Rock Flashback: Vince Taylor

Vince Taylor, "Brand New Cadillace"

In “Goin’ Down Geneva,” a song from his album Back on Top, Van Morrison sings, “Vince Taylor used to live here / Nobody’s even heard of him / Just who he was / Just where he fits in.” We’ll try to explain both after the jump.

Brian Holden’s family relocated from England to the States in 1946, and as a teen in the ’50s he began absorbing the new sound of rock ‘n’ roll. He attended Hollywood High in California and began gigging around Los Angeles. A trip to London with his brother-in-law, Joe Barbera (of Hanna/Barbera fame) gave him a chance to get involved in the rock ‘n’ roll scene there. It was about this time that he adopted the stage name Vince Taylor.

Taylor released his first rockabilly record in 1958. A number of singles followed over the next several years, and Taylor gained a reputation for his wild and unpredictable stage shows. He was wild and unpredictable offstage too, resulting in a shifting lineup of musicians in his band. Mix in a combination of drugs and alcohol, and sooner or later, disaster would strike. One night on stage he announced that he was some sort of biblical prophet, and he later joined a cult. By the middle of the 1960s, his career was essentially over. Although he continued to record and perform in the ’70s and ’80s, he eventually became an airplane mechanic in Switzerland, and died in 1991 at age 52.

Van Morrison is not the only artist influenced by Taylor. David Bowie says Taylor was the inspiration for Ziggy Stardust, and the Clash cut a version of “Brand New Cadillac,” which has gone down in history as Taylor’s most famous song.

For a clearer look at Taylor, there’s a performance of “Twenty Flight Rock” here.

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