# Gussie Davis

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{{Short description|American songwriter}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name            = Gussie Lord Davis
| image           = Gussie Davis.jpg
| caption         = 
| image_size      = 
| birth_name      =
| alias           =
| birth_place     = Dayton, Ohio
| birth_date      = December 3, 1863
| death_place     =
| death_date      = October 18, 1899
| origin          = 
| instrument      = 
| genre           = 
| occupation      = Songwriter
| years_active    = 1880-1899
| label           =
| associated_acts = 
| website         =
| current_members =
| past_members    = 
}}

'''Gussie Lord Davis''' (December 3, 1863 – October 18, 1899) was an American [songwriter](/source/songwriter) born in [Dayton, Ohio](/source/Dayton%2C_Ohio).<ref name=JasenJones/><ref name=BlackPerspect/>  Davis was one of America's earliest successful [African-American music](/source/African-American_music) artists, the first black songwriter to become famous on [Tin Pan Alley](/source/Tin_Pan_Alley) as a composer of popular music.<ref name=Campbell/><ref name=Southern />

==Early life==
Gussie Davis received musical training at the Nelson Musical College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his application was rejected due to the color of his skin. Instead, he worked as a janitor at a low wage in exchange for private lessons.<ref name=Southern/>  His first song was published in 1880, "[We Sat Beneath the Maple on the Hill](/source/We_Sat_Beneath_the_Maple_on_the_Hill)"; Davis published it himself, paying a local printer $20, and sold enough copies to make his money back plus a little more.<ref name=JasenJones/>  He continued his songwriting efforts with increasing success, publishing many songs and attracting attention, including that of Cincinnati publisher and would-be lyricist, George Propheter.<ref name=Southern/>{{efn|According to one source, Propheter's publishing business was founded on Davis's talent.<ref name=Sanjek/>}}

==Career==
thumb|Cover of sheet music for one of Davis's songs

In 1886, when Propheter branched out his business to New York and Tin Pan Alley, Davis went with him.<ref name=JasenJones/><ref name=Sanjek/>  He worked steadily, performing as well as writing songs, and making a name for himself.{{efn|His profile was low enough, however, that some who saw only his name mistook him for a woman.<ref name=Sampson/>}} By 1895, he was sufficiently well known to be selected to compete in a contest sponsored by the ''[New York World](/source/New_York_World)'' to find the ten best songwriters in the nation; he placed second with his song, "Send Back the Picture and the Ring", and won a prize of $500 in gold.<ref name=Sanjek/> He performed as a pianist in venues such as Bergen Star Concerts<ref name=BlackPerspect /> and toured with minstrel groups including his own Davis Operatic and Plantation Minstrels.<ref name=LibOfCong/>

Davis wrote a variety of musical forms, including sentimental ballads, comic minstrel songs, [art songs](/source/art_songs), and [choral music](/source/choral_music).<ref name=LibOfCong/>  He was best known in his own time for his "tear-jerkers".<ref name=JasenJones/><ref name=Southern/>  One of these was "Fatal Wedding" (1893), his first national hit; Davis composed the music, a waltz, while the words are credited to William H. Windom, a well-known ballad singer.<ref name=AbbottSeroff />  Another tear-jerker was "In the Baggage Coach Ahead", Davis's most commercially successful composition, selling over a million copies.<ref name=JasenJones/>{{efn|It is not clear how much Davis profited directly from this composition; some sources say he sold it for a bargain, others that he was fairly compensated.<ref name=Cohen/>}}  The success of "In the Baggage Coach" was fueled by the popular female vaudeville singer, Imogene Comer, who made it part of her regular repertoire.<ref name=Southern /><ref name=Cohen />

==Death==
An April 1899 article in ''The Freeman'' reported that Davis had purchased a home in [Whitestone, New York](/source/Whitestone%2C_New_York) and that he was recovering from a serious illness.<ref name=BlackPerspect />  In August of that year, press releases indicated he would appear in ''A Hot Old Time in Dixie'', going on the road in the coming season; this musical [farce](/source/farce) was Davis's property with [Tom McIntosh](/source/Tom_McIntosh_(comedian)).<ref name=BlackPerspect />  On October 18, 1899, Davis died at home in Whitestone.<ref name=BlackPerspect />

At the time of his death, Gussie Davis had published more than three hundred songs<ref name=BlackPerspect /> and certainly left more in manuscript.

==Selected songs==
*"We Sat Beneath The Maple on the Hill" (1880)
*"Light House by the Sea" (1886)
*"Little Footsteps in the Snow" (1886){{efn|Not the Bluegrass classic, but a different song.<ref name=OldTimeHerald/>}}
*"Wait Till the Tide Comes In" (1887), words by George Propheter
*"Why Does Papa Stay So Late?" (1889)
*"Fatal Wedding" (1893), words by William H. Windom
*"Only a Bowery Boy" (1894), words by Charles B. Ward
*"Down in [Poverty Row](/source/Poverty_Row)" (1895), music by Arthur Trevelyan
*"In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (1896)<ref name=Cohen />
*"She Waited at the Altar in Vain" (1897)
*"Only a Nigger Baby" (1897)<ref name=baby>{{cite web|url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/72c3a566-8563-9543-e040-e00a18064c0c#/?uuid=72c3a566-8564-9543-e040-e00a18064c0c|title=Only a nigger baby (1897)}}</ref>
*"My Creole Sue" (1898)
*"He Is Coming to Us Dead"{{efn|Also known as "The Express Office".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/R696.html|last1=Waltz|first1=Robert B.|last2=Engle|first2=David G.|title=Express Office, The (He Is Coming to Us Dead)|work=Folklore The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World|publisher=[California State University, Fresno](/source/California_State_University%2C_Fresno)|year=2012|access-date=November 21, 2021|archive-date=November 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121202644/http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/R696.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>}} (1899)<ref name=Cohen />

Also notable is Davis's "Irene, Good Night" (1886), which entered the [folk song](/source/folk_song) repertoire, albeit significantly altered, as "[Goodnight, Irene](/source/Goodnight%2C_Irene)" in ''Negro Folk Songs as Sung by [Lead Belly](/source/Lead_Belly)'' (1936).<ref name=AbbottSeroff/><ref name=WolfeLornell/>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=Campbell>{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Michael |title=Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cf0JAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |year=2012 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-133-71260-2 |page=29}}</ref>
<ref name=Southern>{{cite book |first=Eileen |last=Southern |title=The Music of Black Americans: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSvxJtF3_fUC&pg=PA242 |year=1997 |publisher=W.W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-03843-9 |pages=221; 242–244; 302}}</ref>
<ref name=Sanjek>{{cite book |first=Russell |last=Sanjek |title=American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years |url=https://archive.org/details/americanpopularm00san_hz5 |url-access=registration |year=1988 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-504310-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanpopularm00san_hz5/page/282 282]–283}}</ref>
<ref name=OldTimeHerald>{{cite journal |last=Brooks |first=Julay |url=http://www.oldtimeherald.org/archive/back_issues/volume-13/13-4/Footprints%20in%20the%20Snow%20Notes.pdf |title=Footprints in the Snow: The Intercontinental Journey of a Song (Supplement: Songs that Aren't 'Footprints In The Snow') |journal=Old-Time Herald |volume=13 |issue=4 |date=December 2012 |access-date= 2014-12-25}}</ref>
<ref name=LibOfCong>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200152701/default.html |title=Gussie Lord Davis |encyclopedia=Performing Arts Encyclopedia |date=November 14, 2007 |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=2014-12-25}}</ref>
<ref name=JasenJones>{{cite book |last1=Jasen |first1=David A. |last2=Jones |first2=Gene |title=Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880–1930 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WhzfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-50972-9 |pages=17–21}}</ref>
<ref name=Sampson>{{cite book |editor-first=Henry T. |editor-last=Sampson |title=Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows |last=Foster |first=William |chapter=Colored Songwriters and Their Songs |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVsKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |year=2013 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-8351-2 |page=235}}</ref>
<ref name=AbbottSeroff>{{cite book |first1=Lynn |last1=Abbott |first2=Doug |last2=Seroff |title=Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889–1895 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPJZTJtz1IwC&pg=PA48 |year=2003 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-60473-039-5 |pages=48–49; 327}}</ref>
<ref name=WolfeLornell>{{cite book |first1=Charles K. |last1=Wolfe |first2=Kip |last2=Lornell |title=The Life And Legend Of Leadbelly |date=7 May 1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJhS9BaFFjIC&pg=PA55 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=0-7867-5282-3 |pages=55–56}}</ref>
<ref name=BlackPerspect>{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Gussie L. |last2=Wright |first2=Josephine R.B. |last3=Lucas |first3=Sam |title=In Retrospect: Gussie Lord Davis (1863–1899), Tin Pan Alley Tunesmith |journal=The Black Perspective in Music |volume=6 |issue=2 |date=Autumn 1978 |pages=188–230|doi=10.2307/1214174 |jstor=1214174}}</ref>
<ref name=Cohen>{{cite book |first=Norm |last=Cohen |title=Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AY7St4-8x10C&pg=PA306 |year=2000 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-06881-2 |pages=304–307}}</ref>
}}

==External links==

{{commonscat}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2284}}
*[http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/40140/Davis_Gussie_L._composer Early recordings of Gussie Davis songs], Discography of American Historical Recordings, University of California, Santa Barbara
*[http://parlorsongs.com/issues/2001-10/thismonth/featurea.php "Tear Jerkers in American Song"], at The Parlor Songs Academy
*{{IMSLP|id=Davis, Gussie}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Gussie L.}}
Category:1863 births
Category:1899 deaths
Category:Songwriters from Ohio
Category:Blackface minstrel songwriters
Category:19th-century American musicians
Category:Musicians from Dayton, Ohio
Category:People from Whitestone, Queens
Category:Janitors

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gussie Davis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gussie_Davis) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gussie_Davis?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.