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Hits such as “Gimme Some Lovin’ and “I’m a Man” have made Britain-based Spencer Davis Group stand out around the world and introduce the career of its lead singer, Steve Winwood.
By Jim Farber
Spencer Davis, the leader of a rock band under his call that had some of the most propelling and lasting hits of the 1960s, added “Gimme Some Lovin'”, “I’m a Man” and “Keep On Running”, all sung. not yet through it through teenager Steve Winwood, who died Monday in Los Angeles.
The cause is pneumonia, said Bob Birk, his booking agent and friend, adding that Davis was hospitalized last week.
Mr. Davis co-wrote “Gimme Some Lovin'”, his band’s biggest success. He played rhythm guitar in the band and sang great vocals, lending his baritone voice basically to blues-oriented material.
But it was Mr. Winwood, who was only 15 when Mr. Davis found out, who emerged as the band’s star, making a song in the most sensitive of his hits and then fitting into a key figure of British rock through his paintings. with the bands Traffic and Blind Faith, and in a long solo career.
After Winwood left Spencer Davis in 1967 to shape Traffic, Davis has put the band through multiple incarnations. In 1968, a new version of the Spencer Davis Group had two Top 40 hits in Britain, “Time Seller” and “Mr. Second Class. “
The band did not have the same luck in the United States, however, a song co-written through Mr. Davis and recorded by the band that year, “Don’t Want You No More”, significant in 1969 when the Allman Brothers recorded a canopy edition as the opening track of their album deyet.
Later, Mr. Davis had a successful career as an A
Spencer David Nelson Davies was born on July 17, 1939 in Swansea, Wales. Later, he dropped the “e” in his last name because “Davies” pronounced “Davis” in Britain and “Daveys” in the United States, where he hoped to further his career.
Mr. Davis grew up in the Blitz. ” The bombed-out center was my playground as a child,” he told the Illuminati online music page in 2016. “I saw that the city was absolutely destroyed.
His father was a World War II paratrooper, while his uncle Herman, who played mandolin, was a musical influence on young Spencer: at age 6, he learned harmonica and accordion.
After graduating from Dynevor School at age 16, Mr. Davis moved to London and discovered paintings at a bank and a government customs and excise duty branch.
Overwhelmed by the boredom of this work, he returned to school at the age of 20, reading German at the University of Birmingham. He also learned French and Spanish fluently, skills that eventually helped his organization become popular in Europe. the nickname master.
The music, however, remained his muse. In Birmingham, like many young British musicians of the time, he formed an organization specializing in skiffle, a British combination of American blues, jazz and folk. She also played in a band (and fell in love) with Christine Perfect, who later married John McVie and, like Christine McVie, a senior member of Fleetwood Mac.
In 1963, Davis discovered a band at a suburban Birmingham club, the Muff Woody Jazz Band, which included musical prodigy Steve Winwood and his older brother Muff. Davis promptly identified the ordinary abilities of the younger brother.
“There was this guy who played the piano like Oscar Peterson and sang like Ray Charles,” he told The Guardian in 2014 (Mr. Winwood also played guitar).
Mr. Davis hired Steve Winwood for his band, taking Muff, who switched from guitar to bass, only because he can take his younger brother to concerts. With Pete York on drums, the band became known as rhythm and blues Quartet and performed versions of R
The band’s call replaced Spencer Davis Group in 1964. Throughout history, the other members accepted the new call because Mr. Davis was willing to do interviews, allowing them to sleep longer.
The band’s live reputation caught the attention of music director Chris Blackwell, who became their manager and signed it to their young Island label, which was then distributed through greater Fontana Records. The first single band of “Dimples” through blues artist John Lee Hooker, who gave the impression on their debut album, titled “Their First LP”, in 1965.
Earlier this year, the band had a number one hit in the UK with ‘Keep On Running’. Written through Jamaican artist Jackie Edwards as a skeletal piece of ska, the song remodeled through the band in a lush Motown style. rave-up. To get a different sound for his lead guitar, Steve Winwood used the same fuzz pedal keith Richards had used in the Rolling Stones hit “Satisfaction”.
“Keep On Running” reached number 3 in Britain, but 74th on the billboard in the United States.
The summit of the Spencer Davis Group came in 1966 and early 1967 with a double, starting with ‘Gimme Some Lovin’, written through Mr. Davis and the Winwood brothers, who were drawn to Muff Winwood’s dynamic bass line but was most notable. hammond organ and his brother’s exultant voice. It has sold more than a million copies and has a touchstone of the R
Members of the band Spencer Davis gave the impression of being themselves in the 1966 British musical “The Ghost Goes Gear”, but the band collapsed. Eager to explore a wider diversity of styles, Steve Winwood left Traffic in 1967, while his brother became a picture
Wounded by the outings, the witty Mr. Davis joined, forming a new band with Phil Sawyer on guitar and vocals and Eddie Hardin on keyboards and vocals. This band contributed part of the songs to the soundtrack of the 1968 British comedy “Here We Turn the Mulberry Bush”; the rest was provided through Traffic. That year, the band also released the album “With their New Face On”, whose first vigorous, string-oriented single, “Time Seller”, awaited the success of electric light orchestra.
Even before the album’s release, Mr. Sawyer, who shared the lead vocals on “Time Seller”, left, replacing it through Ray Fenwick. The band’s failed follow-up album, “Funky”, released in 1969, featured the long-term rhythmic segment of Elton John’s former band: bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson. This edition of the organization was dissolved soon after, at that time, Mr. Davis moved to California.
Much of the “New Face” lineup came here in combination in 1973 for two albums, “Gluggo” and “Living on a Back Street”, before collapsing again. Davis released solo albums focusing on acoustic blues and jazz. By the late 1970s, he had moved on to a task with Island Records.
In 2006, he began traveling with various musicians under the banner of Spencer Davis Group, occasionally with his original drummer, Pete York.
Mr. Davis’ survivors come with his partner, June Dante; 3 children, Lisa, Sarah, and Gareth; and five grandchildren.
Despite Steve Winwood’s entire fortune, Davis believed Winwood had been reckless in leaving his band at the height of his popularity. “Steve,” he told The Guitar Mag in 2014, “it’s never sounded so smart. “as with us. “
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