Music Career
After the end of her marriage with Davis, Betty moved to London, probably around 1971, to pursue her modeling career. She wrote music while in the UK and returned to the US around 1972 with the intention of recording songs with Santana. Instead, she recorded her own songs with a group of West Coast funk musicians.
Her first record, Betty Davis, was released in 1973. The lineup included
- Neal Schon (Santana/Journey) - guitar
- Doug Rodrigues (Buzzy Linhart, Lenny White) - guitar
- Gregg Errico (Sly & The Family Stone) - drums
- Larry Graham (Sly & The Family Stone and eponym of Graham Central Station) - bass
- Hershall Kennedy (Graham Central Station) - organ, clavinet, background vocals
- Greg Adams (Tower of Power) - trumpet
- Mic Gillette (Tower of Power) - trombone
- Skip Mesquite (Tower of Power) - saxophone
- Merl Saunders - electric piano, clavinet
- Pete Sears - acoustic piano
- The Pointer Sisters - background vocals
- Patryce Banks (Graham Central Station) - background vocals
- Willie Sparks (Graham Central Station) - background vocals
Davis released two more studio albums, They Say I'm Different (1974) and her major label debut on Island Records Nasty Gal (1975). None of the three albums was a commercial success. Davis remained a cult figure as a singer, due in part to her open sexual attitude, which was controversial for the time. Some of her shows were boycotted and her songs were not played on the radio due to pressure by religious groups. Both Betty Davis and They Say I'm Different were re-released by Seattle's Light in the Attic Records on May 1, 2007. In September 2009, Light in the Attic Records reissued Nasty Gal and her unreleased fourth studio album recorded in 1976, re-titled as Is It Love or Desire? (the original title was Crashin' From Passion). Both reissues contained extensive liner notes and shed some light on the mystery of why her fourth album, considered possibly to be her best work by many members of her band (Herbie Hancock, Chuck Rainey, Alphonse Mouzon), was shelved by the record label and remained unreleased for 33 years. After a final recording session in 1979, Davis eventually stopped making music and returned to Pennsylvania.
Material from the 1979 recording session was eventually used for two bootleg albums, Hangin' Out In Hollywood (1995) and Crashin' From Passion (1996). A greatest hits album, Anti Love: The Best of Betty Davis, was released in 2000.
Read more about this topic: Betty Davis
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