(Re) Introducing Betty Davis

~ A year or so ago, I was in one of my favourite record stores browsing the shelves, and had my attention diverted by the instore album that was playing at the time. The artist was a woman I had never heard of. Her name was Betty Davis.

The style of music playing was obviously funk, but it was the power and aggression of the performance that stopped me in my tracks. Betty sounded like a young Tina Turner, but where Tina is diminutive, Betty seemed to be twice as tall, and appeared to have a stage persona that towered over band and audience alike.

This tribute YouTube video is for Betty's song, Shut Off The Light. The video's creator, Tym Stevens seems to have a tendency to use lots of images relating to bondage and sado-masochism to illustrate his videos, so if you are offended by such images, you may not want to watch the clip. However, you can simply let the video play through without watching it if you wish. Alternatively, go straight to this Betty Davis tribute page on MySpace, and listen to the selection of songs there.



Here is an edited version of a bio that appears on the above Betty Davis MySpace page that has been set up as a tribute to the great diva.

"Born Betty Mabry in Pittsburgh, Davis began working as a model during the mid-'60s. She gained entrance into hipster musical circles very early on -- her first writing credit, "Uptown" by the Chambers Brothers, came in 1967, before she'd turned 20. One year later, she met Miles Davis in New York, and they were married by the end of summer 1968. Though their marriage didn't survive the end of the decade, Betty Davis was tremendously influential on Miles, introducing him to psychedelic rock and even influencing his wardrobe. Miles' 1968 LP Filles de Kilimanjaro featured her on the cover, and he wrote the final track ("Mademoiselle Mabry") for her.

"Her self-titled debut album finally appeared in 1973, and though it made no commercial impact at all, it was an innovative collection with plenty of blistering songs. Even more so than a soul shouter like Tina Turner, Davis was a singer for the feminist era, a take-no-prisoners sexual predator who screamed, yelled, grunted, purred, and cooed her way through extroverted material like "Anti Love Song," "Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him," and "He Was a Big Freak."

"Religious groups protested many of her concert appearances, and radio outlets understandably refused to play her extreme work. Davis hardly let up with her second and third albums, 1974's They Say I'm Different and 1975's Nasty Gal, but they too made little impact. Though she would've made an excellent disco diva, Betty Davis largely disappeared from the music scene afterward. An aborted 1979 session has been released on multiple occasions, once as Crashin' From Passion and also as Hangin' out in Hollywood."
~ Biography by John Bush/AMG Photos from Joost/JB Collections

The Betty Davis MySpace page has links to some excellent additional material, including radio interviews, online musical tribute programmes, and much more.

It appears that Betty has been living in seclusion for the best part of 30 years, following the failure of her recording career. However, there has been much renewed interest in her recordings, and a new appreciation of her musical talents is long overdue. Now that her albums are being reissued, a new generation of musical enthusiasts are rediscovering Betty Davis, and she will hopefully regain her rightful place as one of the great African American recording artists.

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