Rick Davies
| Rick Davies | |
|---|---|
Rick Davies, 2002
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Richard Davies |
| Born | 22 July 1944 |
| Origin | Swindon, Wiltshire, England |
| Genres | Progressive rock, pop rock, art rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1956–present |
| Labels | A&M, Rick Davies Productions |
| Associated acts | Supertramp |
| Website | supertramp |
| Notable instruments | |
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Wulritzer Electric Piano Fender Rhodes Hammond B3 Organ |
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Richard "Rick" Davies (born 22 July 1944) is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the founder, vocalist and keyboardist of progressive rock band Supertramp. Davies is the only member of Supertramp to have been with the group for their entire history, and has composed some of their most well-known songs, including "Goodbye Stranger", "Bloody Well Right", "My Kind of Lady", and "Cannonball". He is generally noted for his sophisticated blues and jazz-influenced progressive rock compositions and cynical lyrics.
Starting with Indelibly Stamped in 1971, Davies shared lead vocals with Supertramp songwriting partner, Roger Hodgson until the latter's departure in 1983, at which point he became the sole lead vocalist of the group. Davies's voice is deeper than Hodgson's, and he usually employs a raspy baritone which stands in stark contrast to his bandmate's tenor. However, he occasionally sings in a falsetto which superficially resembles Hodgson's vocals, such as on "Goodbye Stranger" and "My Kind of Lady". He also plays harmonica for the group.
Richard Davies was born in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1944 to Betty and Dick Davies. Betty was a hairdresser and ran a salon, and Dick was a merchant navy man, who died in 1973. Rick went to Sanford Street School and, according to mother Betty: “Music was the only thing he was any good at at school."
His first musical stirrings were at the age of eight, when his parents gave him a secondhand radiogram which included a few records left by the previous owner. Among them were Drummin’ Man by drumming legend Gene Krupa, and, in Davies’s own words, “it hit like a thunderbolt”. ”I must have played it 2,000 times,” he said. “That was it." A friend of the family made Rick a makeshift drum kit out of a biscuit tin, and at the age of 12 he joined the British Railways Staff Association Brass and Silver Jubilee Band as a snare drummer. In an interview in 2002 he said: “As a kid, I used to hear the drums marching along the street in England, in my home town, when there was some kind of parade, and it was the most fantastic sound to me. Then, eventually, I got some drums and I took lessons. I was serious about it... I figured if I could do that – I mean a real drummer, read music and play with big bands, rock bands, classical, Latin, and know what I was going to do – I would be in demand and my life was set... Eventually, I started fiddling with the keyboards, and that seemed to go over better than my drumming, for some reason. So you’ve gotta go with what people react to." He never had lessons for keyboards, but, according to Betty Davies, “taught himself most of what he knows about music”.
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Wikipedia