Betty was an incredibly rad, incredibly raw funk singer in the early 70s. For years her
albums, long out of print, have been treasured (and sampled) by hip-hop artists like
Ice Cube, Ludacris, Talib Kweli, Prince Paul, and others.

Betty wrote and produced most of her albums for Michael Lang’s label Just Sunshine.
She was friends with Hendrix and Carlos Santana and a huge part of the scene in NY,
LA and SF.

She was incredibly sexy and talented and then, sometime in the late 70s or early 80s,
she completely vanished. She disappeared from the scene, and for more than 20 years
no one knew where she was or whether she was even alive or why she disappeared.

A few years ago, John Ballon tracked Betty down on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. And
after a lot of back and forth she agreed to let Light in the Attic re-release her first two
albums.

I got back to Denver and a few days later Matt sent me advanced copies of Betty’s two
albums. I immediately put the first one on and it took my head clean off. It was like the
first time I heard Iggy Pop or the MC5 or the Velvet Underground – bands that were so
far ahead of their time that it blew your mind. There’s an old saying about the Velvet
Underground: that they only sold 1000 albums but that everyone who bought their
albums started a band.

That’s kind of like the impact Betty Davis had. She inspired a huge number of
musicians, not just hip-hop but other diverse artists like Peaches and Kim Gordon
and a host of others. She was ahead of her time, both in the kind of music she wrote
and in the way she embraced her sexuality. And the mystery around her disappear-
ance was really compelling to me: what would make a woman as confident and
cool as Betty disappear virtually into thin air and live as a recluse for almost 30
years?

So I started talking to Matt about doing a long-form documentary on Betty. He was
psyched. We contacted Michael Lang to see if he would agree to work with us (he still
owns the ultimate rights to her albums). We didn’t hear for a few days. And then one
morning I walked into the office and picked up a fax that had fallen on the floor. It was
a Letter of Intent, signed by Michael Lang.

So that’s where we are now. We’re doing research, trying to track down people who
knew Betty or played with her or who’ve been influenced by her. And the more we
get into the story the deeper the mystery becomes.

One more detail: to date, Betty has refused to appear on camera or be photographed.
So that should be interesting.

- posted 6.14.07 by Sean Leman, Director