Special Show on Vince Taylor

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Published on: December 13th, 2014

Vince Taylor was Europe's version of Little Richard's showmanship and Elvis' dancing and sexual appeal but, well, Taylor mostly lacked musical talent. Vince Taylor sang off-key and couldn't get his timing synched up to his band. His audience considered these technicalities as completely irrelevant.

What?

European teenagers reacted to Vince Taylor beyond anything seen before in Europe because Taylor brought to Europe all of the American's raw emotion and wild abandon that was to form early rock and roll. In Vince Taylor, European teenagers had one of their own to challenge their great but scoleric cultures.

For Vince Taylor's admirers, he was the second coming of Jesus Christ. They mobbed his concerts. They danced like they were possessed and screamed the song lyrics. "Screamed" as in gestalt screams of self-liberation. Then they rioted. Rioted at EVERY Taylor concert until the bookings dried up. This adulation (mixed with a heavy dosing of LSD) eventually manifested itself into Vince Taylor's head. His implosion began when he notoriously declared from the concert stage that he was the son of Jesus Christ and went out blessing each audience member. (David Bowie's reportedly based his wacked-out character, "Ziggy Stardust" on Vince Taylor - the biggest stretch in this comparison is that Taylor didn't play a "left-handed guitar.")

To a greater extent than America of the time, Vince Taylor (and the music of Saturday midnight to 3am on WWOZ) was the catalyst for the West's great societal changes of the 1950s to 70s. In Europe, the traditional imperial countries had enforced their cultural conformity against each other and within their own societies for centuries. Vince Taylor arrived less than 15 years after WWII brought home the devastating culmination of this pointless cultural competition. In this context, teenagers attending a Vince Taylor concert experienced the possibility of wild abandon and escape from their culture history. There was no putting that genie back in the bottle.

Tonight's show will feature Vince Taylor. That's Saturday, December 13th from midnight until 3am Sunday morning.

But full enjoyment of Vince Taylor requires visuals of his live show and persona. Here comes the visuals: via short but excellent BBC documentary. (I've watched this at least ten times - it's that good a documentary.)