While the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, and Television are rightly heralded as the most earth-shaking bands to come out of New York's late 70's CBGB scene, it's easy to forget that Hilly Kristal's paradisiac punk rock dive bar saw the flowering genius of many other bands that have, to some degree, fallen through the cracks of new wave history. Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Dictators, and The Dead Boys can all boast substantial cult followings, but they, like their more famous CBGB counterparts, all worked under the new wave/punk rock tag that they helped to establish. With the punk community's creative and iconic stranglehold on the Bowery, there seemed to be little room for Mink DeVille's red-hot romance rock. Willy DeVille and his backing group served as CBGB's house band from 1975 to 1977, serving up a timeless blend of classic rock, blues, R&B, doo-wop, salsa, and the occasional odd zydeco tune. DeVille's skills as a pop songwriter are beyond reproach, but it ain't hard to see how his old-school approach to penning tunes might not have gelled with punk rock's "blank generation". Let's call Mink DeVille a classic case of wrong-place, right-time. After all, the mix of rock heaviness and R&B finesse that Willy was offering up would have fit in perfectly with the punkabilly reverberations of bands like X and The Gun Club in Los Angeles. Willy DeVille's death earlier this year has led to a new awareness of his work, and a well-need reevaluation of Mink DeVille's importance in the canon of 70's rock. The verdict? Classic and killer. Cabretta is slick, sweet, and downright lovable. The cod-Spanish gospel rock of "Spanish Stroll" remains Mink DeVille's best-known track, and its smiley rhythms and saucy come-ons still sound fresh and bold after three decades. "Venus Of Avenue D" is fierce and stylish, like some wondrous combination of Otis Redding and Roxy Music, while "Gunslinger" comes surprisingly close to the punk rock sound that Willy must've been exposed to on a daily basis. The saccharine sweetness of "Little Girl", on the other hand, sounds like the sort of love song that Joey Ramone must have loved to death.
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