Lou Reed, Ian Dury, and Clive Davis: Selling Records in 1978
jeffcochran.substack.com
Reading The Soundtrack of My Life, the second memoir by record label executive Clive Davis, brings to life a period when Davis was in at least his second chapter as music mogul. It was the mid-70s, when Davis emerged from the messiness of being canned as President of Columbia Records. There were allegations of Davis using company funds of up to $94,000.00 to feather his own nest while covering such expenses as his son’s bar mitzvah. Davis’s supporters, including many of the top acts in the record business, either dismissed Columbia’s charges as envy or boardroom politics. Some couldn’t care less, given the personal touch Davis brought to Columbia from the late ’60s until his last day on the job in May ’73. In the era of Watergate, Davis, rightfully or not, was a rare species: a beloved executive.
Lou Reed, Ian Dury, and Clive Davis: Selling Records in 1978
Lou Reed, Ian Dury, and Clive Davis: Selling…
Lou Reed, Ian Dury, and Clive Davis: Selling Records in 1978
Reading The Soundtrack of My Life, the second memoir by record label executive Clive Davis, brings to life a period when Davis was in at least his second chapter as music mogul. It was the mid-70s, when Davis emerged from the messiness of being canned as President of Columbia Records. There were allegations of Davis using company funds of up to $94,000.00 to feather his own nest while covering such expenses as his son’s bar mitzvah. Davis’s supporters, including many of the top acts in the record business, either dismissed Columbia’s charges as envy or boardroom politics. Some couldn’t care less, given the personal touch Davis brought to Columbia from the late ’60s until his last day on the job in May ’73. In the era of Watergate, Davis, rightfully or not, was a rare species: a beloved executive.