Music: Disappearance of Comet Betty Davis
Betty Davis ©
Text by: Loïc Bussieres
1 min
She was the short-lived wife of Miles Davis.
American Betty Davis died last night in her 77th year.
Singer with a lightning career, it was she who converted her husband to psychedelia and the saturated sounds of Jimi Hendrix, at the end of the 60s. Her character, her texts and her provocative poses will have made her signature.
A look back at the journey of one of the shadow heroines of Afro-American music.
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“
I went to his house, I rang his doorbell, I chased away the poor girl who was there and I married him!
".
This is how Betty Mabry, model and modest singer, recounted her meeting with
Miles Davis
, of whom she would become the incandescent muse.
The one we see on the covers of his records and which inspires him with a title,
Mademoiselle Mabry,
makes him leave his costumes for the psychedelic panoply of the time.
And above all will connect the trumpeter to electricity.
That of his friends Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone.
“
She was too young and too crazy
”, will judge Miles.
They split up a year later.
We then find traces of the comet in the recording studios where she will burn 3 albums in the early 70s, which have become cult.
Sampled by US rappers but "unsaleable" for the producers of the time, frightened by an artist who was too provocative, too sexy, too sulfurous.
“
Madonna before her time.
Prince before Prince
”, judged her illustrious ex-husband.
Betty Davis will subsequently disappear from the scenes, like the shooting star she was.
Dismissing those who tried to bring her back.
"
They Say I'm Different
" she displayed on her second album.
“
They say I am not like the others
”.
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