Rock’s Unfulfilled Fashion Ideas: The Cape

At this point, in the early ’70s, we can see The Cape in Rock beginning to divide into two camps: the Arthurian Cape of Screamin’ Jay and Solomon Burke, which would be the path taken by the cape-wearing faction of Yes, and the aforementioned Funk Cape, the roots of which lie in the capes of James Brown and Elvis Presley. The Funk Cape was less about the mythical powers of some Rock Roundtable or Count Rockula and more about taunting others in the music world with the question, Who’s Your Daddy? You can see the difference in purpose as worn by the likes of Funk Cape pioneer Sly Stone, members of Funkadelic, The Isley Brothers, and other street-smart hustlers. I believe David Bowie‘s occasional use of The Cape was indebted to the Funk Cape more than the Arthurian version, although for acting roles he’s been known to let his cape swing both ways. I would bet that Prince has swung a cape.

Along with prog rockers, didn’t early heavy metal practitioners, like members of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, throw on a cape as a show of solidarity with the black magic? I don’t know if Ritchie Blackmore ever wore a cape on stage, but clearly he’s shopped for one.

By the late-’70s, as prog-rock capewear became out of vogue and heavy metal began sowing the seeds for the coming decade of hair farming, the would-be Garage Cape movement merged with the Count Rockula faction of Arthurian capewear to spawn The Dammed’s Dave Vanian, also known as The Count of Vampire Rock. Yuck! to that whole scene.

Does anyone wear The Cape today? I could swear the big man who sings lead in The Soundtrack of Our Lives has donned a cape on stage, but maybe I confused the cape I thought I saw with one of his patented caftans, or whatever you’d call those monk-like robes he drapes around his substantial girth. If he has not yet worn a cape, I bet he could pull it off.