Spencer Davis might all the time be greatest recognized for the 1965-67 interval when his group, that includes brothers Steve and Muff Winwood and Pete York, recorded a string of UK and worldwide hits. However the Welsh guitarist and keyboard participant, born in Swansea on July 17, 1939, entertained folks dwell on stage for about 60 years.
The unique quartet got here collectively underneath the guise of the Muff-Woody Jazz Band, with Pete York, “Muff” Winwood and his mid-teenaged brother Steve, after which the Rhythm & Blues Quartet. “They were playing in a pub in North Birmingham,” Davis advised Mojo journal of the Winwood brothers in 1996. “Steve was playing the piano like Oscar Peterson and singing like Ray Charles. He was brilliant – exactly what I needed.”
In 1964, now underneath the SDG identify, the quartet caught the attention of Chris Blackwell, by now working the fledgling Island Information, and momentum started to construct alongside the group’s dwell repute. After some lower-charting singles, the group’s time-honored hits included the consecutive British chart-toppers “Keep On Running” and “Somebody Help Me” and the rock staples “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m A Man.” However they represented only one chapter in Davis’ distinguished profession.
‘We thirsted for American music’
Spencer all the time wore his love of American blues and R&B proudly on his sleeve. It was a devotion instilled as a teen rising up in south Wales, when he was wooed by trailblazers reminiscent of Lead Stomach and Large Invoice Broonzy. “We hungered for, thirsted for American music,” he stated later. “It was like discovering gold in your kitchen closet.”
The group carried on, after Steve Winwood’s departure, till 1969, and reunited for a short while within the Nineteen Seventies. Davis interspersed that with solo recordings and different work, and in newer years toured with the latter-day SDG in addition to with the Rock and Roll Military, that includes such fellow notables as Mitch Ryder, Felix Cavaliere and Rick Derringer. 2006 additionally introduced the brand new album and DVD, So Far.
Davis died on October 19, 2020, on the age of 81. Winwood stated in a press release of their early years collectively: “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.”
Take heed to uDiscover Music’s Spencer Davis Group Greatest Of playlist.
