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It
took until 1998 for Gene Vincent to gain induction to the Rock
'n' Roll Hall of Fame. By then, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, and
a hundred or more others had been inducted. It took that long
for the rock 'n' roll establishment to admit that Gene Vincent
WAS rock 'n' roll. The sound; the fury; the screaming end. The
basic bio goes like this. Vincent Eugene Craddock was born in
Norfolk, Virginia, on February 11, 1935, and was wracked with
pain for most of his life as a the result of a 1955 motorcycle
accident. On stage, he looked both tragic and dangerous. He placed
his damaged left leg behind him at an oddly skewed angle, and
relied upon almost grotesquely exaggerated facial contortions
to suggest emotion. The tone and mood of his music was darkly
ominous, almost threatening. It was the beginning of rock 'n'
roll as theater and first intimation of punk. |
