Caprock Chronicles: Mac Davis: Lubbock's songwriter, Part 2

Editor’s Note: Jack Becker is the editor of Caprock Chronicles and is a Librarian Emeritus from Texas Tech University. He can be reached at jack.becker@ttu.edu. This week’s article is the second of a two-part series about Mac Davis by frequent contributor Chuck Lanehart, Lubbock attorney and award-winning Western history writer.

Mac Davis’ compositions for Elvis Presley earned him his greatest recognition as a songwriter. He often joked, “Elvis been berry, berry GOOD TO ME!” The iconic superstar recorded multiple top hits written by Mac: “Memories,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” “A Little Less Conversation.” And, “In the Ghetto.”

William Kerns, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal entertainment editor, wrote, “Had he only penned Elvis’ No. 1 smash, ‘In The Ghetto,’ (Mac’s) place in the annals of important songwriters would be assured.”

Mac’s memories of Lubbock influenced his writing of 1969’s “Ghetto.” He said, “I grew up with a little kid whose daddy worked with my daddy, and he was a Black kid. We were good buddies, five or six years old. I remember him being one of my best buddies. But he lived in a part of town, and I couldn't figure out why they had to live where they lived, and we got to live where we lived. We didn't have a lot of money, but we didn't have broken bottles every six inches. It was a dirt street ghetto where he lived.

“I'd always wanted to write a song about it, where a kid is born, he doesn't have a male parent, and falls into the wrong people and dies just as another kid comes along and replaces him. It's just a vicious circle . . .

“A buddy of mine, Freddy Weller, came over. He said, 'Hey, I got this lick that Joe South showed me.' He played this lick on the guitar, and boy, I just heard ‘In the Ghetto.’”

Mac continued, “I didn't say anything, went home that night and sat down with that lick . . . By about two o'clock in the morning, I had written the song. Of course, I called Freddy up as I was wont to do in those days and sung him the song at two o'clock in the morning. There was a long silence, and he . . said some foul cuss word and hung up on me.”

Mac also wrote hits for Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Lou Rawls, Bobby Goldsboro and many others.

His songwriting skills led to his own major success as a recording artist, with hits like “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me,” “I Believe In Music,” “Stop and Smell The Roses,” “Hooked On Music,” and “One Hell of A Woman.”

His hit, “Texas in My Rear View Mirror,” is a memoir of Mac’s hometown. At first listen, the song seems to be a condemnation of Lubbock, but in the final lines, Mac acknowledges “But now happiness is Lubbock, Texas/Growing nearer and dearer/And the vision is getting clearer/In my dreams/And I think I finally know/Just what it means/And when I die you can bury me/In Lubbock, Texas, in my jeans.”

Mac said of Lubbock, “The people are great, and they are very supportive of everybody. It’s a great place to be. If I ever get caught with a flat tire and no spare, there’s no other place I would want to be other than Lubbock, Texas.”

Lubbock music producer and promoter Don Caldwell remembers Mac as a humble man, despite Mac’s lyric, “Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.” Don said, “Mac didn’t think people wanted to see him perform (as master of ceremonies of Lubbock’s 2009 centennial celebrations). When he was putting his set list together, he didn’t include anything for an encore because he didn’t think the crowd would want an encore.” But audiences always responded passionately to his performances.

Don said Mac was a consummate professional, always had his guitar and was always composing a new song. “If he got into a group of people, somehow he entertained them,” Don remembered. “I mean, he'd sit there on that couch, in that old beat-up dressing room, and he entertained everybody that dropped by.”

Mac’s talents led him to successful television gigs, including a popular NBC variety show from 1974 to 1976. His successful 1979 movie debut portraying a pro football player in “North Dallas Forty” led to many acting roles. He earned a star symbol on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year in 1974.

He was a member of the National Songwriters Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In Lubbock in 1983, he was the third artist inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame (after Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings). And in 2005, Lubbock’s Sixth Street was renamed Mac Davis Lane in his honor.

His entertainment career spanned 50 years. Mac Davis died at age 78 in 2020 following complications from heart surgery. He was buried in the City of Lubbock Cemetery — in his jeans — leaving behind his widow Lise Kristen Gerard and three children.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Caprock Chronicles: Mac Davis: Lubbock's songwriter, Part 2