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Getting The Spins: Betty Davis – They Say I’m Different

(Just Sunshine, 1974)

Betty Davis was ahead of her time in so many ways–lyrically, musically, visually. She did not give a fuck. Davis only released three records–her 1973 self-titled, this one, and 1974’s Nasty Gal–but they were a force. She was a force. I’m not going to say Betty Davis slid into complete obscurity after her three-album run–people knew of her–but it was probably Light In the Attic’s 2007 reissues of her three records, along with a release of outtakes produced by her then-husband Miles (yes, that Miles Davis), that more people got to know Betty Davis and her cosmic funk (a documentary was also released in 2017).

They Say I’m Different smokes, and the grooves are as nasty as her lyrics, evident in the first two tracks “Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him” (sampled by Ice Cube on “Once Upon a Time In the Projects”) and “He Was a Big Freak” (“I’d tie him up with my turquoise chain…”). I found an original copy a few years ago, which has been–as I call it–partied hard. But the crackles are part of the party. And this record is always the life of the party. Guaranteed to knock your socks off…or your turquoise chain.