From his beginnings as a record label lawyer to his status as one of the biggest hitmakers in history, not many people in the music industry – if anyone – can boast of a career like Clive Davis has had over the past 40 years.
The legendary executive shared some of his stories over those decades during a packed session at the SXSW Music Conference at the Austin Convention Center in a conversation with Billboard’s Bill Werde.
It began with a taped piece covering the highlights of Davis-nurtured talent, a staggering list that includes Whitney Houston, Simon and Garfunkel, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Dionne Warwick, The Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Alicia Keyes, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, and Aretha Franklin.
Davis is promoting his new autobiography, “The Soundtrack of My Life” (Simon & Schuster), which was published last month around Grammy time, when Davis is in the white-hot glare of media attention for his annual Grammy party held the night before the awards cast.
Timing is been everything in Davis’s life, from when he assumed the presidency of Columbia Records – unexpectedly, as he tells it – and shortly thereafter went to the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and discovered Janis Joplin.
While being dressed inappropriately for the occasion – he says he was wearing a tennis sweater and khakis – he had the good sense to realize that Big Brother and the Holding Company and its dynamic lead singer would bring Columbia a younger audience. Shortly thereafter, he added Carlos Santana and Blood, Sweat and Tears to the label, creating a rock dynasty that went on for decades.
The book, which he proudly noted has hit number two on the bestseller list, returns to a common theme of his advice to performing artists: don’t write your own songs unless they are as good as the ones that have been huge hits, the ones written by songwriters who conversely, usually don’t perform their own music.
Some talent, like Houston, accepted that guidance, while others, like Clarkson, bristled at it.
The track records speak for themselves, as does Davis, who is the type of public speaker who can tell lengthy stories. That’s a nice way of saying that Werde didn’t get in many questions during the hour and a half long chat, nor did the audience have an opportunity to ask any questions.
During time that might have been reserved for that, Davis played demos he got that turned into massive hits for his artists, before going on to play the versions that people know and love.
“Crank it up,” he told the audio person.”This audience can handle it.” In fact, the. volume was so loud that ear plugs would’ve come in handy. Which won’t be an issue if you read the book.
Davis, who has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, did a book signing for attendees immediately following the South By Southwest session and will be doing several more across the country, including one on March 21 at the Roxy on LA’s Sunset Strip.
–Hillary Atkin
