Mink de Ville - Early Days in San Francisco

Early Days in San Francisco

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!"

Read more about this topic:  Mink De Ville

Famous quotes containing the words san francisco, early, days, san and/or francisco:

    “There they are at last, Miss Rutledge. The will-o-the-wisps with plagues of fortune. San Francisco, the latest newborn of a great republic.”
    —Ben Hecht (1893–1964)

    “Some would find fault with the morning red, if they ever got up early enough.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “People in Stamps used to say that the whites in our town were so prejudiced that a Negro couldn’t buy vanilla ice cream. Except on July Fourth. Other days he had to be satisfied with chocolate.”
    —Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

    “It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world.”
    —Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    “Swan/Mary Rutledge: Oh no, no. I’m not running away. I came here to get something, and I’m going to get it.
    Col. Cobb: Yes, but San Francisco is no place for a woman.
    Swan: Why not? I’m not afraid. I like the fog. I like this new world. I like the noise of something happening.... I’m tired of dreaming, Colonel Cobb. I’m staying. I’m staying and holding out my hands for gold—bright, yellow gold.”
    —Ben Hecht (1893–1964)