|

        Click here to expand and collapse the player

        They Say I'm Different

        Rate It! Avg: 4.5 (247 ratings)
        Sample Album
        They Say I'm Different album cover
        01
        Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him
        		 3:56 $0.99
        02
        He Was a Big Freak
        		 4:07 $0.99
        03
        Your Mama Wants Ya Back
        		 3:27 $0.99
        04
        Don't Call Her No Tramp
        		 4:05 $0.99
        05
        Git In There
        		 4:45 $0.99
        06
        They Say I'm Different
        		 4:15 $0.99
        07
        70's Blues
        		 4:59 $0.99
        08
        Special People
        		 3:26 $0.99
        09
        He Was a Big Freak (Record Plant Rough Mixes - Bonus Track)
        		 4:42 $0.99
        10
        Don't Call Her No Tramp (Record Plant Rough Mixes - Bonus Track)
        		 4:36 $0.99
        11
        Git In There (Record Plant Rough Mixes - Bonus Track)
        		 4:37 $0.99
        12
        70's Blues (Record Plant Rough Mixes - Bonus Track)
        		 5:01 $0.99
        Album Information

        Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 51:56

        Find a problem with a track? Let us know.

        eMusic Review 0

        Avatar Image
        Hua Hsu

        eMusic Contributor

        Hua Hsu edits the hip-hop section of URB Magazine and writes about music, culture and politics for Slate, the Village Voice, The Wire and various other magazine...more »

        04.22.11
        The world wasn’t ready for a one-woman Funkadelic in the ‘70s. Are you?
        2008 | Label: Light In The Attic / The Orchard

        By 1969 Betty Davis'marriage to Miles was in shambles. There were rumors of an affair with Hendrix; there remains chatter about jealousy and abuse. Perhaps this is what necessarily happens when two effervescent souls meet, and neither relents. She returned to making music, penning songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores. Briefly decamping to England, Davis befriended Marc Bolan, who encouraged her to record her own songs. She returned to the Bay Area and assembled a band consisting of past and future members of Sly and the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, Journey, Tower of Power and the Pointer Sisters.

        The result was Betty Davis, released in 1973 on the modest Just Sunshine label. A trio of Bettys strapped in silver, thigh-high moon boots adorns the cover. A savage riff powered “If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up,” a raspy, raunchy mission statement of sorts. Slinking along with Larry Graham's bass-line, Davis sounded like nothing else around — it was erotic without seeming trashy, skillfully executed but flippant toward the proper life.

        She moved further to the left the following year, with the aptly titled They Say I'm Different. Davis was already courting controversy… read more »

        Write a Review 17 Member Reviews

        Please register before you review a release. Register

        user avatar

        Incredible !

        NeoSting

        The Funk at its excellence. 5 Stars because this album is just a must-have. It is like good wine. Older it goes, better it gets. Ah, and, be happy, with the label of this album, it is not available in my country. WHy ? don't know, maybe music is not universal (ahahah). Thanks for the Night-Internet to let me have this anyway...

        user avatar

        FUNK-O-RAMA!

        mcmurma

        I was 10 years old when this album was released and was very surprised to find that this fantastic record, this masterpiece of funk had escaped me for 35 YEARS! How the heck the did that happen? No matter, I have found it now. Right on!

        user avatar

        bitches brew

        80R6

        This is raw and nasty funk like miles davis in his 70s electric period with tough female vocals. If you are serious about your funk, you should get this record.

        user avatar

        A FUNK - SOUL MASTERPIECE !!!

        Mike-E-Dread

        The best Funk/Soul I've ever found on eMusic...or anywhere! Grab this one(&the self titled on too!) You won't regret it! Don't wait to be a "Big Freak!"

        user avatar

        Oh Yeah....Get This One Too!

        Kamaria

        The baddest joint on this one is the title track. I'm about to make it my theme song!

        user avatar

        Where did this come from?

        whenelvisdied

        It seems to have no precedent. It's some of the heaviest funk I've ever heard, and Betty's voice is raw and powerful. Just listen to the intro on "Shoo-B-Doop" or "70s blues", and you'll know whether this is for you. It was DEFINITELY for me.

        user avatar

        Baby you was too far ahead of the game

        ackneyladd

        Again I can't recommend this LP more highly - her 1st album is so tight musically you'd think that was it but this is in my opinion better, it's hard to put this music into a specific genre-sure funk it probably it's closest name but like all true great innovators it's out there on it's own same way the Miles Davis and Hendrix were, this lady was married to the former and supposedly had a fling with the latter and both of them had fine taste in music and ladies.

        user avatar

        Yowzers

        FunkdaFide

        What an awesome sound, and what a voice to match!

        user avatar

        YAY!

        jMoCantSpin

        I had this album on a tape that was dubbed from a tape that was recorded from the original vinyl and had forgotten about it since I no longer have a tape deck. I'm not a huge follower of funk specifically but this album definitely makes me want to explore it more. It is so much fun to listen to. I can't very well describe it... if you're even looking at this page you should definitely be downloading the whole album.

        Recommended Albums

        eMusic Features

        Songs for Telegraph Avenue
        1

        Songs for Telegraph Avenue

        By Sam Adams, eMusic Contributor

        Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, the central characters in Michael Chabon's sprawling Telegraph Avenue, love nothing more than records; listening to them, talking about them, savoring the whisper of an LP as it slides out of its sleeve. But for all the music it name-checks the novel, which revolves around the two owners of Oakland's rapidly obsolescing Brokeland Records, lacks its own soundtrack. So eMusic has thoughtfully provided one, syncing an album to each of… more »

        Six Degrees of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love
        0

        Six Degrees of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis: Bold As Love

        By Andy Beta, eMusic Contributor

        It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »

        Six Degrees of Outkast's Stankonia
        1

        Six Degrees of Outkast’s Stankonia

        By Hua Hsu, eMusic Contributor

        It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »

        They Say All Music Guide

        Betty Davis’ second full-length featured a similar set of songs as her debut, though with Davis herself in the production chair and a radically different lineup. The openers, “Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him” and “He Was a Big Freak,” are big, blowsy tunes with stop-start funk rhythms and Davis in her usual persona as the aggressive sexual predator. On the title track, she reminisces about her childhood and compares herself to kindred spirits of the past, a succession of blues legends she holds fond — including special time for Bessie Smith, Chuck Berry, and Robert Johnson. A pair of unknowns, guitarist Cordell Dudley and bassist Larry Johnson, do a fair job of replacing the stars from her first record. As a result, They Say I’m Different is more keyboard-dominated than her debut, with prominent electric piano, clavinet, and organ from Merl Saunders, Hershall Kennedy, and Tony Vaughn. The material was even more extreme than on her debut; “He Was a Big Freak” featured a prominent bondage theme, while “Your Mama Wants Ya Back” and “Don’t Call Her No Tramp” dealt with prostitution, or at least inferred it. With the exception of the two openers, though, They Say I’m Different lacked the excellent songs and strong playing of her debut; an explosive and outré record, but more a variation on the same theme she’d explored before. [The 2007 Light in the Attic edition includes bonus tracks.] – John Bush

        more »