Vincent, Gene

It took until 1998 for Gene Vincent to gain induction to the rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame. By then, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, and a hundred or more others had been inducted. It took that long for the rock 'n' roll establishment to admit that Gene Vincent WAS rock 'n' roll. The sound; the fury; the screaming end. The basic bio goes like this: Vincent Eugene Craddock was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on February 11, 1935, and was wracked with pain for most of his life as a the result of a 1955 motorcycle accident. On stage, he looked both tragic and dangerous. He placed his damaged left leg behind him at an oddly skewed angle, and relied upon almost grotesquely exaggerated facial contortions to suggest emotion. The tone and mood of his music was darkly ominous, almost threatening. It was the beginning of rock 'n' roll as theater and first intimation of punk.