Rock’n’Roll Heroes – Gene Vincent

A complex character and turbulent trailblazer, Gene Vincent was an original rock’n’roll renegade. Vintage Rock meets with the legend’s daughter Melody Craddock, Matchbox’s Graham Fenton, Deke Dickerson and tribute artist Little Dave, to celebrate what would have been the 90th birthday of the nonconformist Wild Cat who was a rockabilly rebel to the Screaming End.

For many diehard fans of rock’n’roll, Gene Vincent was the wildest rebel of them all. He was the wiry, leather-clad greaser you would never dare take home to meet your parents – yet that popular public persona somewhat belies the reality of a softly spoken, well-mannered country boy from Virginia. While his impulsive, rabble-rousing reputation and volatile, alcohol-fuelled outbursts might have made salacious headlines, it simply masked a man struggling with intense physical ailments and suffering from deep emotional turmoil. In truth, away from the spotlight, Gene Vincent cut something of a tragic figure.

As a trailblazing rockabilly cat, Gene recorded some truly electrifying gems over the course of a 15-year career. Just drop the needle on Race With The Devil, Bluejean Bop, Red Blue Jeans And A Pony Tail, Dance To The Bop, Say Mama or She She Little Sheila to truly get the party swinging. However, for many, the debut single that catapulted him to fame, Be-Bop-A-Lula, overshadows almost everything else he ever committed to wax.

A prolific pioneer, he is also often mentioned in the same breath as Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. But for some inexplicable reason, Vincent’s legacy seems to have diminished compared to that of his contemporaries.

Vintage Rock joins his daughter Melody Craddock, Graham Fenton, and fans Deke Dickerson and Little Dave, to unpick these discrepancies and toast the searing spirit of The Screaming End on what would have been his 90th birthday.

Shakin’ Up A Storm

Born Vincent Eugene Craddock on 11 February 1935, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Mary Louise and Ezekiah Jackson Craddock, young Gene played guitar from an early age and grew up listening to both the Grand Ole Opry and local R&B artists. He enlisted in the US Navy at the age of 17 and, while serving, was involved in a life-changing motorcycle accident which shattered his left leg, causing permanent damage. Doctors considered amputating but Gene insisted on keeping the leg, which was held together with a metal brace.

“I know that my dad sang in a church choir when he was younger,” Melody Craddock tells VR, “but it was while he was recuperating in the naval hospital, after the accident, that he wrote Be-Bop-A-Lula.”

After his discharge, Vincent began focusing on music as a career. His physical disability made it difficult for him to hold a traditional job. With help from local radio DJ, ‘Sheriff Tex’ Davis, a demo recording of Gene landed in the lap of Ken Nelson, the head of country music for Capitol Records.

While not fully convinced of the commercial pulling power of rockabilly himself, Nelson knew the label needed its own Elvis Presley to thrill the teenage market, so called on Vincent.

Invited over to work with Owen Bradley, Gene arrived at Music City Recordings with his band The Blue Caps, featuring lead guitarist Cliff Gallup, Willie Williams (rhythm guitar), Jack Neal on string bass, and drummer Dickie Harrell. It was during that initial session that Be-Bop-A-Lula was cut…

Striking Gold

“We all know the famous story,” starts musician and Vincent fan Deke Dickerson. “When Gene and the boys showed up to Owen Bradley’s studio, all the Nashville A-Team session musicians had assembled ready to back him up, as was the norm back then. But because the Blue Caps were so well-rehearsed, and because rock’n’roll was such a new phenomenon, Bradley thought it best to just let these youngsters have their way and we got to hear Gene with The Blue Caps on record. It would be great to hear Gene backed by Grady Martin, Bob Moore and Buddy Harman, but it would have sounded very different.

“For me, Bluejean Bop and Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps are records I will always return to. Everything came together: the production, the sound of the recording, the tape echo, the band playing live and Dickie hitting the drums too hard. Coupled with Gene’s soulful voice and, of course, Cliff Gallup’s incredibly exciting guitar playing, all the best ingredients came together in exactly the right way – a ‘perfect storm’. Nobody has ever done it better, have they?”

Having captured lightning in a bottle, Be-Bop-A-Lula was released in June 1956 and peaked at No.7 on the US Billboard Pop Chart, while it made UK No.16 that August. The song’s legendary status was cemented when Vincent made a memorable appearance performing the track in the movie, The Girl Can’t Help It.

Lotta Lovin’

“Be-Bop-A-Lula, followed by Race With The Devil, was my introduction to Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps,” recalls Dickerson. “I remember it like it was yesterday, because the first thing I wanted to do was grab my guitar and learn those solos. I was 13 years old and had bought a compilation album called The Bop That Just Won’t Stop. When I put it on, the combination of Gene’s voice and Cliff Gallup’s guitar literally made the hair on my arms stand straight up. It was the most exciting music I had ever heard – and it was already 30 years old at that point!”

“I didn’t know that my dad was famous until I was older,” explains Melody Craddock. “He did a television show, I think it was Ed Sullivan, and I was sitting in front of the TV going, ‘Yeah, that’s my dad! That’s my dad!’”

“Gene was 22 years old when I was born,” continues Melody. “My mom, Darlene, was 18 when she met him. I’m sure my mother would’ve been aware of the name Gene Vincent, but I don’t know if she was a fan of his music at the time.

“I didn’t have a relationship with my father when I was growing up. My parents never married and it was only later that I got to know him. In 1969 he was doing a show with Alice Cooper in San Francisco and I met with him and we had a chat. He went out and bought gifts and said that when he was done with that tour he would send for me and he did. We did the usual family things. I remember we went to Disneyland and it was closed, but it didn’t matter, I loved spending time with him. Memories I’ll never forget.”

Rock’n’Roll Star

“Gene was away a lot on tour, mostly in Europe and the UK,” says Melody. “He loved his fans over there. He was a rock’n’roll singer and couldn’t have kids out on the road with him, but we would write letters back and forth.

“I knew my grandparents and I loved my grandfather. He was my ‘papa’ and I lived with him for three years. I remember that they were very protective and supportive of my dad.”

So, did they encourage him when he set out to become a rock’n’roller? “Well, I don’t know about encourage,” laughs Melody, “but they loved him and went with whatever he wanted to do. They were very proud of all his achievements. My grandpa would travel with Gene sometimes and he said there was always lots of women around. My grandmother, well, my grandmother prayed for him a lot.

“I know he’s famous and he’s got a big fanbase, but I never thought of him as a rock’n’roll star, he was just my dad.”

Father Figure

Gene would prove something of a father figure for the young and aspiring UK rocker, Graham Fenton. “Gene was great and he really looked after me when I worked with him,” reveals Graham. “He took me under his wing and it was really quite strange because I grew up listening to him.

“It was through my older brother that I learned about Gene Vincent. It wasn’t until the early 60s, that I first got to see the man himself. I was a teenager and living in Hounslow. During the winter, the local swimming baths would cover the pool and use it as a venue. A friend told me that Gene Vincent was appearing there with The Shouts. He wasn’t in the greatest shape, but I was blown away.

“Obviously he couldn’t wiggle around like Elvis, but he could still sing like no one else. He struggled a lot with that leg and years later I actually saw just how withered and thin it was. When he was performing, he always gave everything he had. If there was an audience, he could just turn it on. In France, they idolised him – he was probably more popular there than anywhere else.”

“Gene sang like he was hurt inside,” adds Deke. “He always looked like he was being tortured. I remember reading something about why the French loved him, compared to other 1950s rock’n’roll legends. It was the pathos. He would limp on to the stage and it all added to that pathos.”

The Wild Cat

After Be-Bop-a-Lula had announced Gene to an unsuspecting UK audience, he charted again on a number of occasions with favourites such as 1956’s Race With The Devil (No.28) and Bluejean Bop (No.16), as well as 1960’s Wild Cat (No.21), My Heart (No.16) and Pistol Packin’ Mama (No.15). However, by the mid-60s, the hits were gone, and so were The Blue Caps who had disbanded before the end of the 50s. Flying solo, Gene spent much of his time in the UK and Europe backed by a variety of acts and by 1970, it was Graham with his band The Houseshakers.

“You can imagine just how surreal it was for me working with my hero,” admits Fenton. But nothing could prepare him for the absurd scenario of introducing the famed rock’n’roll icon to his mother. “I had a big American 1959 Chevy and Gene asked me to transport him around after he fell out with his driver,” remembers Graham. “As I was still living at home with my parents I was a bit scared to do it but driving him around was one of the highlights of my life. I introduced him to my mother and he was an absolute gentleman. Gene was always very polite where ladies were concerned, and my mum was no exception!”

So, maybe Gene was actually the kind of fella you could take home to meet your parents after all.

“On stage, dressed in black leather, he looked mean and dangerous,” continues Graham. “I got to see all the different sides of Gene when he wasn’t performing. He loved his fans, and he was fine with us, but it was only when promoters tried to rip him off that I saw him get irate.”

The Night Tragedy Struck

“There was definitely two sides to him,” adds Melody. “Offstage Gene was very humble and meek, but when he was onstage he was a rock’n’roll devil. Because he was so shy he would always look up when performing. He was scared to death to look out at all the people. While he certainly had a wild stage persona, I think it was his voice that was special. He could sing rock’n’roll, country, a big ballad… He had the voice of an angel.”

“Most of the rockabilly guys from the 1950s that I’ve met had two sides,” agrees Deke. “They were raised in proper homes and grew up going to church, so they were able to be polite and proper in a civilised setting. But turn them loose on a crowd of screaming girls on a Saturday night somewhere far from their parents and their church community, and they became drunken wild men, like feral animals.

“I’ve had the pleasure of meeting various members of The Blue Caps – Johnny Meeks, Dickie Harrell, Bobby Jones, Tommy ‘Bubba’ Facenda and Paul Peek – the thing that struck me was how normal they were.

“To me, they were gods, not mere mortals. But they were just normal guys who played music and happened to get caught up in that rock’n’roll whirlwind after Elvis’ breakthrough in 1956.

“The Blue Cap guys I met went back to playing country music or working ‘real’ jobs. Those guys only had a couple of years before they had to abandon all that wildness for normal life. Of course, they did get to soak up some glory later on, but there were a lot of years in between.”

Time For A Reappraisal

Why is it, then, that Gene Vincent isn’t as celebrated as his contemporaries?

“Because he was wild, and because he drank himself to death at the age of 36,” suggests Deke. “It wasn’t like Buddy Holly’s plane crash, that created a legend, and it wasn’t like Jerry Lee Lewis, who got to grow old and reminisce about the early days. Gene’s story is just really sad. I often look at those iconic pictures of the 1956-58 Blue Caps and think to myself, ‘Those guys were the coolest’. I listen to Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps all the time, and if he had lived into the 80s or 90s, he would have been treated like a conquering hero.

“Pretty much all of my guitar solos have some stolen element of either Cliff Gallup or Johnny Meeks in them. Those guys are my heroes and Gene, well he fronted the absolute wildest and best rock’n’roll band of the 50s. I love Elvis, Scotty, Bill and DJ as much as the next guy and they invented the template, but Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps were like a streamlined version. They were magnificent.”

If The Blue Cap Fits

Had Gene Vincent not passed away nine months earlier, he surely would have been one of the acts at The London Rock & Roll Show in August 1972. Graham Fenton’s The Houseshakers, who had backed The Screaming End on his final UK tour, opened the event, which featured icons Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Bill Haley and Chuck Berry. “It’s such a shame,” says Graham.

“If he had looked after his health he could’ve carried on and I have no doubt he would’ve reformed The Blue Caps. But I was over the moon to represent him at Wembley. Unfortunately, they put us on first when everybody was still arriving and the only song in the film was Be-Bop-A-Lula.”

A few years later, when Graham joined Matchbox, the band were on the up with Somewhere Over The Rainbow. “We were asked to perform on Top Of The Pops, and, despite protests from the show’s producers, I dressed in black as a tribute to Gene.

“I feel so privileged to have worked with Gene and later to front The Blue Caps. In the 80s, Steve Aynsley managed to track down the surviving Blue Caps and helped arrange a number of shows with me playing Gene’s part. Sitting in for the boss was something else and the boys kinda made me an honorary Blue Cap.

“The Blue Caps were essential in establishing that Gene Vincent sound on those early records. There was no one else like them. Together they were unique. Gene was iconic, but sadly, when interest in his music waned, he lost heart as well. He ended up just performing the same songs at every gig – the famous ones everyone knew – and it was as if he had become a tribute to himself.”

In Homage To The Guv’nor

Today, UK rocker Little Dave keeps Gene’s music very much alive alongside his bandmates Jonathan Hope on guitar, drummer Steve Napper and double bassist Connie Everard, as Be-Bop-A-Lula.

“I’ve always had a love for his music since I was a teenager,” says Dave. “I suppose the first time I saw or heard him was that clip of him performing Be-Bop-A-Lula in The Girl Can’t Help It. It was just so completely different to anything else and that’s why, when I decided to put a tribute band together around 2019, the only name to call it was Be-Bop-A-Lula.

“My goal has been to try to be as authentic to the man and his music as possible. I always do the Ace Café around Gene’s birthday in February and we attract a mixed audience. I’ve had great messages from fans around the world and we have had fantastic comments from Sherri Vincent, Gene’s daughter here in the UK, Ronny Weiser and Dickie Harrell. But I was astounded to receive a message from Melody complimenting me and the band. When she said how proud her dad would be, it brought tears to my eyes.

“I haven’t really got a favourite Gene song to play live – there are so many of them. I love the rockers like Be-Bop-A-Lula, Say Mama and Blue Jean Bop, but I enjoy the ballads, too, like Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

“Elvis might be the King; Little Richard, the Innovator; Jerry Lee, the Killer; but Gene was known as The Screaming End… for me, he will always be the Guv’nor. I know that I’m never going to sound exactly like him, I just try my best to keep his memory alive. I really do think he would be smiling down from above knowing that people still care about him.”

Say Grandmama