Press Kit

Clive: A memoir about working for Clive Davis in the age of vinylClive: Working for the Man in the Age of Vinyl is available on Netgalley, a no-charge, online service for the electronic delivery of galleys and press materials. If you are interested in reading Clive on your Kindle, Sony Reader, or as a PDF, please click on this link. Request CLIVE on NetGalley

Foreword by Daniel J. Levitin, bestselling author of This is Your Brain on Music
Read the foreword here…

“Clive: Working for the Man in the Age of Vinyl’ is about a young music fan’s search for self, with some glimpses at others behind the curtain who were working with Davis.” Read the full article New Clive Davis book sees music mogul through eyes of apprentice in the LA Times.

“I was one of maybe 50 people in the country with a job that everyone I met found fascinating. I got into any club I wanted and was generally treated like a rock star.” Read the full interview with Don Silver in the Mountain Express.

 

Downloadable Files

Clive Cover hi-res [wpdm_file id=4]
Don Silve headshot hi-res [wpdm_file id=3]
“Heading to work” photo [wpdm_file id=5]
“In my Office” photo [wpdm_file id=6]
“2000 – Bob, Mike & Don at Merlefest” photo [wpdm_file id=7]
“Abide,” companion song to Clive [wpdm_file id=2]

Advance Reviews: Clive

“Totally compelling from the very start.”
-ROSANNE CASH

“I devoured it.”
– DANIEL J. LEVITIN, Author, This is Your Brain on Music

“In these pages, we get a rare insider’s view of Clive Davis, one of pop music’s greatest impresarios, and an intimate portrait of an even more fascinating character — Don Silver.”
– JESSE KORNBLUTH, HeadButler.com

“Heady times. Don takes you right into the trenches with observations that are spot on.”
– MICHAEL TEARSON, FM Rock DJ since the 1960s, Sirius-XM, Radio That Doesn’t Suck, WMGK, Philly

 

“For two turbo-charged years in the late 70’s, Don Silver worked as an unwitting double-agent in the music industry. On the outside he played the role of the crass business-minded A & R man of Arista records; on the inside he was an artist with a deep belief in the transformative powers of music. Silver’s resulting memoir is an intimate tale of how major producers like the legendary Clive Davis would treat songs and artists, variously as precious gems and disposable commodities, in an attempt to shape the musical landscape (while making bags of money). To risk the obvious analogy, Don Silver’s plebeian relationship to the larger than life Clive Davis, is the A-side of this story. But it’s the B-side, a portrait of Silver’s personal life and his love of music, that completes the experience. And if Silver was a double-agent, his story is a reality check for artists of any discipline who spend more time marketing a product than making art. Lucky for us the artist in Don Silver was able to escape his undercover assignment with soul and voice intact.”
– ALLAN WOLF, Author, The Watch That Ends The Night

 

“When Don Silver was 21 he came to New York with a twinkle in his eye, a dream in his heart, and a song on his lips. All he wanted was to be part of the music business. He got hired by Clive Davis. This is the story of descending into the belly of the beast, and having your innocence plucked away one day at a time. Funny, poignant, timely and timeless, this is a book for anyone who has grown up. Or tried to.”
– DAVID HENRY STERRY, Author, Chicken

 

“Clive is Don Silver’s slyly backlit personal story—beginning with a no-holds-barred account of his childhood in the burbs of Philly that is full of witty, dark inner musings from a poignant Portnoy who complains, but without overriding regret. It is a coming-of-age piece reflecting a confusing, raw, and yet, somehow, full-of-promise time.

“The reader is propelled quickly through the machinations and maneuverings of the author as he finds his voice in the world, a kind of Billy Elliot who doesn’t dance and doesn’t want to dance. But Silver does find ways to advance, and it is riveting to watch.

“The memoir is remarkably honest and brave as he discloses intimate details of riding by the seat of his pants with a paradoxically persistent bravado. Newly married, he arrives in the Big Apple after declaring to himself and others: “I’m gonna work for Clive.” It is, to him, a “do it or die” proposition and the reader feels the stakes of his ambition.

“Once inside the record biz, the story grows more complex. At age 21, he he sits in a dimly lit, tiny office within earshot of Clive Davis, threading reel-to-reels and playing cassettes that will be, within seconds, be tossed into the trash. He’s “the little man” looking for that spec of gold in a never-ending trashcan of manure, struggling to find something meritorious, to please his boss, and to keep his dream alive.”
– KATHERINE DUNCAN AIMONE, artswrite.com

 

“Clive is a book about Clive Davis and how Don Silver interacted with him during his time trying to get a job at Arista as well as when he was working A&R for Clive at Arista.  It is fun to read about Don’s struggle with trying to get in to the business, ultimately getting in and then realizing that it really wasn’t for him and leaving the label.  He talks about how he wrote letters and made tons of phone calls to try and get an in, and finally got his big break when Clive decided he’d see him.  He told him to find songs for his artists and eventually was hired.  Then he sat in his office and had to listen to demos to try and find which artists to sign and which artists to send a letter to that they weren’t interested.

“The book is short, only 75 or so pages, but it is a nice inside look at the recording industry and how it worked in the early 80s. I can only imagine how these things work in the present day.  Definitely a fascinating look at Clive Davis as well.”
– KATIE WANTA, ConcertKatie.com

 

“An interesting memoir from an insider in the recording industry in early 80s. Don Silver loved music and wanted to be working for a record company. He did whatever he could to finally get hired. When he finally did get hired, he ended up working for someone that he thought would be a mentor and turned out to be a manipulative boss. To make matters worse, it was during the height of the disco era, and Don despised disco.

“The book recounts a lot of the life of Don Silver during the time of the mid 1970s to mid 1980s. His attempts avoid school, form a band and fabricate his way into the recording industry is told with conversational ease. Don comes across as a real character, but someone you wouldn’t mind sitting down with over a drink to hear more stories.

“Along the way, some of the dirty laundry of the recording industry is aired. How a hit is picked, what happens to that demo tape your band sent in, and how the radio stations were induced to play mediocre music over and over again.

“A quick read that I found engaging.”
– WAYNE MCCOY, www.goodreads.com/review/show/386331709

 

“Don Silver offers a fascinating glimpse into the music industry of the early 1980s, which really drives home exactly how soulless the commercial offerings are. For posterity’s sake, it’s great to see how the business operated way back when, especially in the light of the technological advances that the industry as a whole has undergone.

“But this memoir is more than just airing a bit of dirty laundry in a behind-the-scenes kind of way. This is also the story of Silver’s perhaps misplaced need to seek a mentor figure. It’s a tale of disillusionment too, and a sort of coming of age. While the music business side was informative, I saw this more as a work Silver engaged in to excise some of his own, personal demons related to his failure to thrive within the environment and time of his telling.

“As much as Silver’s love for music underpins every waking moment of his life, it’s also clear that he never did quite “make it” in terms of being a commercial success. Underpinning all this is his exploration of the dysfunctional relationships around him—that of his parents, and later also how Silver relates to his wife and his somewhat egotistical boss, Clive Davis.

“At the end I’m left with a sense of bitterness as Silver moves on to fresh opportunities. Overall, this is not a bad autobiographical account. The story is left open-ended, and I’m not quite certain what Silver’s purpose was: to recount a specific era and its events, or to revisit and work through past issues. Perhaps, even, this is a bit of both. All things considered, Silver’s tone is conversational, and the way he carries his recollections across makes it feel like an old mate has dropped by for a visit.

“This work makes me wonder how commercial music has changed over the years and exactly how predetermined some of the “hits” are. If this account is anything to go by, true music aficionados are right to mistrust mainstream media. Silver has had time to sit back and reflect, and his tale is certainly an interesting one to hear out.”
– NERINE DORMAN, Creepy Green Editor

 

Book Reviews: Backward-Facing Man

Backward Facing Man
“Mr. Silver’s unusual perspective and wide range of material are enough to make this a memorably offbeat debut. So is the palpable struggle that he captures on the page. Far from being wispily nostalgic, ”Backward-Facing Man” is still fighting to make sense of its characters’ late-60’s political conviction and wonder what became of it … What is most interesting is Mr. Silver’s unwillingness to resolve things neatly.”
– JANET MASLIN, New York Times (September 12, 2005)

 

“An epic, elegant debut.”
– BORDERS, Original Voices Selection, September 2005

“Don Silver’s debut novel, “Backward-Facing Man,” is a kaleidoscopic look at the 1960s counterculture through the lives of three refugees of the counterculture movement. The stories seem initially unconnected, however well written, a jigsaw puzzle of odd pieces. But Silver expertly brings together the disparate elements in an illuminating and entertaining book about the notion of idealism and how it’s not a defeat to settle for less than a perfect world.”
– REGIS BEHE, Feature in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review

 

“Gritty and intense, BACKWARD FACING MAN has that caught-breath momentum that keeps the reader in for another page, another page, another page, right to the finish.”
– SVEN BIRKERTS

 

“A dark elegy for ’60s campus radicalism and its turn toward violence in the years that followed, Silver’s debut novel is a complex, beautifully turned-out thriller. Set in 1999–2000 and told by trust-funded failed writer Winnie Prescott, the narrative (which includes a role for Winnie’s childhood friend Patty Hearst) centers on Lorraine Nadia, who has recently died, and her legal secretary daughter, Stardust. Shortly after her mother’s death, Stardust encounters a disheveled man on a Philadelphia commuter train who notes cryptically that “Your mother and I, we go way back.” He turns out to be local factory owner Chuck Puckman, whose younger, more radical self was a lover of Lorraine’s—as was Frederick Keane, the infamous Volcano Bomber, who remains in hiding. The novel shuttles back and forth between Chuck, Lorraine and Frederick’s eventually diverging paths; Chuck’s present struggles to save his manufacturing business after an environmental disaster; and Stardust’s efforts to piece together the story and search for Frederick. Silver handles all of the elements cleanly, writing convincingly in the voice of Winnie, who has never been good at much of anything. The plot has real bite—no matter what one’s political persuasion. (Sept. 1)”
– PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

“Backward-Facing Man is a cautionary tale about the need to acknowledge and seek redemption for wrongful actions, because trying to ignore or forget them is self-destructive. Although this is Silver’s first novel, he learned his lessons well.”
– Philadelphia Inquirer, November 17, 2005