Blind Gary Davis (1964) User Reviews

His Own Sound

[boblipton · 6/10 · 11 February 2024]

Harold Becker and Jerome Shore shot this 10-minute short subject of Blind Gary Davis -- also known as Reverend Jerry Davis -- as he performs two of his songs: 'Lord, I Feel Just Like Going On', and 'Death Don't Have No Mercy'.

Classifying Davis' music is difficult, mostly because he seems to have borrowed from several different genres, including Gospel, Blues, claw hammer, and shout, and combined them into a unique sound. Other artists, like Peter, Paul and Mary, as well as the Grateful Dead, have covered his song. This just goes to show his influence on a wide range of artists.

Davis died in 1972 at the age of 76.

Grim echoes of Piedmont country blues in Harlem

[InjunNose · 9/10 · 10 March 2016]

A really lovely short film about the Reverend Gary Davis, a blind Piedmont bluesman who had recorded in Durham, North Carolina in 1935. Shortly thereafter, Davis became an ordained minister; eventually he relocated to New York, and was one of the beneficiaries of the great blues rediscovery of the 1960s. Harold Becker filmed Davis playing two religious songs in his Harlem apartment in 1964, and the eleven minutes captured by Becker on celluloid are riveting. Davis's first selection is 'Lord, I Feel Just Like Going On', an upbeat declaration of his faith, but then he launches into 'Death Don't Have No Mercy', a devastating minor-key rumination on mortality. This song, rendered especially striking by the husky crying quality of Davis's voice, plays over street footage of Harlem (faces looking warily at the camera, intercut with graffiti like "I love pussy") and concludes with a bleak view of the New York skyline. Brief as the film is, its sounds and images--pungent as the smell of a freshly-lit cigarette--will linger in the mind of the viewer. "Blind Gary Davis" is available on a DVD called "Legendary Country Blues Guitarists".