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Richard "Rick" Davies (born 22 July 1944, in Swindon, Wiltshire, England) is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the founder, vocalist and keyboardist of progressive rock band Supertramp. Davies is the only member of Supertramp to have been with the group for their entire history, and has composed many of their most well-known songs, including "Goodbye Stranger", "Bloody Well Right", "My Kind of Lady", and "Cannonball". He is generally noted for his sophisticated blues and jazz-influenced progressive rock compositions and cynical lyrics. Starting with ''Indelibly Stamped'' in 1971, Davies shared lead vocals with Supertramp songwriting partner, Roger Hodgson until the latter's departure in 1983, at which point he became the sole lead vocalist of the group. Davies's voice is more distinctly masculine than Hodgson's, and he usually employs a raspy baritone which stands in stark contrast to his bandmate's childlike tenor. However, he occasionally sings in a falsetto which superficially resembles Hodgson's vocals, such as on "Goodbye Stranger" and "My Kind of Lady". He also plays harmonica for the group. ==Early days== Richard Davies was born in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1944 to Betty and Dick Davies. Betty was a hairdresser and ran a salon, and Dick was a merchant navy man, who died in 1973. Rick went to Sanford Street School and, according to mother Betty: “Music was the only thing he was any good at at school."〔(8 March 2009). ("30 Years on From Breakfast in America" ), Swindonweb.〕 His first musical stirrings were at the age of eight, when his parents gave him a secondhand radiogram which included a few records left by the previous owner. Among them were ''Drummin’ Man'' by drumming legend Gene Krupa, and, in Davies’s own words, “it hit like a thunderbolt”. ”I must have played it 2,000 times,” he said. “That was it."〔 A friend of the family made Rick a makeshift drum kit out of a biscuit tin, and at the age of 12 he joined the British Railways Staff Association Brass and Silver Jubilee Band as a snare drummer. In an interview in 2002 he said: “As a kid, I used to hear the drums marching along the street in England, in my home town, when there was some kind of parade, and it was the most fantastic sound to me. Then, eventually, I got some drums and I took lessons. I was serious about it... I figured if I could do that – I mean a real drummer, read music and play with big bands, rock bands, classical, Latin, and know what I was going to do – I would be in demand and my life was set... Eventually, I started fiddling with the keyboards, and that seemed to go over better than my drumming, for some reason. So you’ve gotta go with what people react to." He never had lessons for keyboards, but, according to Betty Davies, “taught himself most of what he knows about music”.〔 By 1959, his attention had been captured by rock ‘n’ roll, and he joined a band called Vince and the Vigilantes.〔 In 1962, while studying in the art department at Swindon College, he formed his own band, called Rick’s Blues, and was now playing a Hohner electric piano instead of drums. The band included Gilbert O'Sullivan on drums for a time; he later was the best man at Davies's wedding. In a March 1972 interview, O'Sullivan said "Rick had originally taught me how to play the drums and piano – in fact, he taught me everything about music."〔 When his father became ill, Davies disbanded Rick’s Blues, left college, and took a job as a welder at Square D,〔 a firm making industrial control products and systems, which had a factory on the Cheney Manor Trading Estate in Swindon. Any hopes of an artistic career were temporarily put on ice. In 1966 he became the organist for The Lonely Ones (best known for being one of Noel Redding's first bands, though Redding had left by the time Davies joined), who later changed their name to The Joint and recorded the soundtracks for a number of German films.〔 He later confessed that he lied about his abilities to get into the group, admitting he couldn’t actually play the organ at the time.〔 While the band was in Munich, Davies met Dutch millionaire Stanley August Miesegaes, who offered to fund him if he started a new group.〔Joynson, Vernon (1995). (''The Tapestry of Delights'' ). London: Borderline Books.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rick Davies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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