Mr. and Mrs. Davis
September 5, 2010 1:25 PM   Subscribe

Betty Mabry better known as Betty Davis was the muse of her husband Miles, who she introduced to the influences of Jimmy Hendrix, Sly Stone, James Brown and Carlos Santana among others.
However she should more righteously be better known as the Queen of Funk with some of the hardest, driving, rawest sound ever then heard in 1973. (The Music is after the fold)

If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up.
Walking up the Road.
Anti love song.
Your Man My Man
Stepping High in her I. Miller Shoes.
Game is my Middle Name.
In the Meantime.
Come Take Me.
You Won’t see Me in the morning.
I will take that Ride
And that’s just from the first album. She continued with
They say I’m different.
Getting’ kicked off havin’ Fun.
Two of Miles’ tunes on Filles de Kilimanjaro, were directly inspired by her and modelled on Hendrix tracks.
Mademoiselle Mabry (1 and 2).
and Frelon Blue
( Joe Beese previously – but many links dead; Betty Davis wiki ).
posted by adamvasco (32 comments total) 45 users marked this as a favorite
 
Great post, thanks.
posted by Elmore at 1:42 PM on September 5, 2010


OK, I misread and for a few seconds I thought Bette Davis was married to Miles Davis, and that thought just blew my mind.
posted by kmz at 1:51 PM on September 5, 2010 [3 favorites]


...I thought Bette Davis was married to Miles Davis...

Their child, bred with that of Georgia O'Keeffe and William Faulkner would create a mid-20th-century artistic Kwisatz Haderach, eventually assassinated by Andy Warhol.
posted by griphus at 2:04 PM on September 5, 2010 [14 favorites]


holy awesome. nice post!
posted by ms.jones at 2:04 PM on September 5, 2010


MeFi's own YoungAmerican interviewed her in 2007, and described it as the most difficult interview of his life.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:13 PM on September 5, 2010 [2 favorites]


kmz: OK, I misread and for a few seconds I thought Bette Davis was married to Miles Davis, and that thought just blew my mind.

Right, she was his second wife.
posted by paisley henosis at 2:19 PM on September 5, 2010


Oh crap that was my 1338th comment and I didn't do a screenshot before! Bugger.
posted by paisley henosis at 2:19 PM on September 5, 2010


previously
posted by bonefish at 2:22 PM on September 5, 2010


I'm Tim Steil and holy crap do I approve of this post!

Best Miles story ever, that I got sitting at Buddy Guy's bar from an ex sideman of his (Miles'), says he was also gigging with Sting at the time, and Sting was a huge fan and wanted to meet him. So he took him up to Miles apartment in NYC.

Miles opens the door in a robe and his drawers, looks them both over and looks at Sting, and says

"Hey Man...you're in the Police right?"

Stings says "Ummm Yeah."

Miles pulls his dick out, waves it at him, and says

"Arrest this motherfucker." and slams the door.
posted by timsteil at 2:23 PM on September 5, 2010 [13 favorites]


oops, ya had "previously" in yer post...sorry!
posted by bonefish at 2:23 PM on September 5, 2010


Hotshot player: "Hey, Miles, when are you going to give me a gig?"

Miles: "Doing what?"
posted by bonefish at 2:25 PM on September 5, 2010 [2 favorites]




I like how she entreats the wah wah pedal in this one.
posted by bonefish at 2:30 PM on September 5, 2010


timsteil: “Best Miles story ever...”

That is a great story. Heh.

My Miles Davis story – well, not really mine, but second-hand, anyway:

The uncle of a good friend of mine, a tall bespectacled guy with a little beard, met Miles utterly at random at a diner in Chicago at two in the morning. Being a lifelong fan of his work, he mentioned that he thought Miles had made some of the greatest contributions to jazz of any musician. Miles replied that my friend's uncle looked pretty Jewish - was he? When my friend's uncle said "er... no," Miles responded by saying that that was good, because Jews were destroying the world by buying up everything in the music and movie and TV business and turning them into trash, and because Jews as a people don't know anything about good taste or culture, and by the way they probably were exaggerating a lot about how bad the holocaust was. My friend's uncle wandered away in a kind of general shock, telling himself that Davis must've been really high or something.

Miles Davis was a bastard.

Betty Davis? Much better.
posted by koeselitz at 2:35 PM on September 5, 2010


I'm astounded that- if the Seattle Weekly article is correct- for the last couple of decades she's lived in Homestead, and there hasn't been a peep out of the Pittsburgh press that I could find online.
posted by pernoctalian at 2:46 PM on September 5, 2010


Miles Davis was a bastard.

Damned straight. But he's our bastard.
posted by timsteil at 2:59 PM on September 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


Fuck. Yes.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:16 PM on September 5, 2010


But he's our bastard.

Yeah, he blows.
posted by Elmore at 3:16 PM on September 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


Most of her tunes aren't stacked out with a bunch of tracks. This sounds like a sampling goldmine.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 3:31 PM on September 5, 2010


It's Jimi Hendrix.
posted by John Cohen at 4:07 PM on September 5, 2010


It's Jimi Hendrix.

Twenty five years ago or so I somehow won a Hendrix... thing. I don't know what to call it. It was a sort of commemorative gold record ... thing. Probably about 4 feet high and 2.5 feet wide, framed. Had his albums inside, gold or platinum or whatever--I don't remember exactly--and his photo and signature. I had no use for it and gave it to my then-girlfriend. However, on it, they'd misspelled Hendrix's first name on every occurrence. This was an official piece of memorabilia from his then-label presented to me by Q107 (a ghastly Toronto radio station who prides itself on spinning "classic" rock every friggin minute of the day).
posted by dobbs at 5:35 PM on September 5, 2010


This sounds like a sampling goldmine.
posted by bonefish at 10:54 PM on September 5, 2010


(Alternately--whosampled doesn't have as many samples listed as the-breaks, but it's got that embedded-Youtube thing going for it)
posted by box at 6:17 AM on September 6, 2010


My morning has been made.
posted by psylosyren at 6:24 AM on September 6, 2010


I do like Miles Davis' music, and like what I hear here, but I'm surprised at the acceptance of his other behaviour within this thread, considering the standard level of discourse on this site. I don't recall (but may be mistaken and haven't gone to re-look) anyone saying "Yeah, Mel Gibson really is a Jew-hating sexist alcoholic drunk-driving bastard, but since he makes good action flicks, he's OK by me!".
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out at 10:07 AM on September 6, 2010


At a café downtown, there was a flyer up for a band that played Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and the Jim Hendrix Experience.
posted by klangklangston at 10:42 AM on September 6, 2010 [1 favorite]


I do like Miles Davis' music, and like what I hear here, but I'm surprised at the acceptance of his other behaviour within this thread

Example?
posted by John Cohen at 10:47 AM on September 6, 2010


Great artists are often unattractive human beings.

Mel Gibson isn't even an artist, let alone a great one.
posted by jokeefe at 12:25 PM on September 6, 2010


Also, thanks so much for the post adamvasco, it's excellent.
posted by jokeefe at 12:26 PM on September 6, 2010


The Jim Hendrix experience is being cold-called for investment properties in a Florida swamp.
posted by griphus at 1:08 PM on September 6, 2010


I totally respect Mel Gibson for making some of the most brilliant phone recordings in history.
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:59 PM on September 6, 2010


Last.fm and more here be sure to click on the Read More and Listen links.
posted by adamvasco at 1:19 PM on September 28, 2010


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