Willy and his wife Toots
 
In a more perfect world, Willy DeVille (August 25, 1950 – August 6, 2009) would have been a huge star. He had the voice, the look, the chops and the charisma.

I remember seeing Mink DeVille perform at Trax in New York City in 1977. Mick Jagger was sitting at a table near the stage when Willy and his band came out. DeVille was dressed to kill, in snakeskin boots and gravity-defying pompadour. They tore into “Spanish Stroll” and I looked over at Jagger. Mick looked awestruck and, to my eyes, a little bit scared. It was as if he were watching a harder core version of himself. I wondered in that moment if Jagger was thinking that Mr. DeVille might dethrone him as rock and roll’s Satanic Majesty. The band played a scorching set and Jagger’s eyes never left the stage.

I knew Willy and the guy was the real deal.  His whole being radiated a downtown Manhattan vibe that was mythic, romantic and dark. A badass with a sweet side and a sardonic smile, DeVille walked the walk - rock and roll poetry embodied.

DeVille had to leave his beloved New York in order to make a living in Europe. He couldn’t sell records in the States. People just couldn’t figure him out. Punker than punk, but not really a part of any scene, Deville was his own animal, modern and yet rooted in old-school r&b, as comfortable with the music coming off the Bowery as he was with the sounds of Fifties Harlem, doo-wop and Louisiana zydeco. He was a musical shapeshifter that confounded record companies in his pursuit of his own vision and style. The fact that he never “made it” in the States is a commentary on the parochial nature of the American music business and mainstream rock audiences complete lack of curiosity and taste

Mink Deville at Winterland in 1978.
 

W.C. Hardy’s “St. Louis Blues”
 
Between the years of 1946 - 1961 one of the only ways to listen to American blues, jazz and rock’n’roll in Russia was to obtain smuggled records, some made on old x-rays. There’s a long article and back story about these interesting x-ray records on Spiegle.de, but it’s all in German and a little bit difficult to make sense of using Google Translate. 

If you got caught with American popular music back then, you could find yourself in a world of hurt. Apparently it could get you thrown out of school or even arrested in extreme cases, but still the population wanted to hear the music. These x-ray records are physical artifacts from that era of Soviet censorship.
 

Percy Faith’s “Delicado”
 

Fred Astaire’s “Cheek to Cheek”
 

Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”
 
(via Nerdcore)

 
Sometime in 1974, an unknown, all-girl rock group from Switzerland performed an extremely mild version of Slade’s “Gudbye T’Jane.”  This is very, very Swiss.

Celtic Frost aside, the Swiss are not a people well-known for rocking out, are they? The “Swiss rock” Wikipedia entry is rather short, which is hardly surprising.
 

 
Thank you Douglas Hovey!

 
Imagine the hours of fun you could have torturing your pets with this!

It looks like the Air Swimmers website is currently down due to heavy traffic.
 

 
(via High Definite)

 
From Massive Attack’s Facebook page:

In context with the complicit support of the government, the banks looted the nation’s wealth while destroying countless small businesses and brought the whole economy to its knees in a covert, clean manner, rather like organised crime.

Our reaction was to march and wave banners and then bail them out. These kids would have to riot and steal every night for a year to run up a bill equivalent to the value of non-paid tax big business has ‘avoided’ out of the economy this year alone.

They may not articulate their grievances like the politicians that condemn them but this is absolutely political. As for the ‘mindless violence’… is there anything more mindless than the British taxpayer quietly paying back the debts of others while contributing bullets to conflicts that we have absolutely no understanding of?

It’s mad, sad and scary when we have to take to the streets to defend our homes and businesses from angry thieving kids, but where are the police and what justice is ever done when the mob is dressed in pin stripe.

Thanks, Angela!

 
An amusing weed-themed chess set with 32 pieces in the shapes of bongs, bowls, joints and pot leaves. I’ve never played chess a day in my life, but “weed chess” seems like it could be more entertaining. Smoke a bowl every time a piece gets taken? A joint for checkmate?

The Stonerware Pot Leaf Chess Set is available on a lot of sites. I found it here for $26.71, but you may be able to find cheaper elsewhere.

 
Go for a walk in London and you’ll be filmed by over 300 CCTV cameras - all without your permission. The footage is then used by various groups and authorities, including the Metropolitan Police Service, Transport for London and a number of London boroughs, who share the CCTV images between them.

But if you turn the tables and film the Metropolitan Police, this is what can happen, as RafousE16 found out:

Was on the barking road recording the police searching a young black male and watch how they reacted and what they did to me and you wonder why the youth are rioting police need to protect us no man handle people like they are doing. Also to add I am not black I am quarter cast and this shows you don’t need dark skin to be man handled…

 
This was posted 11 days ago.

Via The Guardian.

 
Al Pacino sporting a giant hairpiece like the one worn by Phil Spector during his trial for the murder of club hostess Lana Clarkson, in 2005.

Filming continues on David Mamet’s biopic of the infamous record producer, though there has been much controversy over Mamet’s alleged belief Spector was wrongly jailed for the killing.

Pics and story here.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

First Look at Al Pacino as Phil Spector

 
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Linton Kwesi Johnson wrote “Fite Dem Back” in 1978.

“Writing is a political act and poetry is a cultural weapon.” Linton Kwesi Johnson.

fashist an di attack
noh baddah worry bout dat
fashist an di attack
wi wi fite dem back
fashist an di attack
den wi countah-attack
fashist an di attack
den wi drive dem back

Time magazine, of all places, has published a “Top 10 British Riot Songs of the Early ‘80s.” Check it out here. There’s a few smart choices, including “Fite Dem Back.”
 

 
Via The Daily Swarm.