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March 10, 2010 08:55AM
Gene Vincent - The Catman
He was one of Marc Bolan´s earliest influences and formed a great deal the Hackney boys later background of rock music. At a time when western turned into rockabilly, a young lad called Eugene Vincent Craddock (to become very soon Gene Vincent) found his destiny and started with his song Be bop a lula something entirely new. Most astonishing a musician wasn´t Gene´s first choice of career. He first signed at the US Navy in 1952 at the age of 17 and proofed to be a very good sailor. Eugene wasn´t involved in any battle but completed a war deployment while in Korea. His intentions at the time where to stay in the Navy and after signing for a longer period of time, he bought from his bonus a Triumph Motorbike. This was the point of his life when the crucial turn was close to happen. During a vocation in Norfolk in July 1955 Eugene was involved into a serious accident while driving his new bike. The injuries where so bad that doctors in the hospital wanted to amputate his leg, which he refused. A slow recovery and a permanent limping was the result, accompanied by chronical pain. A return to the Navy was out of question and so Eugene remembered another early passion of his. Music.
Eugene became his first guitar when he was 14, given as a present by a close friend who saw that he greatly admired the instrument. Other sources say the the friend in fact wanted to get rid of the guitar, because his sister, who used it for exercises, was playing so terrible that he could stand it no longer...
The rest is more than history, it is legend! Eugene formed his first band "the bluecaps" and changed his name into Gene Vincent. With his rock and roll appearances he changed the music scene as latter generations would be shaped by Marc Bolan and his likes. Not only Gene´s voice was remarkable or his songwriting style, but also the way he behaved on stage. Even with his shattered leg he moved more dramatical and energetic then his fellow musicians. Even the famous guitar players "V" was among his inventions. Compared with what happens today on stages the actors of 2010 are merely sleepwalking...
Marc Bolan paid him some homages with his stage appearances and songwriting. In this sense: "Cat Black, you know she´s back" one of Marc´s gorgeous songs might bear a refernce to his early idol. After all the catman as Gene Vincent called himself left a big mark on the minds of the people, fellow artists paid him tribute during his lifetime and after his untimely death in 1971. Great music never fades, in that way: Be bop a lula! Ya know what I mean. ;-)
By Marion Ziemke
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January 16, 2010 06:02AM
Feel free to sit down.
all photographs taken by Marion Ziemke
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January 16, 2010 05:47AM
The winter came also with some strange markings in the snow, among birds and rabbits I´ve found these, a giant duck or even big foot? Who knows?
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