Rick Davies, the co-founder, singer and songwriter of the hit-making British progressive rock band Supertramp, died of multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, on Saturday, September 6, at his home in East Hampton, New York. He was 81.
His death was announced today on Supertramp’s website.
“As co-writer, along with partner Roger Hodgson, he was the voice and pianist behind Supertramp’s most iconic songs, leaving an indelible mark on rock music history,” the tribute states. “His soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer became the heartbeat of the bands’ sound.”
Davies had been battling the cancer for 10 years, leaving him unable to tour in recent years, according to the band.
The band was co-founded by keyboardist Davies and vocalist Roger Hodgson. At the peak of their success in the 1970s, the duo would share vocal duties and co-write many of the band’s signature tunes. As described on the band’s website, Davies and Hodgson were a good pair despite differing backgrounds: Davis was “a working-class pianist with jazz and blues roots, and Roger Hodgson, a classically-trained vocalist with an angelic tenor.” In 1969, Davis and Hodgson formed a partnership that would evolvedinto Supertramp. The duo, according to the band, “crafted intelligent yet accessible songs that balanced Davies’s urban grit with Hodgson’s ethereal idealism.”
Supertramp’s commercial breakthrough came in 1974 with the album Crime of the Century featuring the Davies-Hodgson hit “Bloody Well Right.” That song included Davies’ memorable, jazzy introduction on the Wurlitzer electric piano, a sound that would become a staple for the band.
Supertramp’s commercial peak arrived in 1979 with the album Breakfast in America which included the Hodgson-penned hits “Take the Long Way Home” and “The Logical Song” and the Davies-penned “Goodbye Stranger.” On the album, which sold more than 18 million copies, Davies and Hodgson shared vocals, with Davies usually singing in a lower register to counter Hodgson’s falsetto. (When Hodgson left the band in 1983, Davies would perform both parts at Supertramp concerts).
Born July 22, 1944, in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, Davies discovered jazz music while still a child, and at age 25 placed an ad for collaborators in the British music publication Melody Maker. Hodgson, then 19, answered the call and the duo, calling themselves Daddy, began practicing at a farmhouse in Kent, according to The New York Times.
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Davies and Hodgson went on to form Supertramp with bandmates Richard Palmer, Bob Millar and Keith Baker. The band took its name from a 1908 book titled The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.
Supertramp first hit the U.S. singles chart with “Bloody Well Right” in 1975, followed by the Top 15 single “Give a Little Bit” two years later. The band’s 1979 LP Breakfast in America spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200, went quadruple-platinum and spawned Top 10 singles “The Logical Song” and “Take the Long Way Home.” Those tracks and “Goodbye Stranger,” which reached No. 15, remain staples on classic rock radio.
The band also reached the U.S. Top 10 with the 1980 live disc Paris and 1982’s … Famous Last Words, both of which went gold as had 1974’s Crime of the Century and 1977’s Even in the Quietest Moments.
Supertramp also had three Top 10 hits on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart that began in 1981: “It’s Raining Again,” “Crazy” and “Cannonball.”
In the UK, Supertramp made the Top 10 with “The Logical Song” and title track “Breakfast in America.” The group had six Top 10 albums in Britain from 1974-92 with Crime of the Century, Breakfast in America, … Famous Last Words, Paris and a pair of later compilation discs. Breakfast in America and … Famous Last Words also topped LP charts in other European countries and in Canada, which it had a pair of No. 1 singles with “The Logical Song” and the live version of “Dreamer.”
In the band’s tribute to Davies, Supertramp writes, “Beyond the stage, Rick was known for his warmth, resilience, and devotion to his wife Sue, with whom he shared over five decades. After facing serious health challenges, which kept him unable to continue touring as Supertramp, he enjoyed performing with his hometown buds as Ricky and the Rockets. Rick’s music and legacy continue to inspire many and bears testament to the fact that great songs never die, they live on.”
Davies is survived by wife Sue.
