Lament For Clive Davis

The man who made his private bungalow his meeting place for some of the biggest stars in music is no more. Clive Davis has died at age 94. His legacy will forever be a master class in how to discover, foster, and grow talent.

In all, out every act he guided into superstardom, the woman who preceded him in death, Whitney Houston, will forever be the crown jewel.

In the time he built his empire, he had risen to the heights of the music mountain. His J Records boasted talent like Alicia Keys and made household names out of countless acts. His decisiveness and ability to pick talent gave him an edge over other music executives and producers.

Sometimes, talent had been passed over and he saw the gem in their artistry and crafted diamonds.

Everyone from Barry Manilow to Pink Floyd can thank Mr. Davis for his genuine outlook on the landscape. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, he revived the career of Santana and made him a factor in the business again.

For all of his successes, he had few failures and learned from them and saw them as lessons. As nonagenarian, he had built up a fortune of nearly $900 million over nearly seven decades in the music industry.

For someone who lost both parents as a teen, he never let his setbacks derail his vision; he graduated with great praise from New York City College and then Harvard University Law School on a scholarship.

The best part of his journey may be the fact he started at 28 and knew that he would expand on his idea of what the music business could be. As a premiere executive in the business of show, he knew this was all about money. But to get the money, he had to have the stamina and ingenuity in order to sustain the harshness of an industry that can be cold and unforgiving. Not because of greed but because of irrationalism and emotionalism.

If he had been a man who was more fickle and underprepared in his deportment, he would not have had the power he wielded. In the years he brought joy and happiness to people all over the world through the artists he signed, he represented that class of individuals who see the world as a benevolent universe.

For all of the time it took for him to hone his skills from his beginnings at CBS until his prowess at J, he brought together people of immense ability. He showed them off as being those who could be counted as artists.

To say that he had an impact on the world of music would be a massive understatement. It is because of Clive Davis that people know multimillionaires and maybe some billionaires. But they wouldn’t have achieved pecuniary success without their skills on instruments and the microphone.

Davis carved out his own specific lane and became someone to be respected. But does he have any skeletons that will appear now in the wake of his death? So many men in his age group have been brought down because of sexual allegations. Was there a boy, allegedly?

To denigrate the man’s name would be a fruitless pursuit it seems. It appears he lived as a man who stood on business. He kept going. He always persevered despite any snares that may have been put in place in front of him. His journey will be recalled as one of the few executives that artists could celebrate as a result of his acumen. That’s the proper way to go.