Betty Davis

Betty Davis was a musical maverick with a vision. Imagine substance, sex, and grit combined with a badass band that could deliver the funk bed backbone to the sultry music between the sheets. On October 6th Light In The Attic Records will release the never before heard (and never bootlegged) lost album Is It Love Or Desire, as well as reissue the classic third release Nasty Gal.

Ahead of it’s time in 1975, Davis’ unapologetically uncompromising, self-referential album Nasty Gal showed her digging deeper into her musical and cultural expression that ever before. Riding high with a new record label, a series of high profile relationships, and an intensely sexualized live performance, Davis was poised to take the world by storm. From the title tracks mutant groove to the ballad co-written by one-time husband Miles Davis, Nasty Gal is Hendrix and Sly Stone inspired funk-rock at it’s finest.

Is It Love Or Desire (1976), on the other hand, is a little known gem in the Davis catalog. After cutting Nasty Gal for Island Records, Davis recorded her most personal and expressive record to date at Louisiana’s remote Studio In The Country. Unfortunately a creative difference with the label caused the record to be unexpectedly shelved and was never released to the public… Now, thirty-plus years later, Light In The Attic is proud to announce that Betty Davis’ time has arrived!

Both mastered from the original tapes, Is It Love Or Desire features detailed liner notes by Oliver Wang (Soul Sides), the originally intended risqué artwork housed in a lavishly packaged digipak, rare photos, archival material, and recent interviews with Davis and her skin-tight band Funk House; while the Nasty Gal re-release features new liner notes by John Ballon (Wax Poetics 2007 Davis cover story), original album art, complete lyrics, rare photos, and interviews, all housed in a beautiful foil-stamped digipak.

These releases cement this bold soul sister’s undeniable contributions to music and popular culture. Long live Betty Davis!