''Cabretta'', known as ''Mink DeVille'' in the United States, was the 1977 debut album by
Mink DeVille
Mink DeVille was a rock band founded in 1974, known for its association with early punk rock bands at New York's CBGB nightclub and for being a showcase for the music of Willy DeVille. The band recorded six albums in the years 1977 to 1985, afte ...
. It peaked at number 186 on the
''Billboard'' 200 chart and was voted the 29th best album of 1977 in the ''
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
s
Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abs ...
critics' poll. A
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
from the album, "
Spanish Stroll", was a top-20 hit in the UK.
''Cabretta'' was produced by
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...
, who would help shape Mink DeVille's sound and collaborate with lead singer and composer Willy DeVille for many years to come. Joining the band on saxophone was
Steve Douglas, who, like Nitzsche, is a member of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and who would also play on many Mink DeVille albums.
The album gets its name from a type of leather jacket (a cabretta leather jacket was worn by Ben Edmonds, the Capitol Records
A&R man who signed Mink DeVille in 1976). Willy DeVille said the Cabretta leather was like his band's music, tough but tender.
Reception
American Hit Network said of the album, "Under-promoted, under-appreciated and ultimately under-sold, ''Cabretta'' is a sleeper masterpiece that sounds as good today as it did in 1977." They added:
:Like all truly great rock and roll, the songs mix fantasy and longing... "Venus of Avenue D" and "Spanish Stroll" find their romance in the street, and both walk that line between lust and longing, in the feeling of getting turned on by somebody.
Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille (born William Paul Borsey Jr.; August 25, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American singer and songwriter. During his thirty-five-year career, first with his band Mink DeVille (1974–1986) and later on his own, DeVille created ori ...
’s character is tough as nails on the outside, but the hard surface doesn’t run deep enough to cover the heart that he wears on his sleeve. Even a casual listen to the album’s closing track, "Party Girls," makes this abundantly clear. DeVille’s a leather-jacketed romantic who looks so tough, but desperately wants the world to love him.
''
Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...
'' described the Mink DeVille of this era as follows:
:On a good night in the New York underground around 1976 or 1977, the band led by Willy DeVille...could be the coolest cats on the scene. Willy dressed like a pimp and played a guitar covered in leopard skin; swagger and soulful strut was a brisk rejoinder to the sloppy
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and wimpy
power pop
Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and c ...
bands they preceded and followed on stages. After the band was discovered, producer
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...
got them on the lean, tough
R&B beam for a first LP that sweats and smokes through and through as a classic of such fully and lovingly assimilated music should.
Other information
"Little Girl" was recorded originally by
The Crystals
The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", " ...
in 1964 under the title "Little Boy."
Willy DeVille said about the song "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl": "I know
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
likes it. It's about a woman I know who was
drug addict
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...
. She was mixed up and she was shook up. That's what it's about."
In liner notes to the 2001 compilation album ''Cadillac Walk: The Mink DeVille Collection'', Ben Edmonds relates how Mick Jagger dropped by the Hollywood recording studio where Jack Nitzsche was producing ''Cabretta'':
:Jack had assisted on several
Stones sessions, and it was his collaboration with Jagger on "
Memo from Turner
"Memo from Turner" is a solo single by Mick Jagger, featuring slide guitar by Ry Cooder, from the soundtrack of ''Performance'', in which Jagger played the leading role of Turner, a reclusive rock star. It was re-released in October 2007 on a ...
" that had me connect him with Mink DeVille in the first place. Jack put on a reel to show off his present work. Jagger listened to a couple of songs with polite disinterest, nodding approvingly to "Cadillac Walk." But when "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl" came rolling out of the playback monitors, Jagger was immediately out of his seat and moving to its bittersweet mid-tempo rhythms. He danced with a grace one seldom sees in his herky-jerk stage performances, enveloped in the music and oblivious to the rest of us in the room... It couldn't have been more perfect if I'd dreamed it.
[''See'' Edmonds, Ben (2001) Liner notes to ''Cadillac Walk: The Mink DeVille Collection.'']
"Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl" is not a cover of the song of the same name by
Patty & the Emblems.
Boz Scaggs covered "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl" and "Cadillac Walk" on his 2013 album ''
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
''.
Track listing
''Unless otherwise noted, all songs by Willy DeVille.''
#"Venus of Avenue D" – 4:57
#"Little Girl" (
Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry (born Joel Adelberg; April 3, 1938) is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer. Among the most successful songs that he has co-written in his career are " Do Wah Diddy Diddy", " Da Doo Ron Ron", " Then He Kiss ...
,
Ellie Greenwich
Eleanor Louise Greenwich (October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009) was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Be My Baby", "Maybe I Know", "Then He Kissed Me", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", ...
,
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...
) – 4:19
#"One Way Street" – 2:50
#"Mixed up, Shook up Girl" – 3:44
#"Gunslinger" – 2:09
#"Can't Do Without It" – 3:15
#"Cadillac Walk" (
John Martin) – 3:14
#"Spanish Stroll" – 3:38
#"She's So Tough" – 2:30
#"Party Girls" (Willy DeVille, Rubén Sigüenza) – 4:30
Personnel
*Thomas R. "Manfred" Allen, Jr. –
drums
*
Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille (born William Paul Borsey Jr.; August 25, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American singer and songwriter. During his thirty-five-year career, first with his band Mink DeVille (1974–1986) and later on his own, DeVille created ori ...
–
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
,
harmonica, vocals
*
Steve Douglas –
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
*
Louis X. Erlanger
Louis X. Erlanger (born June 3, 1952, New York City) is an American rock and roll and blues guitarist best known for his work with the band Mink DeVille. Erlanger recorded three albums with the band: '' Cabretta'' (1977), '' Return to Magenta'' ...
– guitar,
background vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...
*The Immortals - background vocals
**Max Bowman
**Val Heron
**Mike Johnson
*Bobby Leonards –
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
,
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
*Allen Rabinowitz - background vocals
*Rubén Sigüenza – bass
Production
*Leland Bobbe –
photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographers
As in other ...
*Don Henderson –
mixing assistant
*Eric Stephen Jacobs – photography
*Ray Janos – digital
remastering
*Kim King –
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
*Roy Kohara –
art direction
*
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...
–
producer
*
Art Sims –
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...
*Steve Wilson – reissue supervisor
Charts
References
External links
{{Authority control
1977 debut albums
Mink DeVille albums
Albums produced by Jack Nitzsche
Capitol Records albums