The forgotten guitar hero loved by John Lennon and Bob Dylan
What do John Lennon’s take on ‘Stand By Me’, Bob Dylan’s ‘Watching the River Flow’ and Jackson Brown’s ‘Doctor My Eyes’ all have in common? Answer: they all feature the fretwork of a beloved session guitarist who is almost entirely unknown today. Join us as we dig into the remarkable career of Jesse Ed Davis, one of the most sought-after guitarists of the late 1960s.
Once you learn of Davis, you hear him cropping up everywhere. He’s there on the solo albums of three out of four Beatles. He recorded with Eric Clapton, Harry Nilsson Bryan Ferry. He even helped craft Rod Stewart’s number one single, ‘Tonight’s The Night’. As well as being an essential cog in the classic rock machine, his life followed the same tragic pattern as many of counterculture’s biggest names: the young prodigy who becomes dangerously addicted to drugs, only to die from a heroin overdose.
If you’ve not heard Davis’ music, then you’ve almost certainly heard the music of the artists he inspired. Take Duane Allman, for example, who, on listening to Davis’ slide guitar work on Taj Mahal’s 1968 debut album, decided to weave slide guitar into his own music. Taj Mahal also provided Aerosmith with the template for their era-decade-defining brand of stadium rock, with Steve Salas, who produced an upcoming documentary about Davis, telling The Guardian that Mahal’s debut was something of a “bible” for Steve Tyler and the band.
Davis’s work with Taj Mahal also caught the attention of British rock royalty. On seeing the Oklahoma-born player’s skills first-hand at a Taj Mahal concert in Los Angeles, The Rolling Stones decided to invite the band to join their Rock and Roll Circus show as special guests. The concert featured some of the biggest names in rock, including John Lennon, Eric Clapton and The Who. “After that performance,” Salas said, “Everyone wanted to play with Jesse.”
Speaking to The Guardian, historian and Davis expert Douglas K. Miller said that part of the reason the guitarist was so loved by the rock elite was that his music showcased a deep knowledge of musical history. “Jesse deeply understood the early rock, blues and jazz records that those guys all loved,” he said. “John Lennon was particularly impressed that his guitar style recalled an earlier era at a time when faster, more aggressive guitar players were starting to emerge. Jesse’s style wasn’t simple but it was a little more sensitive. There was more space and room to breathe.”
Now is the perfect time to find out more about Jesse Ed Davis’ life and career. His self-titled 1970 debut is released by Real Gone Music on September 9th, and a documentary called Rumble, which features the guitarist, can currently be seen on Netflix. Douglas K. Miller is also set to release a book about Davis shortly.
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