Two questions might surface when the name Willy DeVille comes up: First, who was he? Second, despite a flair for writing catchy pop-soul tunes and ballads, wide-ranging vocal prowess, plenty of critical acclaim, and a mesmerizing stage presence, why do so many people not know the answer to the first question? Those subjects and more are addressed in Larry Locke’s documentary “Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willy DeVille,” which will be screened at the Regent Theatre in Arlington on June 29.
DeVille — his real name was William Borsey — was born in 1950 to a middle-class, blue-collar family in Stamford, Conn. He listened to his older stepbrothers’ records — Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Ben. E. King — and later, to a friend’s blues albums by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and John Hammond Jr. He also appreciated the fashion sense of Sam Cooke. Those influences — along with the fact that he was tall, thin, handsome, and had a remarkable voice — began shaping him as a performer. A high school dropout, he played with various bands in Greenwich Village, eventually formed and fronted Mink DeVille, headed to San Francisco seeking fame and fortune, then came back to New York in the mid-’70s, to continue the search.
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There were a few solid albums for Capitol, though the label never gave him a push. Then there were albums for Atlantic. And there was some radio play, mostly of DeVille’s own “Spanish Stroll” and his cover of Moon Martin’s “Cadillac Walk” from Mink DeVille’s 1977 debut, “Cabretta.” But despite constant touring, a growing fan base, and near-idolatry in Europe, DeVille — even as a solo artist — never approached stardom in America. He was married three times, went through bouts of heroin abuse, and suffered injuries in a car crash, but continued his music career, always exploring a variety of genres and styles. The closest thing he had to a hit was his 1992 Mariachi-infused cover of “Hey Joe.” He died, because of pancreatic cancer, in 2009 at age 58.
DeVille’s New York Times obituary caught the eye of Larry Locke, who earns his living in the corporate and commercial world, but on the side makes documentaries featuring idiosyncratic characters (bowlers trying to make it as pros in “Pin Gods,” a politician plagued by bad luck and personal problems in “The Accidental Mayor”).
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Reached at his home in Norwalk, Conn., Locke says he’d heard of Mink DeVille but didn’t know their music.
“Then I read Willy’s obituary by William Grimes, and I couldn’t believe that he had this incredible 35-year career, in all these places, and that [his song] ‘Storybook Love’ from ‘The Princess Bride’ was nominated for an Oscar. So, I thought I’ve gotta learn more about him. I started listening to his music, and I was won over.”
When Locke decided to make DeVille his next documentary subject, he told friends in the music world, who put out feelers to other friends. One day Locke got a call from Crispin Cioe, a saxophonist who had played with DeVille and the J. Geils Band. Cioe, who would become a producer on the film, then hooked up Locke with Peter Wolf, the former Geils singer who currently fronts the Midnight Travelers. Wolf, a longtime fan, knew DeVille and became a prominent voice in “Heaven Stood Still.”
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Speaking by phone from his home in Greater Boston, Wolf recalls his Mink DeVille initiation.
“It was at CBGB [in New York] when the band was first starting,” he says. “I had seen a lot of bands there, but when Willy came out, I was so surprised that there was somebody that had the showmanship and the polish. And his roots, which were blues- and R&B-oriented, really harkened to many of my own musical tastes. He also had this real traditional, charismatic sense about him when he walked onstage. I became a fan from that first time seeing him.”
While both men were devotees — Locke from a posthumous standpoint, Wolf while DeVille was performing — each also came to understand some of the problems that kept him from the success they both thought he deserved.
“He was a sum of parts,” explains Locke, in reference to DeVille being a sort of musical chameleon. “His whole thing was to go from one genre to another, and to some degree master it in a way, and be a combination of all those things. He would do a concert, and at one point he would play a Cajun song or a soul song or what seemed to be a punk song or a ‘50s ballad. These were all totally natural for him, but doing all of those things was one reason he was hard for people to understand.”
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Wolf is still baffled that so many people are not aware of DeVille.
“Willy never compromised artistically,” he says. “He wrote some really great songs.” Wolf paused for a moment, then added, “Like ‘Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl.’ That’s just amazing. Everything about it. And he recorded some terrific albums. But, not having a strong fan base here, he had to kind of fight for every album, because labels always felt they were sort of taking a chance.”
Wolf pauses again, then says, “I think Willy’s personal problems made him somewhat difficult to kind of reach. But the talent and the desire for the music never waned. The last time I saw him was at the Regattabar. It was just Willy, a piano player, and a bass player. One of the most memorable concerts of his I saw was downstairs at the Middle East. There were only about 30 people there, but he was spellbinding. He just hit it all. He gave 110 percent.”
“Heaven Stood Still,” the title of which is taken from the achingly beautiful closing song on Mink DeVille’s 1980 album “Le Chat Bleu” — Locke calls it “his true masterpiece” — began production in 2013 but wasn’t finished until November 2022 because Locke had to keep returning to his regular job to maintain a budget for it. While the film contains interviews with Wolf, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz, and record producer Hal Willner, there’s also concert footage and interviews with DeVille drawn from Diethard Küster’s 1997 documentary “Beautiful Losers.”
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“Willy is gone, and most people didn’t know Willy,” said Locke “So, the whole thing was to try, for 87 minutes, to essentially bring him back to life. So that you could experience him, if you didn’t know who he was.”
HEAVEN STOOD STILL: The Incarnations of Willy DeVille
At the Regent Theatre, Arlington, June 29 at 7:30 p.m. Film followed by a post-screening Q&A with co-producers Larry Locke and Crispin Cioe. $17. regenttheatre.com
Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.