Mink DeVille

Mink DeVille
Members of Mink DeVille in 1977; Louis X. Erlanger (left) and Willy DeVille (right)
Background information
Also known as	The Mink DeVille Band
Origin	San Francisco
Genres	Rock, punk rock, soul, rhythm and blues, blues, cabaret, Cajun, Latin
Years active	1974–86
Labels	Capitol, Atlantic, Polydor
Associated acts	Jack Nitzsche, Doc Pomus
Past members	Willy DeVille Rubén Sigüenza Thomas R. "Manfred" Allen, Jr. Fast Floyd (Robert McKenzie) Ritch Colbert Louis X. Erlanger Bobby Leonards Allen Rabinowitz Vinnie Cirincione George Cureau Jr Paul James (Canadian musician) Joey Vasta Kenny Margolis Louis Cortelezzi Tommy Price

Mink DeVille (1974–86) 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.”

Mink DeVille was formed in 1974 when singer 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." 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 Robert McKenzie (a.k.a. Fast Floyd, later of Fast Floyd and the Famous Firebirds) formed a band called Billy de Sade and the Marquis. "We were playing the leather bars down on Folsom Street," Willy DeVille recalled. "We were Billy de Sade and the Marquis then. We played the Barracks. After a while they would take their clothes off. This one guy—Jesus Satin he called himself—he'd dance on the pool table. It was nuts! Crazy!"