JIMMY DAVIS, A Real Lover Man!

Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be) the song considered to be a turning point in the career of song stylist and jazz innovator, Billie Holiday, was written by a nice looking, sensitive young brotha by the name of Lt. Jimmy Davis. 

The lyrics were brooding and moody, and contained all the pathos that Holiday would soon become most identified with.

Up to this point, songs like Some Other Spring, Gloomy Sunday and Strange Fruit were brilliant but intermitten precursors to the more torchy, pop-oriented material that she would soon produce for Decca Records.  

Holiday had included the song in her nightclub repertoire as early as 1941, but wasn't able to record it until October of 1944, which marked her debut with the label.  Lover Man quickly rose to the top of the "race music" charts, and was for a long while considered to be the troubled diva's signature song.

Jimmy Davis was a Julliard-trained pianist and a close, intimate friend of both Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten.  At the time, Davis had already been drafted into the second world war, but something happened early on, either right before or right after Davis' entry into the service - some problem, refusal or revelation that almost landed him in jail.  But with a melancholy ache, Davis recovered, poured his heart out and wrote the lyrics to Lover Man.  According to Miss Holiday, Davis delivered the song to her immediately after he wrote it.  She promptly fell in love with it and fought to have it recorded.  (Here, the lovely singer and the handsome songwriter are shown in a nightclub, circa 1942.)

I don't know why but I'm feeling so sad
I long to try something I never had
Never had no kissin'
Oh, what I've been missin'
Lover man, oh, where can you be?

The night is cold and I'm so alone
I'd give my soul just to call you my own
Got a moon above me
But no one to love me
Lover man, oh, where can you be?

I've heard it said
That the thrill of romance
Can be like a heavenly dream

I go to bed with a prayer
That you'll make love to me
Strange as it seems

Someday we'll meet
And you'll dry all my tears
Then whisper sweet
Little things in my ear
Hugging and a-kissing
Oh, what I've been missing
Lover man, oh, where can you be?

 

When the record was finally recorded and released, there were two other names listed as co-writers.  But that's what often happened when naive songwriters tangled with unscrupulous music executives.  After the war, Jimmy Davis relocated to Paris by taking advantage of an offer by the French government for GIs to study in France.  In 1948, he settled there permanently.  Davis and Hughes maintained their lifelong friendship throughout the years with frequent visits and through correspondence.  Mr. Davis may have passed away sometime after 1981, possibly in New York City.  Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) is widely considered to be one of the first laments by a jazz diva to express the unspoken, heartfelt desires of generations of black, gay men.

 

Comments

[jahlaune]

enjoyable read

[GREG]

Corey this was a most brilliant post. Your way of articulating our feelings and fine tuning our comprehension of certain things is just awe inspiring and I salute you for your talent my brutha.

For some reason, call it advancing age perhaps, I'm starting to be pulled in by the 'standards' I've just finished reading Lush Life, the biography about Billy Strayhorn. In addition to making me profoundly sad ('cause I believe the music industry including Mr. Ellington ripped the brutha off) It made the 'standards' more meaningful to me. I have an old 78 of Lover Man left behind by my grandmother and have heard it often but not until you put the lyrics out there did it really hit home to me. One could build a whole story behind the author and the lyrics and ones imagination could just go buck wild and I think it would make a great story that would work.

Thanks again Corey, I really don't know if you know the extent of the gifts you give us.

Much Love and Admiration to you.

[Derrick from Philly]

I second Greg's sentiments. I learn about new and interesting folks from our past here every day. Thanks, Corey.

[Thomas]

Oooo, he was my kind of handsome, a cerebral handsome!

[E-J Huirley]

Simply, the best, you re, indeed, Cousin. Simply the best. Thank you for making the world a better and more informed place.