WORD LISTSBetty Davis (1944–2022) Tribute ListDecember 19, 2022
By Vocabulary.com (NY)
 American singer, songwriter, and model, Betty Davis achieved fame sharing her unique persona, described as "beautiful, bold, and brash." Her modeling career included work in
Glamour,
Ebony, and
Seventeen. Then in the mid-1970s, Davis released her three most popular albums, showing a gritty funk style ahead of its time, influencing future stars such as Madonna and Prince. Flamboyant trendsetter that she was, her performance style and her sexually-oriented lyrics were considered controversial. In 1980, after her father's death, Davis retired quietly to her hometown for the rest of her life. This tribute list includes vocabulary from lyrics, articles, and biographical information.
  
incandescent
The
incandescent, influential funk musician Betty Davis, who made a string of albums in the mid-1970s that helped to shape stylish, Afrofuturist strains of funk and hip-hop, died on Wednesday in Homestead, Penn., where she had lived since childhood, according to a statement from her record label.
– NPR
funk
The incandescent, influential
funk musician Betty Davis, who made a string of albums in the mid-1970s that helped to shape stylish, Afrofuturist strains of
funk and hip-hop, died on Wednesday in Homestead, Penn., where she had lived since childhood, according to a statement from her record label.
– NPR
righteous
Sure you say your right on and you're
righteous
– Anti Love Song
deceive
You believe, he
deceives, who's to blame?
– Your Man My Man
trendy
You can call her
trendy
And superficial An elegant hustler But don't you call her no tramp – Don’t Call Her No Tramp
superficial
You can call her trendy
And superficial An elegant hustler But don't you call her no tramp – Don’t Call Her No Tramp
reprimand
Extra, extra, do you understand me?
Well, if you don't don't reprimand me – Dedicated to the Press
resurgence
An influential figure in the New York music scene in the late-Sixties, she would pen the Chambers Brothers song "Uptown (to Harlem)," which enjoyed a recent
resurgence when it featured in Questlove’s Oscar-nominated documentary Summer of Soul.
– Rolling Stone
candid
Her
candid, liberating attitudes trailblazed a path for artists like Prince and Madonna in the ensuing decade.
– Rolling Stone
presage
Certainly Davis, who released three exquisitely raw, libidinous albums in the nineteen-seventies, can be said to have
presaged more recent expressions of black female desire in popular music—for instance, Janelle Monáe's, in her new album and "emotion picture," "Dirty Computer."
– The New Yorker
extroverted
By the end of the '70s, Davis had largely exited the public eye. As
extroverted as she was on her records and on stage, Davis was far more reserved off stage.
– NPR
revelatory
Her style of raw and
revelatory punk-funk defies any notions that women can’t be visionaries in the worlds of rock and pop.
– Betty Davis Forever
stalwart
Betty's most
stalwart companions in the studio and on the road between 1974-1977 were the North Carolina band Funk House, consisting of Betty’s own first cousins Larry Johnson and Nicky Neal plus friends Fred Mills and Carlos Morales.
– Betty Davis Forever
aesthetic
Davis' whole
aesthetic as well as her approach to life is best summed up by the title song of her 1974 album "They Say I’m Different."
– Soul&Jazz&Funk
persona
The critics of the day, too, were often hard on Davis’s music, many saying that there wasn’t much of value behind the outrageous stage
persona; that Betty Davis was a triumph of style and image over substance.
– Soul&Jazz&Funk
dejected
It’s no wonder, perhaps, that a
dejected Davis quit the music business in 1979, retreating to Homestead, a small city near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she lived in quiet obscurity.
– Soul&Jazz&Funk
obscurity
It’s no wonder, perhaps, that a dejected Davis quit the music business in 1979, retreating to Homestead, a small city near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she lived in quiet
obscurity.
– Soul&Jazz&Funk |
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