The life of music producer Clive Davis is the history of pop music just before and after Mitch Miller. Working intimately with the biggest names in the business few if any had his expertise or experience and this doc covers most of the creme de la creme of the music scene that Davis either discovered or gravitated toward him. Joplin, Springsteen, Aretha, Dion Warwick, Santana, Whitney, Barry Manilow among many others discovered and promoted by Davis having nothing but kind words for this impresario who had an incredibly keen sense of recognizing talent and selecting songs to promote the artist.
Interesting not so much for Davis's personal life it is the interviews of rock and pop stars over the generations informing us of his incredible acumen while at Columbia and Arista Records that provided us with the "soundtrack of our lives" which gives this doc legs. By the time they get around to the career and tragic life of Whitney Houston Clive's background recedes into it and her dilemma takes center stage, his accomplishment a back seat to her tragedy but not before we get a semi-comprehensive history of pop music over the last 60 years under the stewardship of one of its greatest explorers.
