The Musicgoer: Betty Davis' Nasty Gal and Is It Love Or Desire?

BETTY DAVIS
Nasty Gal/Is It Love Or Desire
(Light in the Attic)
**** 1/2 (out of 5)

Soul sister, sex goddess, funk icon, force of nature: Betty Davis recorded only four albums before dropping out of the music business, but no one who’s heard her voice will ever forget it. It’s less a voice, actually, than a gut-wrenching yowl, a defiantly unpretty sound like Etta James used to produce. It’s a soulful screech, a carnal cry that screams “Fuck me!” and “Fuck you!” at the same time. Now the Seattle label Light in the Attic has released her two final albums, Nasty Gal (1975) and Is It Love Or Desire (recorded in 1976 but never released), for the first time ever on CD, and if anything, they still feel ahead of their time, ferociously feminist and deeply, deeply funky.

“You said I was an evil witch!” she snarls on “Nasty Gal,” over top an angular funk riff. “You said I was an alligator!” — and she seems determined to live up to the accusations. Every syllable she sings sounds like it was torn out of her throat, with the ballad “You & I” (co-written by her ex-husband Miles Davis) serving as a rare moment of tenderness. What power! What passion! How did they keep this stuff bottled up for 30 years?