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Betty Davis - Discography 1973-2016 [FLAC]
A wildly flamboyant funk diva with few equals, Betty Davis combined the gritty emotional realism of Tina Turner, the futurist fashion sense of David Bowie, and the trendsetting flair of Miles Davis, her husband for a year; she turned Miles on to Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone (providing the spark that led to his musical reinvention on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew), then proved her own talents with a trio of sizzling mid-'70s solo LPs.
Born Betty Mabry in North Carolina, Davis grew up in Pittsburgh and had decamped to New York by the early '60s, where she gained entrance into hipster musical circles courtesy of the clubs she frequented -- and one she worked at, the Cellar. She first recorded around that time, and also put out a 1964 single for Don Costa's DCP imprint. She got her first major writing credit, "Uptown" by the Chambers Brothers, 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 long, Betty was tremendously influential to 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.
They divorced in 1969; Miles explained later in his autobiography that she was "too young and wild" for him. By the beginning of the '70s, Betty Davis began work on a set of songs and tapped a host of great musicians to bring them to fruition: Greg Errico and Larry Graham from Sly Stone's band, Michael Carabello from Santana, the Pointer Sisters, and members of the Tower of Power horn section. 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 vocalist who screamed, yelled, grunted, 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 (several were cancelled), 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 have made an excellent disco diva, Davis largely disappeared from the music scene afterward. An aborted 1979 session was released on multiple occasions, once as Crashin' from Passion and also as Hangin' Out in Hollywood. Early in the 21st century, Light in the Attic Records reissued Davis' three studio albums, and also issued her 1976 unreleased recording, Crashin' from Passion, as Is It Love or Desire?, for the first time.
Davis' reputation got a serious boost in 2017 with the release of the documentary feature Betty: They Say I'm Different, a study of her life and music that was screened at a number of leading film festivals. Danielle Maggio, an associate producer on the film, later collaborated on a track with Davis, "A Little Bit Hot Tonight," that was released in 2019. Davis wrote, produced, and arranged the material, Maggio sang lead vocals, and it was the first music Davis had released in 40 years. It would also be the last recording she would bring out in her lifetime; Betty Davis died in Homestead, Pennsylvania on February 9, 2022. She was 77.
1973 - Betty Davis
1974 - They Say I’m Different
1975 - Nasty Gal
1995 - Hangin’ Out in Hollywood
2000 - Anti Love: The Best of Betty Davis
2005 - This Is It!
2009 - Is It Love or Desire
2016 - The Columbia Years 1968–1969
R.I.P. Betty Davis 1944-2022
Enjoy and please SEED!!!!!!
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