his name does show up on some of my favorite albums from the 70s like that Mink DeVille, and Graham Parker's Squeezing Out Sparks, and some of those early Neil Young epic songs. Never heard any of his solo stuff, but apparently he recorded some pretty eclectic ones that never made it to the store, fueled by lots of drugs and alcohol. I wonder how many people have actually heard that St. Giles album? I know he didn't think much of Neil Young after working with him. Not sure what he thought about some of the others.

<=== listening to Return To Magenta this AM.