From the Archives
How Davis rose from the ashes with Arista Records after his controversial scandal at Columbia Records
This story was originally published on Dec. 18, 1975, in “Rolling Stone.”
Clive Davis sits smiling and unruffled behind his 3’x8′ desk from which he directs the operations of Arista Records, the phoenix that brought him back from the ashes of virtual nonexistence. His smile fades when he is asked about those ashes, and he gets up to pace back and forth before large black-and-white blowups of Clive with Paul Simon and Miles Davis, Clive with Janis Joplin, Clive with …
“Just why,” he tosses over his shoulder, “am I so controversial, as you claim?”
