Betty Davis

• Genre: Funk

About

When the splattered lights from suddenly still disco balls went dark, and oil-slick lip gloss was put away for more reserved matte colors in the early '80s, the '70s were magically transformed into the tackiest period in human history -- with Disco specifically suffering the greatest beating -- if you were to believe all the jokes in circulation. But by the '90s, Donna Summer was being hailed as a diva again, Gloria Gaynor held up as a role model for feminists and drag queens alike and Funkytown was once again an inviting place. Conspiculously left off the list of rediscovered glamatrons was Betty Davis, whose criminally funky songs and glitzy discotheque fare was risque and sassy enough to make Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" sound like a prayer hymn. Mrs. Miles Davis walked the walk and talked the talk, singing about southern food, feminist ideology, racy sex scenes and her intimate desires like she was discussing the weather. Growling or cooing, Davis made music that oozed, unashamedly, with sexually liberated heat.

- Kali Holloway