Goodbye Stranger

When Supertramp co-founder Rick Davies' death was announced in September, the prog world mourned the loss of a great talent. We pay tribute to the British-born singer-songwriter by looking back over his remarkable career, which spanned nearly six decades, and place some of his best-loved songs under the microscope.

- Jo Kendall

You have to wake up every day and thank your lucky stars,” Rick Davies told a Calgary TV station in 1985. “I find it quite funny when you see rock people throwing tantrums. It doesn’t make any sense. We live a life of privilege, and we should never forget it.”

The Supertramp co-founder, lead vocalist, keyboardist and harmonica player, who died from complications of multiple myeloma – a type of blood cancer – at home in New York on September 6, had worked tenaciously for this privilege, and through some acutely tough times that eventually converted to success, taking him from his birthplace of Swindon, Wiltshire, to Europe, to across the pond.

Born on July 22, 1944, to hairdresser Betty and merchant seaman Dick, Davies showed signs of being musically tuned-in very early on. Superstar jazz drummer Gene Krupa’s single Drummin’ Man sparked a passion for percussion, and the eight-year-old Davies would practise making beats on pots, pans and an adapted biscuit tin. By 12 he was the snare drummer for a local brass band led by British Railways staff.

“That’s when I got the bug and started to play the drums,” he told WLNG Radio. “I was nervous… I slowly got better, had lessons, but nobody wanted my drumming. They wanted piano.”

Davies had had a rhythmic head start by getting his hands on a grand piano owned by kindly neighbours in Eastcott Hill who’d feed him after school while Betty, the family’s main breadwinner, was still at work. Swept along by rock’n’roll, and especially Fats Domino, Davies learned boogie-woogie moves thanks to his hosts. He also fell for harmonica aces Jimmy Reed and Shakey Jake.

In 1959 Davis became drummer for local rockers Vince & The Vigilantes, distinctive in their lurid orange and black jackets. His taste expanded. Floored by the polyrhythmic expertise of Dave Brubeck drummer Joe Morello, Davies also lapped up Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Stan Getz.