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Subject: Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

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  • From: "Lani Smith" <LSmith AT minlib.net>
  • To: "Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)" <typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [TypicalGirls] male-centric vibe around Betty Davis reissues
  • Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:33:13 -0400

Thanks for posting this analysis.
I don't even think I know who Betty Davis is, but now I can't wait to hear
her!
:Lani

-----Original Message-----
From: "Raven Baker" <softgraffiti AT gmail.com>
To: typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 15:56:57 -0400
Subject: Re: [TypicalGirls] male-centric vibe around Betty Davis reissues

> I am super excited to have found this list (off Perfect Sound
> Forever). This is my first post, btw so Heya!
>
> Anyway, thanks to the person who posted a link to the She Real Cool
> blog. I've been stoked on these Betty Davis reissues. I got a hold
> of the latest Wax Poetics, before they reissues came out, and reading
> about Davis' life was absolutely fascinating & empowering, but as with
> all the coverage surrounding the release, it certainly is almost all
> male voices interpreting her work & fitting her into a modern context.
> While I think Oliver Wang who wrote the liner notes for both CDs (and
> the Wax Poetics article, I believe) examined her music & life with
> more tact and understanding than the reviews I've seen, there is still
> a heavy, heavy focus on her marriage to Miles Davis (which was only a
> year!) whether she was sleeping with Jimmi Hendrix and the overall
> raciness of her lyrics. Would a 'rediscovered' male artist be
> examined in such a light?
>
> In a faint way, it reminds me of the furor & attention Anais Nin
> receives. The focus is firstly on her relationships (whether sexual
> or not) with the famous folks of her day, followed by a fascination
> with her erotica & the sexy bits of her diaries. There's scant
> attention paid to her prose (other than like, House of Incest, and
> that's usually a very uncritical, disgusted 'ewww she slept with her
> father!' angle). With these Davis reissues, the attention has
> followed a similar path: her relationships with men like Miles Davis,
> Jimi Hendrix & Sly Stone; a fascination with her lyrics (who was 'He
> Was A Big Freak' about?!); and then 'oh yeah, she made really great,
> progressive, empowered funk.' While I really enjoyed the Wax Poetics
> piece, it too fell prey to this mindset with a lot of attention spent
> on the year she was married to Davis (and how she met him) that could
> have been better spent detailing her time as Motown songwriter or the
> radicalness of having produced her second album.
>
> //end rant
>
> <3raven
>
> --
> http://www.softgraffiti.hexplosion.com
> http://www.beatbots.com
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  • Re: [TypicalGirls] male-centric vibe around Betty Davis reissues, Lani Smith, 06/01/2007

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