1er ||Willy Deville ||Charles Dumont ||compositeur pour Edith Piaf || Doc Pomus ||«Un reve de mon vie» ||Télévision Française || 1982 ||
What you see in Video 1ère |is a still very junk-dependent (although in this film, a junkie with a full dose, and as fine as wine and more healthful and alive than you or I or ten friends--the unfair tradeoff that junkies make in lieu of anything approximating real health).The WillyDeVille of 1982, whom without knowledge of such encumbrances would perhaps be appraised as a Rock Star with epic centering, or confused for unwarranted extra charm which his looks do not require to be unfair to most men--or perhaps simply demonstrating his oft-sung savoir faire in these dreamy vignettes as instant Parisian peripaticienne engaging in crepuscular discussion avec one of his many (and to me, his most charming of charms), obscure collectibles, le compositeur pour Edith PiafetDoc Pomus, Charles Dumont (throw in Little Willie John's Parisian Aunt and he'd have hit the French Derby trifecta). |||||| Here is the subtly, almost criminally sly insertion of the most delicate scent of Piaf film scenes in what is an initial weaving of what will elegantly transform into an Edith Piaf narrative, replete with flash forwards, flashbacks, and moody placemarker referencing for a story Willy relates through the piece (as you suddenly realize, this is not a dated Rockumentary but a French soul-mining, and luckily one that pulls back before any typical franco-overarching can do it damage). I tried to imagine this appearing on my 1982 screen, and just couldn't...I could only picture myself in my first girlfriend's living room grimacing at John Stossel...slightly realizing that the Internet has not been thought up yet.http://whatgetsmehot.posterous.com/willy-deville-1982-special-fr-1#
Where did it all start for you, you were born in New York right?No I was born in Stanford Connecticut (laughs); nobody's born in Manhattan. We moved there when I was 13 or 14, but I had been coming into town since I was about 12… I had fallen in love with the city.The bright lights and all…Nah, it was the musicians. Everywhere there was music it was amazing. But it was everything else too, you know, the smells of pizza … Somewhere else than where you are always looks better to you, and we all come from some little itty bitty place. I don't want this to sound like those, he came from a small town and made it big stories right, but it's more about having a dream and having the patience and the, oh I don't know what (me: "perseverance") yeah, to make it happen, you know, and that's what I feel like it's always been.Why music, what was it about music that grabbed you?Well according to my mom I was singing before I was talking right. I mean I don't even come from a musical family, but it just always seemed so natural to me. You know I grew up and I had older brothers, four and six years older, so there was always music around, on the radio at breakfast as we ate our corn flakes, or American Bandstand. I still remember listeningListening to the radio and the songs I would get you know like images of the story in my head, like reading a book and you imagine what's going on. I would see the music like that too, in my head while listening…There's something that happens to me when I sing, (a slight hesitation as if he's unsure about talking about this, like how's this going to go over), this is going to sound weird right, but it's like I don't know where the voice comes from for different songs, but it's just there. I described this to a friend once and he said it sounds like voice shifting, where a masking spirit comes over people and sings through them…That sounds like what happens to Native singers when they sit around the big drum and are playing. They sing in this high falsetto, that nobody can talk in, and that they sure don’t talk in…Did you say native, like native American? Cause you know that I'm part native...Which part? No, no, I mean which nation, sorry.Iroquois, I'm part Iroquois, part Basque, a little of this and a little of that. I'm a real street dog.Heinz 57(laughs) Yeah right. I prefer street dog.Did you ever hear any of that stuff Robbie Robertson did with Red Road Ensemble about, I don't know a dozen years ago… He's an Iroquois..That's right he's from up around near you. Isn't he?Yeah Grand River Six Nations reserveThere was this album he made with John Hammond that changed my life.Robbie made an album with Hammond?Yeah him and Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, Levon Helm, or Lee-von,( laughs) back in 1962, it was called So Many Roads It's still around on CD you've gotta to hear it, it's amazing.So how did it all start for you; what was your first band, was it Mink DeVille?Nah the first band was The Royal Pythons. Wanted it to be different from what everyone else was doing, electric this and strawberry that. But actually, you know I went over to London for a couple of years, real obvious American with my Pompadour hair, kicked around until my money ran out than came back here.I had only been back a bit when a buddy called me up, and they were out west in San Francisco, he'd had to leave town cause he'd gotten in trouble with the cops, and he said I should come out there it was really amazing, he'd already met Lighting Hopkins' drummer. So I bought a 57 Chevy Van and drove out.
Video 2ème | Willy Deville «un reve de mon vie» for the New Orleans Connection and info on Charles Dumont and Le Chat Bleu
