Tag: Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps

No comments

Saturday Matinee: Rock and Roll Singer

  By

I had an itch to listen to Gene Vincent last night, then woke up this morning to find that, hey, it’s the anniversary of Vincent’s birth today. The intense rock ‘n’ roller would have been 77 today. This documentary, Rock and Roll Singer, filmed for the BBC, covers the first four days of a 1969 tour, beginning in England.

 

 

It was recently announced that a number of backing bands would this year be following their lead men into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, among them, Vincent’s Blue Caps. Here’s Gene and his Blue Caps performing the slinky “Baby Blue”, I believe from the 1958 film Hot Rod Gang. (This clip typifies what HiLobrow has to say today about Vincent’s appeal. Yow.)

 

 

And here’s another performance from 1958, this time of Vincent’s most enduring song, the incomparable “Be-Bop-A-Lula”, played on the Town Hall Party television show.

 

4 Comments

Slackday: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

  By

In the very early days of music videos, before they were called music videos, the teen idols of the 1950s and 1960s were made to do some goofy things, presumably in the spirit of making a fun and eye-catching video for all the kids. For instance, what could be more natural than having Martha Reeves and the Vandellas run around the Ford Mustang production line, interrupting the jobs of the line workers who are just trying to earn a buck.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqxigVGFcis]

While we’re at it, let’s put Dion in an airplane for no discernible reason.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpRtTBn4VHU]

And Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps… well, they were too damn cool for these shenanigans, but they did participate in the tradition of shoe-horning an entire song performance in the middle of a (often plot-light) movie.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyNbwdONLqw]

(Okay, I’ll be honest: I just really wanted to include Gene Vincent in today’s post because he was awesome.)