Mick Farren has never been scared to wear his influences on his sleeve, and, over the years, a tribute poster and several books on Elvis Presley, and, more recently, a fictional work called Jim Morrison’s Adventures In The Afterlife bear testimony to this. He also interviewed Gene Vincent for underground newspaper International Times in 1970, and had written a retrospective on him called
“Po’ White Punk From The Pool Hall” during his stint as a journalist in the 1970s for New Musical Express. Therefore it comes as no surprise that he should finally produce a more comprehensive homage to the “skinny white sailor”. What is surprising is that it didn’t come much earlier.

Although by no means a fully extensive biography of Vincent – it clocks in at just 189 pages, and, is by Farren’s own description, a small format, monogram. As for sources, Farren acknowledges Britt Hagarty’s The Day The World Turned Blue biography and Steve Aynsley and Roger Nunn’s liner notes from Gene the EMI box set, but he also draws widely on his own 1970 interview with Vincent, as well as numerous anecdotes collected over the years, particularly from the late Tony Secunda. By placing the narrative firmly in the context of the post war teen explosion and the subsequent development of youth culture, combined with the use of the aforementioned anecdotes and Farren’s own reminiscences he ensures that it is more than just a standard rehash of the Gene Vincent story, and tells it in his own inimitable style.

Mick Farren has long acknowledged Gene Vincent as being one of his all-time idols, and Farren’s debt – not to mention countless others of his generation - is obvious, a point on which Farren is at pains to labour throughout the book. As well as using it as a subtitle for the book itself, as one example, Farren uses a line from Ian Dury’s own tribute to emphasise this ‘[Sweet Gene Vincent] “there’s one in every town”,

         meaning that every community had its quasi-
         romantic outcast: the kid with the motorcycle;
         the punk in the pool hall who has studied so
         carefully exactly how to lean on his cue,…the
         kid with the girlfriend with too much lipstick
         who fell pregnant before her time. Gene
         Vincent became their personal representative
         in the rock pantheon, and was able to make
         them feel that he was singing his songs
         exclusively for them.’

Vincent’s influence over ensuing generations should not be underestimated either, and as Farren says, ‘without him, there would have been no Jim Morrison, no Sid (Vicious), no Marilyn Manson, and even Elvis would have struggled’. After all, isn’t it said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery? Conversely, Farren also points out that many of ‘rock’s wannabe philosopher desperadoes and pretend warrior poets’ who have aped Vincent’s trademark style over the years probably don’t even realise it, and think they are copying the likes of Jim Morrison or Johnny Rotten etc. However, such is the potency of the Gene Vincent image that ‘his leather clothes have been copied so many times down the years that they are one of rock’s visual clichés’, thus ensuring the Gene Vincent image eternal iconic status regardless of whether or not Vincent is recognised as the true originator of this style.

In addition to the main story, Farren has included a fully exhaustive list of Gene Vincent’s recording sessions and discography compiled by Wayne ‘Dang’ Dooley, which should provide more than enough information for any would be Gene Vincent completist to track down his back catalogue. Another interesting addition is the four page epilogue in which Farren’s poetic tribute “The Lonesome Death Of Gene Vincent”, first published in 1995, is reproduced. On the whole, Gene Vincent: There’s One In Every Town is a well balanced piece of work by a genuine enthusiast whose admiration of Vincent is obvious, but who is equally able to recognise the late man’s flaws too. Undoubtedly then, aside from various articles here and there, this is Mick Farren’s own long overdue tribute and celebration of Gene Vincent in book form, and a very welcome one at that too!

RD August 2004