“THINGS changed after Betty Davis,” says Greg Errico. “And she was a big part of that change.” Armed with a “proto-punk” vocal style, sexually explicit lyrics, a domineering stage presence and simmering funk-rock, Davis was too confrontational to ever be a star in the 1970s, but her influence still reverberates half a century after her debut album, and a year after her death.
A teenage model raised in Pennsylvania, Betty Mabry had had an unsuccessful stint recording for Columbia before marrying Miles Davis in 1968. She led him towards contemporary funk and fashion modes; he put her on the cover of Filles De Kilimanjaro. She left Miles after a year of violent marriage and spent time in London before decamping to America’s West Coast to map out her debut album. Originally planning to work with Santana, she pivoted when she met former Sly & The Family Stone drummer Greg Errico. “She was telling me she’d done a few things previously that she wasn’t happy with musically,” says Errico. “She really had a clear image in her mind of what she wanted. She wanted some of that Sly influence of what we were doing back then.”
Errico duly assembled a powerhouse Bay Area A-team featuring current or former members of Santana, Sly & The
