20. oktober 2020 arkiv

Dødsfald: Spencer Davis – 81

20. oktober 2020

Spencer Davis gav navn til et af tressernes bedste beatorkestre, The Spencer Davis Group. Han studerede egentlig tysk ved universitetet i Birmingham og blev skolelærer. Men musikken trak så meget i ham, at han sammen med trommeslager Peter York, bassisten Muff Winwood og dennes broder Steve Winwood (tangenter og sang) dannede The Spencer Davis Group.
Bandet fik to førstepladser på hitlisten, fire top 10 placeringer og syv top-40-ditto. “Keep on running” indtog førstepladsen i en uge i 1965, “Somebody help me” to uger i 1966. “Gimme some lovin” og “I’m a man” nåede ikke helt til tops, men er gået over i rockhistorien som et par at årtiets store sange.

Oprindeligt kaldte de sig The Rhythm and Blues Quartet, og det var da også rhythm and blues, der var bandets ledetråd. Og det var især Steve Winwood, der tegnede bandets stil.
For nylig var der tale om at gendanne det oprindelige Spencer Davis Group, men Spencer blev syg, og nu er han så død efter et hjertetilfælde.

Opdatering:

“I’ve known Spencer since I was about 13–he would have been about 22. I was playing a show at Birmingham University with my brother and his band. Spencer, who was a student at Birmingham, was playing with a small group of musicians. We met and the the seeds of The Spencer Davis Group were sown.

Spencer was an early pioneer of the British folk scene, which, in his case embraced folk blues, and eventually what was then called “Rhythm and Blues”. He influenced my tastes in music, he owned the first 12-string guitar I ever saw, and he was taken with the music of Huddie “Lead belly” Ledbetter, and Big Bill Broonzy. I’d already got a big brother who influenced me greatly, and Spencer became like a big brother to me at the time.

He was definitely a man with a vision, and one of the pioneers of the British invasion of America in the sixties. I never went to the U.S. with Spencer, but he later embraced America, and America embraced him.

I feel that he was influential in setting me on the road to becoming a professional musician, and I thank him for that.

Thank you, Spencer.”

– Steve Winwood [på Facebook]

Opdatering 18/722: Swansea’s Rock and Soul Dynamo

 

50: Bob Dylan – New Morning

20. oktober 2020

New Morning fulgte i kølvandet på Selfportrait, dobbeltalbummet, der virkelig delte vandene i Dylan-lejren. Mange vendte tommenfingeren nedad, fordi Dylan fordybede sig i coverversioner og ikke lød som han oprindeligt havde lydt. Dylans stemme har altid været genstand for debat.