Backstreets of Desire is an album by Willy DeVille. It was recorded in various Los Angeles recording studios in 1992. To make the album, DeVille was joined by many prominent musicians, including Dr. John, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Zachary Richard, Jim Gilstrap, Freebo, Efrain Toro, and Jimmy Zavala.
A novel mariachi version of the Jimi Hendrix standard "Hey Joe" was a hit in Europe. "I did a version of 'Hey Joe' in mariachi-style," DeVille told Sheila Rene. "I talk through the lyrics. It was a big hit for me in Europe—number one in Spain and France." DeVille brought in Mariachi los Camperos, led by Nati Cano, to play on "Hey Joe."
Reviews
Trouser Press said about the album, "Backstreets of Desire skillfully draws on DeVille's prior genre explorations to create music that's wholly contemporary while remaining true to the artist's original vision."
Critic Thom Jurek of Allmusic considered it one of DeVille's greatest albums:Backstreets of Desire combined all of DeVille’s prodigious gifts in a deeply focused—though wide-ranging—hour-long program. It’s here in the breathtaking broken-hearted ballad "Empty Heart" (recorded with an orchestra), the street-savvy rock and soul in "All in the Name of Love," the sexual voodoo funk in Willie Mitchell's "Come to Poppa," the skiffle-tinged "Even While I Sleep," the folksy Caribbean-porch-song-meets-Cuban-son in his reading of Billy Roberts' "Hey Joe," or in his own breezy New Orleans-bordello-music-meets-Spanish-folk epic, "Bamboo Road." From the album's cover to its contents, there isn't a weak moment on the disc. It reveals that DeVille, despite the chaos in his life, had become a songwriter and performer in a league of his own. His sell-out performances all over Europe were a signal that this wonderfully complex persona was an "artist" in the popular vernacular and canon.
Randy Krbechek called Backstreets of Desire a "gem of an album just waiting to be found." He added, "When I first heard this album, I thought 'Wow, John Mellencamp remembered how to sing.' Gail thinks it sounds like The Boss. Cheryl thinks it sounds like vintage Bowie. There are also occasional echoes of Pere Ubu. It doesn't matter. The result is one great, driving rock and roll record — the kind of disk that ought to scale the charts."
Background and Production
The album was initially released in Europe in 1992 on the French Fnac Music label; it was released in the United States in 1994 on Rhino's Forward Records label. The album sold well in Europe, but DeVille complained that Rhino did not do enough to promote the album in the United States: "It's really a dumb-ass label. You have to be dead to sell records on that label—black, crippled and blind. Anyway, 'Hey Joe' was too violent for them. This is at the time when all those rap records were getting attention and they were really violent. They're just full of bullshit."
Dr. John produced "Voodoo Charm" and "Jump City"; Philippe Rault produced "Hey Joe"; and John Philip Shenale and Willy DeVille produced the other songs. This was the first time DeVille worked with Shenale, who would later produce several of his albums. DeVille said about Shenale in 2008: What's great about Phil is he always hears the sound I want to create, and knows how to bring out the best in me in the studio. He's not some hard ass or anything like that, yelling at you, but he keeps it together and makes it work... (Shenale) knows what I want to create — he comes up with ideas that help make the sound right.
There was this one song — it was on Backstreets of Desire I think — where he took a Baby Grand piano, a really good one right, and took the lid off and played on the wires with drum sticks because he knew that was the way to get the sound we needed for the song. He doesn't say, "This is what it has to sound like" or make it into his sound. It's all about finding the sound, or really knowing what I'm hearing inside my head almost, and helping me make it happen.