Coup de Grace (Mink DeVille album)

Infobox Album
Name = Coup de Grace
Type = studio
Artist = Willy DeVille
Mink DeVille


Released = October, 1981
Recorded =
Genre = Rock, Soul, Doo-wop
Length = 33:59
Label = Atlantic
Producer = Jack Nitzsche, Willy DeVille
Reviews = * Allmusic rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jifixqr5ldae link]
Last album = "Le Chat Bleu "
(1980)
This album = "Coup de Grâce"
(1981)
Next album = "Where Angels Fear to Tread"
(1983)

"Coup de Grace", issued in 1981, is the fourth album by the rock band Mink DeVille. The album represented a departure for the band, as frontman Willy DeVille dimissed the only other remaining original member of the band, guitarist Louis X. Erlanger, and hired Helen Schneider's backup band ("The Kick") to record the album. [Editors [http://www.willydeville.nl/history.php?id=3 History: After Cabretta.] Willy DeVille Web site. (Retrieved 8-14-08.)] Moreover, the album was recorded for Atlantic (Mink DeVille had previously recorded with Capitol).

DeVille told the "New York Times"::I had band problems, manager problems, record company problems," "And yeah, I had drug problems. Finally I got a new recording contract, with Atlantic, and a new manager. I cleaned up my act. I figured that since playing music with people I was friends with didn't seem to work out, I would hire some mercenaries, some cats who just wanted to play and get paid. And those guys turned out to be more devoted to the music than any band I ever had. They're professional, precise, but they're full of fire, too." [Palmer, Robert (September 25, 1981) "Pop Jazz; Willy DeVille and the Mink in Weekend at the Savoy." "New York Times."]

Jack Nitzsche produced the album, his third for Mink DeVille, along with Willy DeVille (the song "Love Me Like You Did Before" was produced by Willy DeVille and Thom Panunzio).

Reviews

Dutch rock magazine OOR named "Coup de Grace" the fifth best album of 1981. [OOR End of the Year Lists. [http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/oor.htm "Critics Top 10 Albums – 1981 ."] OOR. (Retrieved 3-14-08.)] Allmusic said about "Coup de Grace":

:The band's sound combined with Nitzsche's timeless production style, which combined with that voice to create a purer rock & roll noise than even Bruce Springsteen's in 1981. The evidence is on the anthems "Maybe Tomorrow," the slippery doo-wop feel of "Love and Emotion," and the devastating read of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On" that includes in its soulful Spanish stroll mix a pair of marimbas and the ever-lamenting accordion, turning the track into something that is so deadly serious it should have perhaps been in "West Side Story." This was Mink DeVille near their zenith as a recording unit. [Jurek, Thom (2007) [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jifixqr5ldae “Review: Coup de Grace.”] [http://wm01.allmusic.com/ AllMusic] .]

Track listing

"Unless otherwise noted, all songs by Willy DeVille."
# "Just Give Me One Good Reason" – 3:17
# "Help Me Make It (Power of a Woman's Love)" (Eddie Hinton) – 4:09
# "Maybe Tomorrow" – 2:56
# "Teardrops Must Fall" – 4:12
# "You Better Move On" (Arthur Alexander) – 3:00
# "Love & Emotion" – 3:40
# "So in Love Are We" (Willy DeVille, R. Rich) – 3:42
# "Love Me Like You Did Before" – 3:15
# "She Was Made in Heaven" – 2:59
# "End of the Line" – 2:49

Personnel

*Ricky Borgia – guitar
*Louis Cortelezzi – baritone saxophone
*Willy DeVille – guitar, vocals
*Brother Johnny Espinet - percussion
*The Exhilarations - background vocals
**Ray Goodwin
**Alan Morgan
**Andy Deweese
**Joe Mendez
**Al "Butch" Floyd
*Jimmy Maelen - percussion
*Kenny Margolis – piano, accordion, vibraphone
*Eve Moon - background vocals
*Thommy Price – drums
*Joey Vasta – bass

Production

*Jim Ball - engineering
*Bob Defrin - art direction
*Willy DeVille - producer
*Jack Nitzsche - arranger, producer
*Thom Panunzio - producer, engineer, associate producer
*John Pilgreen - cover photo
*Joyce Ravid – photography
*Sandi Young - design

References