Sunday Afternoon Celebrating the 2022 Birthday of Blue Eyed Soul Musician Spencer Davis and Pioneering Texas Blues Guitarist Peppermint Harris

by Robert Wilkinson

Today’s early show is awesome! July 17 was the birthday of two fantastic musicians. One was the founder of the Spencer Davis group, and the other was an obscure Texas blues cat who gave us some gems.

Spencer Davis (17 July 1939 - 19 October 2020) was a Welsh musician and multi-instrumentalist, and the founder of the 1960s rock band The Spencer Davis Group, also known as the band where teenage keyboard player Stevie Winwood first came to the world’s notice.

From wiki: “In 1963, Davis went to a Birmingham public house to see Muff Woody, a traditional jazz band featuring Muff and Steve Winwood. Steve, only fifteen at the time, was already gaining notice for his musical abilities. Muff, five years older than his brother, was an accomplished jazz musician. Davis persuaded them to join him and drummer Pete York as the Rhythm and Blues Quartet. Davis performed on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Steve Winwood on guitar, organ and vocals, Muff Winwood on bass, and Pete York on drums.”

I love this band’s music in the 60s, and the quality of the songs and performances have held up over time! Here’s the Spencer Davis Group!

First, their most famous song, as immortalized by the Blues Brothers! Here Stevie and the Spencer Davis Group is very live in 1967 on Finnish television, performing the iconic “Gimmie Some Lovin’”

This year I found the entire 17+ minute show! It’s the Spencer Davis Group live in 1967 performing “Gimmie Some Lovin’,” “I’m A Man,” “Georgia on My Mind,” and “Dust My Blues”

From French TV in 1966, Stevie front and center on lead vocals in a great live performance of their first hit which went to #1 in 1965, the driving “Keep On Runnin’”

From the Beat Club, here’s another great live performance of a more up-tempo version of “Keep On Runnin’”

Here’s a slower, funkier live performance of “Keep On Runnin’”

Said to be live on French television, here’s 9+ minutes of the SDB cranking out a great R&B set! “My Babe,” “Georgia On My Mind,” and “I Got A Woman” (“My Babe” was written by the Righteous Brothers!)

Here’s a great live video clip from 1966! From “Beat Beat Beat” in Germany, again with Stevie on lead vocals and guitar, cranking out another of their #1 UK hits, “Somebody Help Me”

From the Finnish tv performance above, here’s the clip of the SDG performing another hit penned by Stevie Winwood, “I’m A Man”

Here’s the original studio version of “I’m A Man”

Here’s a tune that got my attention the first time I ever heard it! Here’s the original studio version written by Spencer Davis, later covered by the Allman Brothers of the grinding “Don’t Want You No More”

At Little Darlin’s in Kissimmee, here’s a live performance by Spencer of “Don’t Want You No More”

Here’s another rare clip! It looks to be the original music video for the studio version of “Gimmie Some Lovin’” set to film footage. “Gimmie Some Lovin’”

We’ll close this birthday tribute with three clips from the 1966 movie The Ghost Goes Gear. First, Spencer Davis and the band giving us the classic “Midnight Special” followed by “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” and we’ll close with “When I Come Home”

If you want to hear more from this extraordinary band in the mid-60s, I found their first three studio albums! Here’s their first, which contains a lot of covers and sounds like other British R&B bands of the period. The Spencer Davis Group First LP

Here’s their second album, released in 1966. It’s an experimental mix of jazz, blues, folk, and rock, and has their first #1 hit, “Keep On Runnin’.” Some clips are banned in the US, but may be available if you live outside the US. The Spencer Davis Group Second Album

Here’s their third album, released later in 1966, with their hit “Somebody Help Me.” Autumn ‘66

Thanks for everything, Mister Spencer Davis! Your music kept me dancing as a teen in 1966, 1967, and 1968!

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Peppermint Harris (born Harrison Demotra Nelson, Jr. - July 17, 1925 – March 19, 1999) was an R&B and jump blues singer and guitar player from Texas who hung with Lightnin’ Hopkins and other pioneering blues cats of the 40s and 50s. Today we have a few of his best!

From 1950, “Raining In My Heart” and it’s “B” side, “My Blues Have Rolled Away”

Also from 1950, “Fat Girl Boogie” and its flip side “Texarcana Bound”

From 1951, his #1 R&B hit “I Got Loaded”

Also from 1951, “Middle of Winter” and “Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie”

From 1960, a rocker! “Angel Child”

From 1965, another rocker! “Wait Till It Happens To You”

That year he also did “Bad Bad Whiskey.”

We’re told this is one of his last. From 1967, “Lonesome As Can Be”

From an unknown time, “Cadillac Funeral”

Here's a cover of a tune written by Tampa Red 'bout cheatin' called "There's a Dead Cat on the Line."

For our closer, we have several versions of one of the saddest blues classics ever written. It was penned by Peppermint for Fenton Robinson, and it's been covered by some of the greatest. Here's Fenton Robinson's version of “As the Years Go Passing By”

Here’s the 1969 version by Santana of “As the Years Go Passing By”

Here's a great audio version by Boz Scaggs and Booker T Jones of this classic! "As The Years Go Passing By."

We'll complete this eclectic group of performances with the archetype! I saw Albert King do this live in Dallas years ago, and it cuts to the quick! From the album Born Under A Bad Sign, “As the Years Go Passing By,” and for a bone chilling live version by Albert and Rory Gallagher at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival, “As the Years Go Passing By”

© 2022 Robert Wilkinson

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