Uncut January 2008
UNCUT January 2008
GENE VINCENT The Outtakes Bear Family
***
1958-’67 session tapes yield eye-popping 226-track extravaganza
Bear Family’s zeal for completeness has no peer…The Outtakes pours forth some eight hours of heretofore unheard sessions. False starts, fascinating fly-on-the-wall repartee, and countless takes of Gene trying to revive - sometimes with the flimsiest of material - the Blue Caps’ visionary, frenzied intensity…Nonetheless,Vincent was an estimable singer, moving through orchestrated pop…, swampy blues…, and folk/rock…with a graceful ease antithetical to the pained, downward spiral of his career. Vincent cultists will dig; nonbelievers may convert upon hearing 20 sizzling minutes of the Blue Caps’ “Rip It Up”.
Luke Torn