Expedient Album Review (E.A.R.) #1: Betty Davis

"C.P. of 'Mozart Brand Hot Dogs' is thirsty for the black bitches like Clark W. Griswold is thirsty for family fun." - Robert De Niro

Jesus, De Niro, that's wildly misogynistic! But you would know.

This is a new feature I'm adding to the blog, gang. It's the E.A.R., or Expedient Album Review.

This morning we'll be talking about...

That's the debut album by Betty Davis.

Released in 1973 on Just Sunshine Records, the self-titled Betty Davis was kind of a flop. Apparently god-fearing citizens weren't ready for an aggressively sexual (black) lady singing songs like "If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up" and "Game Is My Middle Name".

Also, those thigh-high silver boots probably caused a cultural panic.

Betty, as you may already know, was briefly married to jazz giant Miles Davis. Legend has it that Betty threw old Miles over for Jimi Hendrix, causing their marriage to end in divorce after only one year.

However! In that short period of time, it is corroborated by pretty much everyone that Betty had a massive, MASSIVE influence on Miles' musical and aesthetic tastes. Yes, without Betty, it's feasible that there never would have been such radically progressive works as In a Silent Way, or Bitches Brew.



Incidentally, jazz traditionalists hated those albums back in the day. Betty was like the Yoko Ono of jazz fusion... which is funny on a couple of levels.

As for the Betty Davis album itself -- it fuckin' rocks!

Syrupy, ultra-thick grooves (Larry Graham on bass, people) presided over by a down-and-dirty, Nubian-hippie babe who, really, just wants to lick your eardrums.

These are hot, coked-up rock/funk boudoir anthems of the nastiest kind! At least, you know, within the confines of what was permissible in the early '70s. This isn't a Foxy Brown album.

It's really too bad that Betty Davis went unappreciated for so long. Her discography was mostly unavailable until 2009, when the albums were re-released. In fact, her final album: Is It Love or Desire? was shelved for thirty-three years before finally being issued! That's fucked.

One has to wonder if Davis' fate would have been different had she been less intensely focused on rocking so completely. Perhaps a ballad or two ("In the Meantime" comes close).

Or, you know, maybe America should've just pulled its collective head out of its collective butthole and accepted Betty's bad-ass soul in the same light as Sly Stone or Isaac Hayes.

Oh, well. You're aces with me, Betty. And "Come Take Me" is the jam.

Check it out.