Blog

Clive Davis, the music industry executive who guided Columbia Records through its late-60s/early-70s heyday and went on to have an extraordinarily successful career in pop music, has died at the age of 94.

According to reports, Davis was hospitalised last month, suffering from respiratory problems, but was released shortly after and died today (June 22) at his home in Manhattan.

“Over here on E Street, we mourn the death of the great record man and close friend Clive Davis,” posted Bruce Springsteen. “At 22 years old, he changed my life when he signed me to Columbia Records. He treated me with the same respect and kindness as a 22-year-old nobody as he did after all my success. A great man. All our prayers and love.”

Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1932. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1956, he found his way to Columbia Records, where he was appointed president in 1966.

Fascinated by the growth of folk and rock’n’roll, he would first sign Donovan to the label, before going on to bring Big Brother and the Holding Company, Laura Nyro, The Electric Flag, Santana, The Chambers Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Ten Years After, Billy Joel, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Aerosmith and Pink Floyd to Columbia.

Fired by Columbia in 1975 amid allegations of financial impropriety, he went on to found Arista Records, where he created a home for Aretha Franklin, Patti Smith, Ministry, the Alan Parsons Project, The Outlaws, Air Supply, Carly Simon, Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Lou Reed, Enuff Z’Nuff and many more.

More success came at R&B label LaFace, which he founded with producers L.A. Reid and Babyface, where Whitney Houston, TLC, Usher, Outkast, Pink and Toni Braxton would all enjoy multi-platinum album sales.

Davis left Arista in 2000 and started J Records, where D’Angelo, Luther Vandross, Jamie Foxx, and Monica all achieved major success, before ending his career as Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment.

Davis’s track record wasn’t perfect – he told Meat Loaf that Jim Steinman was incapable of writing songs and said Yes’s Owner Of A Lonely Heart was “too strange” to be a hit – but it’s estimated that Davis worked with artists who cumulatively sold more than a billion albums over the course of his sixty-year career.

Carlos Santana, who was signed by Davis to Columbia in 1968 and to Arista in 1999 – where his Supernatural album sold an estimated 30 million copies worldwide – has paid tribute.

“Clive understood that music is more than entertainment,” Santana wrote. “Music is a healing force. It brings people together beyond fear, beyond separation, beyond borders. He dedicated his life to championing artists and helping them share their gifts with the world.

“Clive recognised the light in people. He encouraged artists to trust their own voice and step into their destiny. Because of his vision, countless musicians were able to reach hearts across the planet.”

“To this very day, I listen to the newest records as they reach, let’s say, the top 20 of each genre,” Davis told Variety in 2022. “I’ve always made sure that I didn’t listen only to what we were doing, and that I was aware and studying and totally cognizant.

“I found that many of my peers get stuck in what they’re doing, and weren’t prepared for how music was changing. And you’ve gotta know it. It was so tough, over the years, to tell an artist who’d had hit after hit after hit that the next record has to be different, because music has changed.

“You’ve got to be astute. I did it, and I still do it, because I love music.”

The news of the formation of alt. rock supergroup Tomahawk in 2001 came as a fabulous bolt from the blue. Featuring frontman Mike Patton (Faith No More/Mr. Bungle), guitarist Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard), bassist Kevin Rutmanis (Melvins) and drummer John Stanier (Helmet), the quartet’s pedigree was undeniable, and their self-titled debut album, released on Patton’s own Ipecac Recordings label, more than lived up to expectations.

There was then much excitement when Tomahawk announced their first UK tour in the spring of 2002, with dates booked at The Astoria in London (March 10), The Garage in Glasgow (March 11), and Manchester Academy 2 (March 12). The shows would live long in the memories of all in attendance, with those of us who had tickets for the London show seeing rather more of Mike Patton than anyone had anticipated.

Patton, it’s fair to say, was not in the best of moods on the evening of March 10, as is evidenced by bootleg recordings of Tomahawk’s London debut. The singer had apparently been involved in an ‘altercation’ with over-officious security staff when entering the central London venue, and was still seething when the quartet took the stage.

“Did you guys have a hard time getting in here tonight?” he asked the audience half an hour into the gig. “You know, I must confess it was a little difficult for me as well. So I’d like to dedicate this next song to the lovely security staff here at the Astoria. They work hard for their money… give them a fucking hand.”

“They don’t look amused,” he added afterwards, fully aware that English people are no strangers to sarcasm.

Fifteen minutes later, however, the security staff were considerably less amused, because at that point, after some verbal sparring, it appeared that Patton pulled out his penis, and proceeded to urinate over them, with photographers in the venue’s photo pit and some stage-front crowd members also getting caught in the ‘downpour’. This did absolutely nothing to ease the tension in the venue, as one might imagine.

The following day, Ipecac Records released a hilariously tongue-in-cheek statement about the incident, suggesting that Patton was in a bad mood following a disagreement which erupted during a pre-show backstage meeting with Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, Incubus vocalist Brandon Boyd, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, Coby Dick from Papa Roach, Slipknot’s Joey Jordison, Gavin Rossdale from Bush and Faith No More’s Bill Gould: the topic under discussion, allegedly, was a “multi-million dollar” offer for Faith No More to headline a nu metal festival tour. The fact that at least one of the musicians involved in this pow-wow was on tour in America on this date tells you all you need to know about the veracity of this claim. But let’s not get bogged down in facts, shall we?

“Before taking the stage Tomahawk bandmates Kevin Rutmanis and Duane Denison lightened Mike’s dark mood by showing him the toys they purchased earlier in one of London’s finest fetish stores,” the Ipecac statement continued. “One of the items was a rubber dildo that squirts water. Mike decided that this would be the perfect prank to get even with the nu-metal lovin’ hooligan security guard.

“I think everyone knows the rest of the story and has seen the pictures. When Mike was apprehended back stage and pulled the dildo from his pants, the tension was relieved and all parties had a laugh about it except the photographers at the front of the stage that thought it was real.”

All fun and – sigh – ‘bants’ then…. except that if you happen to have the opportunity to look at photos from the night, let’s say, for example, the photographs taken by former Kerrang! / NME photographer Martyn Goodacre which we decided not to republish here, and which we won’t link to, but which are currently still accessible on the Getty Images website, you can very, very clearly see that the ‘dildo’ in Patton’s hand is not, in fact, a dildo… unless the ‘fetish store’ in question was the only one in the world which sold flesh-coloured dildos complete with straggly pubic hair, for extra authenticity.

That said, the brightest sparks in London’s Metropolitan police force duly accepted that the appendage in question was Patton’s “stunt cock”, so let’s all pretend that that’s what it was, because no-one likes a grass, do they?