This article is about the rock band Mink DeVille. For information about the band’s frontman and composer, see Willy DeVille.
Mink DeVille (1974–1986) was a
rock band 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. Except for frontman Willy DeVille, the original members of the band played only on the first two albums (
Cabretta and
Return to Magenta). For the remaining albums and for tours, Willy DeVille assembled musicians to play under the name Mink DeVille. After 1985, when Willy DeVille began recording and touring under his own name, his
backup bands were sometimes called “The Mink DeVille Band,” an allusion to the earlier Mink DeVille.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame songwriter
Doc Pomus said about the band, “Mink DeVille knows the truth of a city street and the courage in a ghetto love song. And the harsh reality in his voice and phrasing is yesterday, today, and tomorrow — timeless in the same way that loneliness, no money, and troubles find each other and never quit for a minute.”
[This quote comes from the back cover of Mink DeVille's 1978 album Return to Magenta.]
Beginnings in San Francisco
Mink DeVille was formed in in 1974 when
Willy DeVille (then called Billy Borsay) met drummer Thomas R. "Manfred" Allen, Jr. and bassist Rubén Sigüenza in
San Francisco. Said DeVille, “I met Manfred at a party; he'd been playing with
John Lee Hooker and a lot of blues people around San Francisco…. I met Rubén at a basement
jam in San Francisco, and he liked everything I liked from
The Drifters to, uh,
Fritz Lang."
[Rhodes, Dusty (1978) “Issue 13: Mink DeVille: Smooth Running Caddy: The Tale of the Mink.” Rock Around the World. (Retrieved 1-29-08.)] Willy DeVille occasionally sat in with the band Lazy Ace, which included Allen Jr. on drums and Ritch Colbert on piano. When Lazy Ace broke up, DeVille, Allen Jr., Colbert, Rubén Sigüenza, and guitarist Fast Floyd (later of Fast Floyd and the Famous Firebirds) formed a band called Billy DeSade & the Marquis.
