R.I.P. Clive Davis

Not a particular support of TP-adjacent music, but still a figure whose impact on the music business can't be ignored.

Details here.

Well, Arista did not only sign the Church in the late 80s, but also reissued their back catalog, including the albums that hadn't had a U.S. release. I don't imagine Clive had any direct hand in that, but he was notorious for picking the singles for Arista acts, so maybe he heard "Under the Milky Way" and said, "That hazy Australian psychedelia will be a hit."

Gotta give him credit for signing Patti Smith. Not many saw the hit-making potential in someone like her in those days.

He also signed Lou Reed to Arista (where he made Street Hassle and The Bells), the Kinks to Arista, and apparently the main force behind Columbia's exponential increase in rock signings in the wake of Monterey Pop (he was there and was immediately taken by Janis Joplin). The way he talks about these things, it was the result of business instincts and wanting to figure out what would be popular, not because of deep personal connections (much less artistic insight) into pop music, so not surprisingly there's an odd trajectory in terms of which acts he preferred to sign. So mixed feelings about the guy, but he likely turned Columbia into a far better label than Mitch Miller ever could.

He signed Iggy too. Clearly I spoke too hastily, thinking of his association with Whitney Houston and Rod Stewart.

Should mention he also developed great relationships with Dylan and Springsteen (whom he actually signed under John Hammond's urging). Honestly, if he had quit the music business altogether in, say, 1982, I'd find little fault in whatever lasting imprint he made on popular music. But from the mid-'80s to Supernatural, blech. (The less said about Milli Vanilli, the better.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2026 09:57AM by belfast.

Forgot, but Arista even had a short-lived jazz division in the 1970s: Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Muhal Richard Abrams were all on it. Too bad it didn't last.

Freedom Records was actually a European label that they distributed as Arista Freedom, but yes - it's a pretty incredible lineup. They had really distinctive covers - I kinda collect those versions because the covers are such a perfect mixture of imaginative and eye-searing. But one of my all-time favorite jazz albums, Julius Hemphill's Dogon A.D., was reissued on Arista Freedom. And kudos to them for hearing Braxton and thinking, "Fuck yeah, we'll distribute this." That guy has a very distinctive musical mind.

It's rather mind-boggling that those Braxton and Hemphill releases came out on a major label. Didn't Freedom also put out several posthumous Albert Ayler albums?

Yep. Without getting too far into the weeds (which proliferate around Ayler's discography), they reissued his classic album Spirits as Witches & Devils. There's also Vibrations, a live album originally entitled Ghosts when it came out in the UK in 1969, before making the rounds of various labels (including Arista Freedom in 1975) as Vibrations. It was reissued on ORG Music a few years ago credited to Albert Ayler and Don Cherry. I recommend it.

Annnnd somehow we've derailed a discussion about Clive Davis into a survey of mid-70s free jazz.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2026 05:35AM by Michael Toland.

And let's not forget that Arista Freedom also re-released a trilogy of Cecil Taylor albums, including the notoriously challenging Nefertiti The Beautiful One Has Come.

If there's ever a history of Arista, I'd get it just to peruse the sections on the TP-friendly bands and the Freedom relationship.

Can't say I was a fan! He was a harbinger of the horrors to come as the first lawyer put in charge of a label. I remember an anti-Clive Mick Farren column from TP back in the day! It possibly colored my perception of him going forward, but he was a "unique" and problematic exec. I read his 2nd auto bio and to me it read like something that Dick Cheney [or Darth Vader] might have written. He seemed to be inordinately proud of these dubious actions. I also watched the Netflix doc based on the book and ended up feeling sorry for Manilow! As label head he had the power to boss his artists around [unless he was cowed by them: see Patti Smith or Lou Reed] and make them record and release material they didn't necessarily want to. Then he also had the power to throw the full promotional weight of the label behind his "hunches" because he was at the top of the pyramid. And more often than not his "hunches" paid off. Manilow had a string of hit singles he didn't write and that was his main thing, writing. And worse, Manilow didn't get any publishing on those million sellers. No wonder he's bitter. I can't say I'll miss him.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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