If you have managed to stick around this long, by now you realize that I am just a little off the beaten(pun intended) path.
I would not go so far as to say I am woman who is ahead of her time, but I am a woman who doesn’t fit the conventional norm…what ever that means today.
In 2011, women have it much simpler than in my year of birth 1972. It is a different world than where I came from. Yes I can keep the puns up all night, but I will get back to the story.
If you have been around me in real time, you know that music is important to me.
There is always music around me, and I have now gotten so old that the music of my youth can be considered technically an oldie.
I grew up in a house where the radio was not really allowed, unless I was listening to top 40 pop. That worked out because it was before BET existed and before there were more than 2 Black artists on MTV. *psst* MTV used to show videos.
What is most appealing to me about music would be the lyrics, the words. There are beats that I love but I am totally about the lyrics.
Even though I like to think of myself as expressive, song writers seem to be so much better at capturing my feelings in a moment than I am – unless of course they write for American Idol – but then again I loved Flying Without Wings (Ruben version)
I may be a child of the Madonna generation, and I loves me some Madge something fierce, she is not the artist that I would most closely identify with if I only had to choose one. Madge’s body of work is greater, her career iconic, her body fat @ 1%, but Madge could not exist if artists such as Betty Davis had not come before her.
If you know me – while I can and DO listen to everything but classical music – my preference is something with soul. With rhythm and heartbeat and something you can feel into your toes. I can appreciate some Earth Wind & Fire…but 70’s funk I tend to only be able to take in smallish doses. Unless of course it is Betty Davis.
Betty I could take on a deserted island with me and never tire of hearing her. She was a woman before her time.
Betty Mabry Davis – ex wife of the legend Miles Davis is NOT a singer. She is a force of nature – as I am.
Allow me to attempt to make it more contemporary for ya….
Many of you were SHOCKED when one Tuesday this hit the record stores:
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| Yes we had record stores back in the day—we rode our Model T right up the the front door |
Kim ain’t got SHYT on Betty. Betty also did it without saying pussy every 9th lyric (not that there is anything wrong with that)
Betty was a model turned artist who was unapologetic about her sexuality, at least on wax.
Her songs drew religious protests, the ire of the NAACP (shit that alone should have garnered her a medal), and killed her career before it could really take off.
Mind you she is not a songstress such as LaBell, or Houston, or Knight, but she is far beyond the auto tune and synth of Spears.
http://blackgrooves.org/?p=371
In this article: “Davis was eventually ostracized by mainstream Black America for pushing the envelope too far—her Afro was too big, her attitude even bigger, her clothes too skimpy, her sexuality too much on display, her music definitely not suitable for prime time.”
Kind of sounds like me in some ways……I am not for the family hour.
My favorite Betty Song today? If I’m in luck I might get picked up 🙂
It’s on Youtube check it out.
How does this relate to the lyfe of a bottom bytch?
Here are the lyrics to Anti-Love Song:
No I don’t want to love you
cause I know how you are
thats why I have been staying away from you
thats why I haven’t called ya
cause I know you could possess my body
I know you can make me scrawl
I know you can have me shaking
I know you could have me climbing the walls
thats why I don’t want to love you
cause I know how you are
sure you say your right on and your righteous
but with me I know you’d be right off
you know I could possess your body too?
Dont cha?
You know I could make you crawl
and just as hard as I fall for you
boy
well you know you’d fall for me harder
thats why I dont want to love you
cause I know what you do to my heart
you’d scorch it just like hot iron
wow
leave me burning alone in the dark
cause I know you could make me suffer
I know you could drive me mad
I know you just take me in a circle
when it got real
I know you’d disappear
thats why I AIN’T gonna love you
cause I know you like to be in charge
well with me
you know you couldn’t control me
dontcha?
Cause you know i’d make you drop your guard
i’d have you eaten your ego
i’d make you pocket your pride
just as hard as I’d be loving you
you know you’d be loving me harder
thatsdont want to love you.
I said
I dont want to love you
na na na na
I said
I aint gonna
na na na na
I said
I dont wanna
na na na na na
I know what you’d do to me
As time moves along, I will let YOU decide if they apply to me or him.