20th Century Fox<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve not gotten into film as an extension of the recording careers of Arista artists,\u201d says Davis, sitting in his office. \u201cNor will I make rock & roll films. I\u2019m a great believer in the script having to hold up and be meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStill, Davis is also a great believer in mixing music and movies, which is one of the reasons he\u2019s got a deal. (Davis notes that his first film-production offer came on the heels of Robert Stigwood\u2019s success with Saturday Night Fever.<\/em>) As Sherry Lansing, president of 20th Century Fox, has said: \u201cI know he is committed to developing innovative ways of integrating motion pictures and contemporary music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tAs for his music-business interests, Davis is doing well. Arista Records, which he founded only five years ago, is right up there with the major labels. According to Record World<\/em>, based on its 1979 album charts, Arista Records placed fourth, virtually tied with A&M and trailing only Warner Bros. and Columbia Records, the company Davis used to run. Not bad for a label with only 60-some acts on its roster \u2014 which, Davis is quick to point out, \u201cis about 20 percent the size of Warners or Columbia.\u201d It is a select list of artists, however, that includes the likes of Barry Manilow, Graham Parker, Patti Smith, the Kinks, Dionne Warwick, the Grateful Dead, Melissa Manchester, and Aretha Franklin, who recently jumped to Arista after more than a decade with Atlantic Records.<\/p>\n\n\tDavis has always been a high-profile record executive, both in the industry and with his artists. At CBS, he made news by signing such acts as Janis Joplin (with Big Brother and the Holding Company), Chicago, Boz Scaggs, Billy Joel, and Laura Nyro, and by his high-priced snaring of Neil Diamond. At Arista, he admits to playing a role in the makeover of Melissa Manchester from frizzy-haired singer-songwriter to sleek club performer, and claims a larger responsibility for putting Dionne Warwick back on the charts. When the singer signed with Arista, she hadn\u2019t been under contract for more than a year. \u201cI put her with Barry Manilow [as producer],\u201d says Davis. \u201cI found \u2018I\u2019ll Never Love This Way Again\u2019 and matched it with Barry.\u201d Davis says he is also involved in selecting and editing the singles of certain artists.<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tAll of which is just the kind of involvement he expects to have with his latest catch, Aretha Franklin. \u201cShe was unhappy at Atlantic,\u201d says Davis. \u201cShe missed having a creative relationship, since she\u2019d worked so closely with [producer-Atlantic executive] Jerry Wexler. She wanted someone she could confer with in terms of material and producers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDavis has never been humble about his success as a record executive and repeats, seemingly by rote, the high points of his career. And when asked about the controversy that has surrounded his professional life, he responds without reference to the low point: his ouster seven years ago as president of CBS Records on charges of misusing company funds. He was ultimately cleared of those charges, and even CBS has come around to acknowledging his contributions. At a recent award presentation, Columbia Records President Bruce Lundvall called him \u201cthe cornerstone on which CBS Records was built.\u201d Still, Davis has never been back to his old offices in the CBS \u201cBlack Rock\u201d building.<\/p>\n
\n\tIf he is controversial, says Davis, it\u2019s because he\u2019s \u201ca spokesman for the industry. I do take positions on controversial issues.\u201d He feels, for example, that the record industry\u2019s financial slump of 1979 resulted from slipshod management and not from any loss in consumer interest. \u201cI named names,\u201d he says, \u201cand said that these people are afraid for their jobs, that they\u2019re excusing bad performance and trying to take the industry down with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tWhile at CBS, Davis \u2014 a former lawyer turned executive talent scout \u2014 also became a target for critics of high-priced bidding for rock acts. \u201cThe largest deal I ever signed was Neil Diamond, when I matched Warner Bros. at $400,000 an album in 1972,\u201d he argues. Sure, he caught flak for signing Pink Floyd at $300,000, but then \u201cthey erupted and sold 5 million copies. It\u2019s different from a banking deal, like with the Beatles and the Who after they\u2019ve become worldwide names.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tJust what kind of profile Davis carves out for himself in the film business remains to be seen. As for the operation of the as-yet-unnamed company, he says he\u2019ll run it and will be executive producer of all its movies, while placing day-to-day responsibilities in other hands. One film is already in the talking stage.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd perhaps in the not-too-distant future, Clive Davis will say of his movies \u2014 as he does of his work in the record industry \u2014 \u201cThose are my songs. That\u2019s what you go by.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on July 10, 1980, in\u00a0\u201cRolling Stone.\u201d Contrary to stories appearing in the trades, Arista Records President Clive Davis isn\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":67236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}