"He was a big freak / I used to say all kinds of dirty things." Intrigued? Here's another snippet: "He was a big freak / Pain was his middle name / He was a big freak / He used to laugh when I'd make him cry / He was a big freak--a big freak, yes he was / I used to whip him with my turquoise chain." It's hard to imagine a song with those lyrics on the radio today, let alone in 1974. But 1974 is the year Betty Davis released that song, "He Was A Big Freak," on her sophomore album, They Say I'm Different. It's only barely the raciest song on the record.
Davis combined raw, raucous vocal performances with eminently danceable funk. She's been called the "black Janis Joplin," a "one-woman Funkadelic," and funk's "nasty gal." She married, briefly, to Miles Davis. During that time, she exterted tremendous influence on him, spurring him to create Bitches Brew, thereby inventing jazz-rock fusion. But Miles divorced her after only one year of marriage; her close relationship--and possibly an affair--with Jimi Hendrix is the oft-cited reason. Is it any wonder, then, that her albums feature plenty of Hendrix-inspired guitar riffs alongside one of the best rhythm sections ever assembled?
The self-titled Betty Davis and its follow-up were--and still are--the hardest, dirtiest funk recordings around. Both albums were re-released this year by Light in the Attic Records. These records didn't sell when they were released in the '70s, and they're being re-released by an indie label, so they won't sell today. But give 'em a listen.
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