Nepotism in Music

Posted about 5 years ago

Artist:
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Betty Davis

Either Betty Davis was an amazing networker during her 1 year marriage to Miles Davis or Miles may have pulled some strings, but whatever happened she was signed to a label , she recruited the best musicians on the San Francisco scene in '69 (Larry Graham, Neal Schon, the Tower of Power Horns), and she released a record of her self penned material. Her self titled debut was a slamming she funk extravaganza, but it didn't sell a lick. For her next record (amazing she got to make another), she wrote, sang, and produced (with a less stellar, but still top flight session crew), They Say I'm Different, which, despite the fact that it was another future funk freakout of the highest order, sold even less.After that her material was a little lackluster and she kinda faded away. Crate Diggers in the 80's exposed me to the songs and her story; The rise from model, to music scenster, to Wife of Miles ( he said it was Betty who him pushed toward the Bitches Brew type material) , to friend of Hendrix, to Funk originator to Rare Groove Goddess.In the end, whether she got a push from the inside is irrelevant, I mean, for the love of Mike, she was the prototype for Grace Jones!, only perhaps a little more talented. I love Miles, but I'll take Betty's Funk over his Funk any day.Any other nepotism tales out there?Ya heard mine

Comments (12)

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Tuff Today, Tuff Tomorrow says whoa i never knew about her, i must check this one out... thanks for the recommendation!!!!

Permalink posted 01/01/2007
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EvilDingDong says Odd timing on this post. I was just looking into Betty Davis for the first time yesterday. I was on the edge of buying "Nasty Gal", but wound up putting it back in the bin so I could research more. So do you recommend starting with her self-titled, or another release? Cheers and happy new year!

Permalink posted 01/01/2007
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Cody B says The self titled and the one I tagged are probably the way to go. Raw, but well produced funk. Enjoy

Permalink posted 01/01/2007
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ivylander says Uh, Shuggie Otis?

Permalink posted 01/01/2007
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fastnbulbous says Nice to see Betty Davis mentioned, but two problems here. First, it seems disrespectful to lay all credit of Betty Davis' success with her brief marriage to Miles Davis. Davis got his start in the jazz world by being Charlie Parker's bitch - covering his rent, scoring his drugs. But no one denies Miles' legacy because of it. Secondly, her albums did NOT drop off in quality. The first three are all amazing. I picked them all up after reading an article in the February 2005 MOJO. I just assumed Davis was just a minor figure, certainly no better than the sometimes lascivious, sometimes feminist funk of Laura Lee, Millie Jackson, or James Brown acolytes Vicki Anderson, Lyn Collins and Marva Whitney. But Betty Mabry Davis is in a class of her own. Her coolness transcends them all. When she met Miles Davis at the age of 22, she'd already cut a couple singles, worked as a model, club promoter (Step-Down Cellar on 90th Street), and written a song for The Chambers Brothers ("Uptown To Harlem" for their landmark 1967 album, Time Has Come Today). During her relationship and marriage to Miles Davis from '67 to '69, she introduced him to Jimi Hendrix (Miles was paranoid that she was sleeping with him - perhaps she did but like a true pimp she?ll deny it to her grave), Sly Stone, and made a huge impact on his fashion sense, not to mention appearing on the cover of Filles De Kilimanjaro, which featured a tribute to her in "Mademoiselle Mabry." While Miles was working on Bitches Brew, Davis cut an album with a dream-team band consisting of Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams from Miles' band with Miles producing, and Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell. Afraid of Betty's success, Miles insisted the album be shelved. Now that the misogynist motherfucker is stone cold dead, it's high time this album is exhumed from the vaults and released. Betty's career didn't really start until she divorced Miles, and her good friend Jimi was dead. In 1970 she recorded eight songs with the Commodores which were shelved, and moved to the UK in 1971. Marc Bolan (T. Rex) helped her out in seeking a recording contract, but she returned to the U.S. and hooked up with Michael Carabello of Santana in San Francisco. Assembling members of Santana (including future Journey member Neil Schon!), Sly & the Family Stone and Tower of Power, Davis recorded a monster of an album for the Just Sunshine label, and introduced the world to her alter ego that's part ass-kicking Cleopatra Jones, and part wise-cracking pottymouth influenced by Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. She turned the tables on jive-talking pimp characters with lyrics like, "If I'm in luck I might get picked up ... I'm fishin' and I'm trickin' and you can call it what you want." And in "Anti Love Song" she sings, "You know, I could make you crawl/And just as hard as I'd fall for you/You know you'd fall for me harder." More often her voice would jump between shrieks and feral growls that are truly frightening. The band played hard and tight, on an album that would rival anything by Funkadelic. 1974's They Say I'm Different was even better, with the cover featuring Betty rockin' an Amazonian space-Egyptian outfit. Every song was a highlight, from the catchy "Shoo-B-Doop And Cop Him" to "He Was A Big Freak," where Davis tackles S&M, beating her lover with a turquoise chain. On the title track she gives props to early influences, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith and Chuck Berry. Nasty Gal (1975) was just as great, including the powerful kiss-off to the media, "Dedicated To The Press." With big stars like MeShell NdegeOcello, Macy Gray, Kelis and Missy Elliot owing so much to Betty Davis' pioneering work, it's a shame she hasn't enjoyed more fame and fortune, though she certainly gets respect from her peers. It looks like things will change, with the MOJO article, a rumored documentary on women of funk focusing on Davis, and a reissue of her three albums in the 2CD Talkin' Trash: The Definitive Betty Davis on Aztec Music.

Permalink posted 01/01/2007
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Jonh Ingham says It's easier to think of nepotism on the business side....Mo Ostin of Warners employing all 3 of his sons, for instance. Sharon Osbourne's father is Don Arden, who managed The Move and ELO. She must have learned something at daddy's hand to take on managing Ozzy. Dya think Jakob Dylan had a helping hand?

Permalink posted 01/01/2007
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Cody B says Um fastnbulbous, I did not lay all the credit at the feet of Miles Davis, I merely suggested it, and like you said it with Miles, it didn't matter, his legacy is safe. Betty has a legacy,too, I didn't dispute that. I called her a goddess and a funk original. In the Funk department, I like her better than MIles. I don't know what Mojo said or what y'all think, But I say she had a drop off after the 2nd album. I called the first album a slamming she-funk extavaganza and the second, a future funk freakout of the highest order. The third album may still have moments, but it signaled a downturn. If you look at all the critical stuff out there, most say the first album was best and a healthy number go for the second album, but not that many like the third. Almost universally, folks agree things went wrong after that. I prefer They Say I'm Different because it is the first thing I heard. I guess we agree on that, hooray. I liked and appreciated Betty way before the 2005 Mojo article, I thought I'd show her some love in the MOS. I try to keep the posts fairly short, so people will read them, but thanks adding in the details. I do agree that her band was hot and tight on the 1rst album, but I do not agree with the assertion they "would rival anything by Funkadelic." Now I have nothing against the great studio/star musicians who played on Betty's first record, but it is Betty that makes the albums good. As I note, the lesser lights on the second album (your favorite) helped Betty make the better album of the first 2. Surely if a band is cutting tunes "rivalling Funkadelic" and had Betty Davis singing that would be the better record. I like They Say I'm Different better, because Betty has complete control, from writing, to production on down to the players. Things haven't changed a whole lot since the 2005 MOJO article, but I do look forward to the film, and the 2 CD set. I see Vampisoul has a new comp out on Betty, but I have most everything on there. Cheers and sorry for the tone. It is 6am, gotta get some coffee

Permalink posted 01/02/2007
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mktackabery says wow, great stuff from both Cody and fastn, thanks guys. I knew vaguely about Betty, but only through Miles' autobiography and really, I never followed up on her music. I will definitely do it now though. I think perhaps what you might be talking about in Betty's case is not necessarily nepotism . . . that might have gotten her the contract perhaps, but I think artistically what happened to her is what happens to a lot of women, in that they don't grow artistically until they get out of the marriage/relationship/whatever with the artistic man. I'm not saying relationships are bad, just that a lot of women don't really flower until they kick out of that nest or protection or whatever. Seems true in her case.

Permalink posted 01/02/2007
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Cody B says Good point mktack.... I was kinda goading with the nepotism thing. That's my bad, but I did think I made it clear that I thought Betty was a good 'un, and I did want to get a response. Thanks

Permalink posted 01/02/2007
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m0nadikh says She's okay.

Permalink posted 01/02/2007
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Cody B says I hear that, my biggest quibble with her is how tight the bands she used can be, as opposed to the looseness of Funkadelic or Sly,say. She on the other hand is dyn-o-mite. The music, which I am still a fan of, sounds like the backing that Labelle had in their early years, all very good and funky, but still possessing a lot of studio sheen (Labelle's version of Cat Steven's Moondance is excellent). When are we gonna play another band name word game, m0nadikh?

Permalink posted 01/02/2007
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mickimicki says ... I was off-line over New Year's when this went down, only found it today when I searched for Betty Davis... thanks Cody and Fast'n for a lot of info. Extremely interesting person and work, and it's quite telling that she still managed to spark off controversy as soon as she appeared on mog... after more than 30 years of "progress" in "feminism" ;-)

Permalink posted 05/03/2007