Mink DeVille – Cabretta

wikipedia

Cabretta, known as Mink DeVille in the United States, was the 1977 debut album by Mink DeVille. A modest best-seller, Cabretta was selected number 57 in the Village Voice’s 1977 "Pop & Jazz Critics Poll." A single from the album, “Spanish Stroll,” was a top-20 hit in the U.K.

American Hit Network said of the album, "Under-promoted, under-appreciated and ultimately under-sold, Cabretta is a sleeper masterpiece that sounds as good today as it did in 1977." They added:

"Like all truly great rock and roll, the songs mix fantasy and longing… "Venus of Avenue D" and "Spanish Stroll" find their romance in the street, and both walk that line between lust and longing, in the feeling of getting turned on by somebody. Willy DeVille’s character is tough as nails on the outside, but the hard surface doesn’t run deep enough to cover the heart that he wears on his sleeve. Even a casual listen to the album’s closing track, "Party Girls," makes this abundantly clear. DeVille’s a leather-jacketed romantic who looks so tough, but desperately wants the world to love him."

Trouser Press described the Mink DeVille of this era as follows:

"On a good night in the New York underground around 1976 or 1977, the band led by Willy DeVille…could be the coolest cats on the scene. Willy dressed like a pimp and played a guitar covered in leopard skin; swagger and soulful strut was a brisk rejoinder to the sloppy punk and wimpy power pop bands they preceded and followed on stages. After the band was discovered, producer Jack Nitzsche got them on the lean, tough R&B beam for a first LP that sweats and smokes through and through as a classic of such fully and lovingly assimilated music should."

Cabretta was produced by Jack Nitzsche, who would help shape Mink DeVille’s sound and collaborate with leadsinger and composer Willy DeVille for many years to come. Joining the band on saxophone was Steve Douglas, who, like Nitzsche, is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and who would also play on many Mink DeVille albums.