Betty Davis' second full-length featured a similar set of songs as her debut, though with Davis herself in the production chair and a radically different lineup. The openers, "Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him" and "He Was a Big Freak," are big, blowsy tunes with stop-start funk rhythms and Davis in her usual persona as the aggressive sexual predator. On the title track, she reminisces about her childhood and compares herself to kindred spirits of the past, a succession of lues legends she holds fond -- including special time for Bessie Smith, Chuck Berry, and Robert Johnson. A pair of unknowns, guitarist Cordell Dudley and bassist Larry Johnson, do a fair job of replacing the stars from her first record. As a result, They Say I'm Different is more keyboard-dominated than her debut, with prominent electric piano, clavinet, and organ from Merl Saunders, Hershall Kennedy, and Tony Vaughn. The material was even more extreme than on her debut; "He Was a Big Freak" featured a prominent bondage theme, while "Your Mama Wants Ya Back" and "Don't Call Her No Tramp" dealt with prostitution, or at least inferred it. With the exception of the two openers, though, They Say I'm Different lacked the excellent songs and strong playing of her debut; an explosive and outré record, but more a variation on the same theme she'd explored before.
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 ...
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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 ...
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My favorite funktress of all time is the lovely Betty Davis. Some say this vixen turned Miles Davis onto the freaky, funky side of music and introduced him to Jimi Hendrix. If this is true, we can pretty much thank Betty for my all-time favorite Miles Davis album, Bitches Brew... For me, Funky Friday isn't finished until the phat lady sings. And here she is, the Foxy Lady herself: "Your Mam...
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Here's a cool funk track from Miles Davis' ex-wife, Betty Davis. They Say I'm Different was recently reissued.
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--- - |- Today we're gonna go way, way back to 2007. I'd been meaning to pick your ears about a couple of reissues from last year that I figgered deserved a little more attention than some other more highly profiled second acts. Thought I'd take the time now, before heading back to the hills for that old timey stuff we all love and cherish. So, outside of the lavishly, and deservedly, disc...
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 "They Say I'm Different")
