‘Gimme Some Lovin’ ‘ Bandleader Spencer Davis Dead at 81

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The Spencer Davis Group in 1966: Pete York (from left), Spencer Davis, Muff Winwood and Steve Winwood. Davis died Monday at the age of 81.





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The group disbanded a few years later, and Davis moved to California to start a short-lived solo career. In that 1971 interview, he reflected on his time with the Spencer Davis Group:

«I think I experienced the greatest of pleasures and the greatest of sorrows. I look back on it as a necessary thing. But if anybody said, you know just for a laugh, or if the original members turned up in the same place and there were instruments present, I’m game. I’d really love to blow some of the old things.

He eventually had the opportunity — though without Steve Winwood — as he toured under the Spencer Davis Group banner as recently as 2017.

When it comes to Spencer Davis, the man, Birk offered this story in his statement to NPR:

«Many years ago, a guitar of mine was stolen on a flight to Mexico. I told him about it when I returned. For the next many months, every time we spoke, he asked me if it was recovered. … The next time I was at his home, he invited me into his music room. He walked into a closet [and] came out with a black Fender Telecaster similar to the sunburst one that was stolen. He handed it to me [and] asked me to play it. I played it. He asked me how I liked it. I said it played beautifully. He said ‘Enjoy it.’ After a few moments of silence, I looked into his eyes. He said, ‘It’s yours. I have a few of them. I never play this one.’ Of course, I still have it.