SLS: Old Clive Davis Said

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For today’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim is asking us, as he tells us in his post Namesake Day, to play a song that mentions our name. If only mine was a name that featured more often in songs, like John or Johnny! I didn’t even bother looking for my surname – Pilcher – but have in the past Googled my first name – Clive – out of curiosity so I knew of a couple of possibilities for this. Having done another web search I did come across a couple more but didn’t really like them, so I’m going with the two I already knew. It is probably no ‘surprize’ that the Clive that they mention isn’t me: in fact, both refer to Clive Davis, a stalwart of the music industry as a producer and record label owner since the 1960s, who is still with us at the age of 92. Read all about him here, if you would like to know more.

In that Wikipedia article one of the bands mentioned as being discovered by him is Aerosmith, who have kindly provided my opening song for today, one which should really remove any early morning fuzziness:

That is a kind of autobiographical piece about the band’s beginnings. The mention of Clive Davis comes early, about 30 seconds in, as you can see from the lyrics, which I’m reproducing in full even though they are very long:

 
Nineteen seventy-oneWe all heard the starters gunNew York was such a pityBut at Max’s Kansas City we won
 
We all shot the shit at the barWith Johnny O’Toole and his scarAnd then old Clive Davis saidI’m surely gonna make us a starI’m gonna make you a starJust the way you are
 
But with all his styleI could see in his eyesThat we is goin’ to trial
 
It was no surprise
 
The boys kept kickin’ assAs usual time would tellBut some bitch in the choirThrew water on the fires of HellShe loved to show and tellLord, she loved to tell
 
But with all our styleYou could see in our eyesThat we are still on trial
 
And it was no surpriseNo surpriseNo surpriseNo surprise
 
Midnight ladySituation fetalVaccinate your ass With a phonograph needle
 
I sayLook it here, friend of mineYou scratch like you need calamineFlamingo boots, sole’s a creakin’Still in love and Puerto Rican too
 
Ridin’ on the wheels of hellSmokin’ up our axle greaseOh the backstage is rockin’And we’re coppin’ from the local policeThat’s right, the local policeOr the justice of peace
 
But with all our styleYou could see in our eyesThat we are still on trial
 
Baby, it’s no surpriseNo SurpriseNo SurpriseNo Surprise
 
Rock and roll junkie whoreGot my foot inside the doorKnock, knock, knock, knock, knockNobody’s keepin’ score
 
Bad times go awayCome again some other dayTopaz and sazzafrazzWill keep the blues away
 
Candy store and rock and rollCorporation jellyrollPlay the singles, it ain’t meIt’s programmed insanity
 
You ASCAPIf BMICould ever make a mountain flyIf Japanese can boil teasThen where the fuck’s my royalties?
 
Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow!
 
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Joe Perry / Steven Tyler
No Surprize lyrics © BMG Rights Management
 

I also looked up the spelling the band use for ‘surprize’ as I only knew the word to be spelled the way that LyricFind have it. I thought it might be American, as you guys often use a ‘z’ where we go for an ‘s’ but this just seems to be an older spelling of the word which is apparently rarely used today. So there you have it: music and education all at once! No Surprize was the opening track on Aerosmith’s sixth album, Night In The Ruts, which was released in November 1979 and peaked at #14 in the US, #8 in Canada and #39 in Japan, going Platinum in the US for a million sales. It didn’t make the UK Albums chart – they had to wait until 1987 before achieving that with their ninth album, Permanent Vacation. The track wasn’t released as a single, but I think it should have been, as it fair belts along, though maybe some of the lyrics could have been problematic! Steven Tyler has been quoted as saying that this is his favourite of their songs. The recording of the album had stalled, and Joe Perry actually left the band at the time, but as Tyler describes it “For two months, I’d been totally blocked, writing lyrics for this track we had done with Joe. ‘My name is nah nah nah, I come from Yonkers High, and I get drunk at night.’ One night I had such a revelation to write the story of the band, how Aerosmith got started … I was so excited to be back on track.”

Joe Perry rejoined the band in 1984 and has been with them ever since: in terms of membership, they are one of the most stable line ups ever, having had few changes since they began in 1970. They haven’t released a studio album since 2012 but have in their time sold around 150m worldwide. They retired from touring last year, after Steven Tyler suffered a vocal injury during what had been scheduled as their farewell tour.

My second Clive (Davis) tune for today slips in by a kind of default, as he wasn’t initially mentioned in the lyrics but was added in later after a slight change. The song in question is Jack Straw, by The Grateful Dead, and you can hear him mentioned in this:

I don’t think that the band has recorded this on a studio album. As far as I can tell it first appeared on their live album Europe ’72, which was released in November 1972: it was a recording made in Paris in May that year. The album reached #24 in the US and #22 in Canada but, perhaps a little ironically, didn’t make the charts anywhere in Europe – or anywhere else, come to that. Jim is an expert on the band so no doubt he can correct any errors I might be making here! After Clive Davis founded Arista Records in 1974 he recruited The Grateful Dead to the label, and the story goes that Bob Weir, who wrote this song, had an affinity with Davis: “Clive was the one suit we weren’t distrustful of,”  he said in the documentary film, Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives. “He had the reputation for having ‘the ear’ you know? The ‘golden ear.’”

Starting in late 1978 and continuing occasionally until 1980, Bob would alter the lyrics to Jack Straw to reference the label head, changing “We used to play for silver, now we play for life” to “We used to play for silver, now we play for Clive.” Another change the band used was “We used to play for acid, now we play for Clive” but I’m sticking with the first change! As the clip shows this was taken from their extensive catalogue of live albums: Road Trips Volume 1 Number 1 was a collection of recordings made in late 1979, and was released in November 2007.

That’s all for today – I think I’ve stretched references of my name in song as far as I can but nevertheless I’m pleased to have found a couple of goodies. I hope others who take part in SLS have more suitable names and have more choice, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with: I can think of a few that the regulars might choose, but let’s see…

See you again for Tuesday Tunes 🎶

 

60 thoughts on “SLS: Old Clive Davis Said”

  1. Pingback: Farewell March | Take It Easy

  2. Clive is a great name, but it sure is not featured in too many songs yet you found some – very cool. On a side note, in Little Rock, Arkansas there is a popular yoga teacher names Wesley Pilcher…. I wonder if any distant relations ?

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  3. So very clever of you, Clive! No surpriSe, though; I would expect nothing less from you!
    Last week Bill and I watched the Netflix docu, Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives …. a fascinating and entertaining piece that delved deeply into the incredible life of music mogul Clive Davis. Naturally, you popped into my head and I wondered if you might go with the Aerosmith song. Good choice! I’m not a Dead Head so I was unfamiliar with their song. Fun post, Clive! 😊

    PS – if you haven’t seen the Netflix docu, check it out; it’s excellent.

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  4. I liked that album (Night In The Ruts) but some Aerosmith fans didn’t. They are the ultimate comeback rock band with Permanent Vacation. I bought that album and loved it…and they stayed relevant for years after that.

    I really like The Grateful Dead. I’ve read some books about them and really started to get into them around 10 years ago…along with the Allman Brothers. When I was a kid and teenager…I didn’t pay attention to non-British bands… I was that biased with UK bands! I have a lot of respect for Clive Davis as well…he had something to do with so many artists like Janis Joplin (my favorite female singer) and scores of huge names.

    Great post Clive.

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    • Thank you, Max, and for following.

      I was a latecomer to Aerosmith – Permanent Vacation was the first of theirs I bought, though I did have a compilation from previous albums. I have the full set since then. This track really belts along, which is why I led with it.

      I’m a bit ‘take it or leave it’ with Grateful Dead. I like a lot of their songs but get bored with the elongated jams, which always feel self-indulgent to me. This is a good one though.

      I’ve noticed your liking for British bands – keep ‘em coming!

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      • Clive…I thought I followed you before but I was wrong!
        I liked their seventies music a lot and that album really got me into them again. I love the title track and their version of I’m Down.

        The Dead’s story is so interesting on how the heck they built their audience with no big hits really until the end of their career. I like those early seventies albums…American Beauty, Workingman’s Dead, and Wake of the Flood. If that is all I had by them…I would be happy.

        I sure will…lately I’ve been catching up on the American bands I ignored in real time.

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  5. Ha, we were both challenged this week to find songs with our names. I do like that you are linked to the music magician Clive Davis with both songs. Two good ones today. I love the gentleness of the Dead’s music. Great job Clive!

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    • It was a limited field, wasn’t it!

      The only others I could find about ‘Clive’ were both dirges, so I was lucky to have Clive Davis to fall back on. I’m pleased you liked them, Maggie 😉

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  6. Can’t remember ever hearing the Aerosmith song, but it sounded really good. Never a fan of Grateful Dead though. I’m glad you did find a couple that had your name in the lyrics, though. 🙂

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  11. Terrific post! When I ran programming at the E! cable network, we shot a special at Kennedy Center for the premiere of the film “Armageddon”…Aerosmith performed with the space shuttle site behind them…I was literally in the front row and they rocked for an hour! So much fun!

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  12. I loved both of your choices today, Clive. Clive Davis was involved with every type of music, so he knows everyone in the music business, and I also watched that special on him. Before you started joining in on Song Lyric Sunday, we had a Clive Davis day, the year he turned 90.

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  14. Nice choices and glad you found your name. I know you gotta appreciate genius like Aerosmith wih lyrics like – vaccinate your ass with a phonograph needle – I mean that just comes straight from the creative mind. I should know a long time ago one of my cats really hated windy weather and when the wind whipped up he ran crazy around the garden I used to have. I came up with this ditty – running around like a mad man with a few screws loose.

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    • Thank you, glad you liked them. That’s a great line, isn’t it, though it is probably one of those that would have stopped it getting radio airplay! Descriptive use of language yourself, there 👍

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    • I expect those will be new to most, Carol, though there are a couple of Deadheads who take part in SLS so I think they’ll know that one. The weekend is going tolerably well, thank you, and I hope yours has been good xx

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  19. You did well squeezing out two Clive references Mr Pilcher, but Clive Davis is certainly an interesting man and though I am aware of him, you’ve inspired me to find out more.

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    • Funnily enough, though Wikipedia mention him being fired from CBS Records in 1973 for allegedly using company money to pay for his son’s Bar Mitzvah, they don’t say anything about his links with P Diddy and various pending lawsuits! But at least he was good for a couple of songs back in the 70s 🤣

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