- Glasgow Herald
22 December 2020
p. M20
Obituaries
Hard to be humble as the hitmaker for Elvis and many others
Brian Beacom
Mac Davis, songwriter, actor and TV host
Born: January 21, 1942;
Died: September 29, 2020
COUNTRY songwriters such as Mac Davis often find themselves writing cheatin'-and-weepin' lyrics drawn from the bitter well of experience. That was never entirely the case with Texas-born Davis, the writer of classics such as In The Ghetto and A Little Less Conversation, both of which were substantial hits for Elvis Presley, and Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me, with which Davis topped the charts in 1972.
Davis's Lone Star beer glass was half-full for most of his later adult life. He was a relaxed life, and one of his favourite places was the sun-baked golf course near his Bel Air home in California. Though a songwriter, he also had a successful acting career, and he lived happily with his third wife, Lise, until his death, at the age of 78, suffering from heart disease.
Yet it's fair to say the early life of Mac Davis involved enough setbacks to allow the country and western legend to fill a thick notebook of lyrics.
Growing up in Lubbock, West Textas, (Buddy Holly's hometown) the middle of three children, Morris Mac Davis was born in a "little bitty, tiny house" and when he was five his dad, TJ Davis bought a little bitty motel. The Davis family lived in rooms separated from the motel office by a curtain and young Mac's childhood years was one of "cleaning and sanitising trash barrels."
Aged nine, life was to become rather more traumatic. His parents divorced and little Mac's mother, Edith, left for Atlanta. The children stayed with their father "because that's how they wanted it," he recalled later with a philosophical shrug.
Growing up in wild West Texas was especially tough, and early life of "football, rodeo and fistfights." The slightly built teenager took beatings regularly at the kids' hangout, the local roller rink. "As a result, I joined Golden Goves [boxing training] but didn't do good even in my [lightweight] division. So I took judo lessons, but my instructor broke my collarbone."
Davis enjoyed singing with his church choir and his father recognising his musical talent, bought him a guitar for Christmas. It turned out to be a Hawaiian steel guitar, 'the exact opposite of what I wanted. I tried to act like I loved it, but I almost cried."
Though he eventually obtained a standard guitar he thought it "sissy" to sing - an attitude that perished after he saw Holly and his Crickets perform in their home town. "New glasses, new teeth, and girls in the black Pontiac Catalina Convertible," he said of Holly. "If Buddy can do it, so can I."
He began playing local bars and hops. At 21 he married Fran Cook and their son, Scott, was born a year later. Playing local dives was not rewarding, financially or spiritually. He tried writing songs but couldn't quite hit the mark. Landing work in the music industry as a PR man meant a move to LA, which offered great contacts within the industry, but his wife and son returned to Texas.
In 1968, Davis hit songwriting paydirt. First came Memories, followed by A Little Less Conversation and then In The Ghetto, which would go on to be covered by an incredible 176 artists. All three songs were covered by Presely: A Little Less Conversation was a hit for him in 1968 (and a much bigger smash, remixed in 2002); In the Ghetto was a comeback hit for Elvis in 1969 and his highest placed song in the UK charts since Crying in the Chapel, in June 1965.
Davis's own life read like the words to a Hank Williams song. Aged 27 he met 16-year-old Sarah Barg and two years later they married. "We talked about having a family, but I was waiting for her to grow up," he said in a later interview. The wait was in vain. Sarah left him for another man. To add to the ignominy, the man was music star Glen Campbell, his close friend and golfing buddy.
Davis was bereft and bitter, but this seemed to fuel his creativity and his career continued on an upward trajectory. In 1972, he had a massive hit with Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me. More huge songs followed, including I Believe in Music, which would be recorded by Campbell, amongst others, including Lou Rawls, Bobby Goldsboro and Kenny Rogers.
The inspiration for that song, Davis recalled, came about thanks to an invite to a party organised by the singer Lulu. "I went to the kitchen and fixed myself a drink and there were a bunch of hippie types and they were gonna have a seance. They asked me if I would like to join them. And I said, 'No man, I don't think so.' It wasn't my thing.
"Then someone asked, 'Don't you believe in the occult?' I said, 'No man, I believe in music.' And the second I said it...I looked around and I saw one of Maurice Gibb's [Lulu's then husband] guitars sitting on a stand, and I picked it up and started strumming it. I had the hook before I left."
In the early 70s, Davis, now living the mansion/swimming pool life, moved into acting and achieved fantastic reviews for his hugely charismatic film performance as a football player in North Dallas Forty, alongside Nick Nolte.
Yet his career, in particular his songwriting success, wasn't universally applauded: Rolling Stone magazine described his songs as "sententious muzak." Was the accusation fair? In the Ghetto, for example, seemed to be preachy, but Davis later revealed it to be a heartfelt composition, having reached back into his Lubbock life to write about a black friend who had grown up in a nearby ghetto.
Regardless, no one can deny Davis's talent for creating a succession of hits, nor the fact he possessed a powerful sense of humour. His blockbuster hit, It's Hard To Be Humble, was a satire on how popularity and good looks could turn a man's head. He once defined success as the ability to "fly first-class and have fresh-cut flowers brought in for the weekend."
He certainly never forgot his brown-dirt cowboy upbringing, once reflecting that, "When I die, you can bury me in Lubbock in my jeans," an echo of a line in his 1974 hit single, Texas in My Rearview Mirror.
Davis, who is survived by his wife Lisa and three children, was indeed buried wearing denim. His close friend Dolly Parton wrote on social media: "Many hearts are broken today, including my own, with the death of one of my dearest friends, Mac Davis. We lost one of the world's greatest writers, singers and entertainers." [1]
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1942 - 2020 (78 years)
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