From:   "Jean-Marc Pezet" 
Date:  Tue Sep 9, 2003  3:53 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You: Duffy Power
 
DUFFY POWER (By Dik de Heer) 

Born Ray Howard, 9 September 1941, Fulham, London, England 

Duffy Power was one of several British vocalists, including Billy Fury, Marty
Wilde and Dickie Pride, signed to the Larry Parnes stable. When Parnes,
Britain's first rock impresario, visited a Saturday morning teenage show in a
cinema in west London to hear a band early in 1959, he also saw the young Ray
Howard win a jive competition. Parnes was so impressed when he heard him sing
that he signed him up. He was 17 and had been working in a laundry. 

Wearing leopard skin jackets and gold lame waistcoats, it was said of him that
he not only lived life in the fast lane, but with the throttle pressed to the
floor. Parnes had many talents as a manager, but picking songs for his boys to
record was not one of them. Almost all of Duffy's early Fontana releases were
covers (Dream Lover, Starry-Eyed, Ain't She Sweet), though I rather liked his
version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", which peaked at # 7 in my personal 
Top 15 of January 1961. I haven't heard it since and doubt if I would like it 
now, with my more critical 2003 ears. Anyway, Duffy made no headway as a 
recording artist although his stage performances were
stunning. 

It was while with Parnes that he met Billy Fury and Dickie Pride and the three
became firm friends and even shared flats together. Convinced he was never
going to make it under Parnes' management, Duffy parted company with him in
late 1961, but things did not go well. In his own words Duffy said: 
"My gigs as a rock'n'roll singer in 1961 were getting weaker. I was going out
in blue and gold lame suits, but the girls' screams were dying out. I started
doing a few Ray Charles numbers, but the money wasn't coming in - I thought I
would end up back in the laundry." 

One night he tried to commit suicide by gassing himself, but was rescued by a
chance call from a friend, who took him to a blues club to recover and there,
for the first time, he discovered the music he really wanted to play. 

He teamed up with the newly formed Graham Bond Quartet featuring Ginger Baker,
Jack Bruce (both later members of Cream) and John McLaughlin. 

Their version of the Beatles 'I Saw Her Standing There' (1963), with Duffy
singing lead, remains a milestone of British blues. 

Power's later singles included "Tired, Broke and Busted", which featured
support from the Paramounts, but he later supplemented his solo career by
joining Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. The singer appeared on Red Hot From
Alex (1964), Sky High (1966) and Blues Incorporated (Wednesday Night Prayer
Meeting) (1967). 

By 1968 Duffy was out of work and broke again. Only this time his troubles were
aggravated by drug taking and he succumbed to mental illness. For a time he
became a recluse, writing songs alone in his flat, but in the early 70s he had
recovered enough to record some of those songs which later became classics of
their type. At the same time he also worked as a session musician and played on
the sound track of the classic car chase film The Italian Job. 

In the late 80s Duffy began to emerge again, now a veteran musician who had
something to teach the world and now the world was beginning to listen. 

When his records began to be re-issued on CD, it is no exaggeration to say they
were received with awe by a new generation, who had no idea that an Englishman
could play and sing the blues, along with some R&B and rock, as well as this -
and had been doing so for more than 30 years. 

CD compilation: Blues Power (See For Miles, 1992).