’60s band leader Spencer Davis dies
Spencer Davis, the leader of a rock group under his name that had some of the most propulsive and enduring hits of the 1960s, including “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “I’m a Man” and “Keep On Running” — all sung not by him but by a teenage Steve Winwood — died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 81.
The cause was pneumonia, said Bob Birk, his booking agent and friend, adding that Davis had been hospitalized for the past week.
Davis co-wrote “Gimme Some Lovin’,” his group’s biggest hit. He played rhythm guitar in the band and occasionally sang lead vocals, lending his baritone voice mostly to bluesoriented material.
But it was Winwood, who was only 15 when Davis discovered him, who emerged as the group’s star, singing lead on its hit singles and later becoming an essential figure in British rock through his work with the bands Traffic and Blind Faith and in a long solo career.
After Winwood abruptly left the Spencer Davis Group in 1967 to form Traffic, Davis kept the band going through multiple incarnations. In 1968, a new iteration of the Spencer Davis Group enjoyed two Top 40 hits in Britain, “Time Seller” and “Mr. Second Class.”
The band did not have similar success in the United States, but a song cowritten by Davis and recorded by the band that year, “Don’t Want You No More,” became significant
in 1969 when the Allman Brothers recorded a cover version as the opening track on their debut album.
Davis later had a fruitful career as an A&R executive at Island Records, where he signed the hit punk-pop group Eddie and the Hot Rods and the respected reggae band Third World.
Spencer David Nelson Davies was born July 17, 1939, in Swansea, Wales. He later dropped the “e” in his surname because “Davies” is pronounced “Davis” in Britain but “Daveys” in the United States, where he hoped to expand his career.
Davis grew up during the Blitz. “The bombed city center was my playground as a child,” he told the website Music Illuminati in 2016. “I watched the town being absolutely destroyed.”
His father was a paratrooper during World War II, 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 the Dynevor School at 16, Davis moved to London and found clerical work with a bank and the government customs and excise department.
Crushed by the dullness of that work, he went back to school at 20, studying German at the University of Birmingham. He also became fluent in French and Spanish, skills that later helped his band become popular throughout Europe. Among musicians, he earned the nickname Professor.
Music, however, remained his muse. In Birmingham, like many young British musicians of the day, he formed a group specializing in skiffle, a homespun British blend of blues, jazz and American folk.
He also performed in a band (and became romantically involved) with Christine Perfect, who later married John McVie and, as Christine McVie, became a core member of Fleetwood Mac.
In 1963, Davis discovered a group in a suburban Birmingham club, the Muff Woody Jazz Band, which included the musical prodigy Steve Winwood and his older brother Muff. Davis immediately recognized the younger brother’s extraordinary skills.
“There was this kid playing piano like Oscar Peterson and singing like Ray Charles,” he told The Guardian in 2014. ( Winwood also played guitar.)