Rock And Stroll

Willy DeVille died on Thursday, simultaneously consumed by pancreatic cancer and hepatitis c. He was only 58 but he had lived an intense life, a rock and roll song on legs, imbued with danger, disarray and street corner soul.

In August 1977, he had a hit single on this side of the pond called 'Spanish Stroll'. To these impressionable ears that were tuning into the joys of punk rock, the record seemed like an older and deeper variant. It was about summer nights in a fractious part of the city, about beautiful girls with heavy manners, about songs coming out of basement bars and exotic activities in back alleys.

It wasn't a pose either. Willy lived in that zone all of his life, with the pulse of rhythm and blues, the Latino shimmy, the bad company and the tainted romance. It was his code and he was essentially true to it.