Rock and Roll; Interview with Billy Davis [Part 1 of 3]

Interviewer: Let's start out with that idea we were talking about. What was it like in Detroit in those days? You were a fairly young man, a lot of musical energy in the city. Tell me what that was like. Davis: See, Detroit in the '50s was an exciting time. I mean it was, the music was fantastic. I think uh, every kid in every neighborhood was into music some way. There were more groups popping up than you could imagine. There was at least two or three groups in every block. We all thought we gonna be the next Dominoes, or the next Clovers. And um, in fact some of us did go on to uh, to become very popular groups, as part of a group. But it was an exciting time, you know. It certainly was better than, uh, working in Chevrolets, or one of the other automobile plants. Um, but no, we hung around in the soda, uh, uh, near soda fountain places, uh, listening to jukeboxes. We entertained each other, uh, on the street corners, at night under the street lights, uh, uh, in someone's basement. My grandmother almost gave up her whole house to us. Um, it was always full of one group or another. Um, it was an exciting time. And the same thing happened in every neighborhood. There were talent shows. Uh, on the East Side of Detroit. The West Side of Detroit, on the North End, downtown, there were talent shows, all the local theaters at least once, sometimes twice a week, ran talent shows. So if you were a member of one of these groups you got a chance to perform alive, a la like they do at the Apollo. And um, that was exciting because you got a chance of, um, all the girls coming down seeing you and, and uh, and uh, rooting for you so to speak. It was an exciting time and it led to a lot of things.