The Woman with the Big Bad Mouth
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IN THESE TIMES APR. 11-17,1979 23 independence has been essential By Georgia Ohr&tgas: MUSIC to her from the beginning, when she held two jobs. She counsels In conceit MilKy Jackson cftsr; married women to keep an un- wears a baby blu?; toxedo- -with- faithful man happy at home sc out the pas£s. She's heautif-. to he'll pay the rent. This isn't a con- look at, but v«is£ separates i.s:r tradiction; it's an act of sister- The woman with hood. She never questions the from other sc:.o souu sets :s is" schtisk, an tiscasny ir^sk fcr myth of the oversexed male, but rapping Eoverr-to-Lover asd sister- then she isn't a feminist; she's a to-sister with her audience. talker, talking to women, talking, She plays ihs Other Womazs cr the big bad mouth perhaps, to anyone who'll listen. the unhappy wifg, ort lately, simp- Millie plays with her audience, ly the fighting fsmls. Tal's LS.-.C" leaving men's superegos in tact and sexy, sfe,s ssn cut-talk any- Millie Jackson plays, on stage and record, and eliciting shouts of "Sing it, body but rarely chooses to prcve sister!" from women who scream it. Recently she did: J;s™ 1577 ?c."~ the Other Woman, the unhappy wife, with laughter at her jokes. As a ydor album, FssHin'" Bitchy prac- rising singer in a man's world, tically sold platisuai, sad sag p;:c- or simply the fighting female. she probably identifies with men duccd the Miilis Jackson Revss, more than most women can imag- touring througc the'South by b^s ine. Interviews identify her with with the Momssts aid a stss&cp men, too. In England a reporter comic. asked Millie the Oversexed Fe- But even whea sr,s shares tlis male, "You must have a lot of bill with a tbrss-aair. soul group, sex." She replied, "No, once she demands egstsr stage. May- every ten days is sufficient." Talk- be she hired ths Moments tc ing to me, she volunteered, "Pro- prove that it takes three as:.:, tc moting the last album, I was so handle one of her. Mi«lie corr.es busy I thought, 'Once a month across as the free woman who has is sufficient.' Tell my public I'm everything—a SSK to screw snd living a lie." She talks more free- her freedom, tec. ly about sex than any woman I Millie Jackson was working as ever met; she even brags about a model in Manhattan in the raid- not getting it. '60s when she began singing. Af- ter "Ask Me What You Wast" Facts and poses. became a modsst rhythm-and- Good sales from Feelin' Bitchy blues hit in 1972, Millie gave up proved that the Other Woman modeling. She had been singing could retire gracefully; the alburn for six years—-m Harlem, Brook- borrows some of the O.W. con- lyn, New Jersey and Coxmecticat cept, but it's not about infidelity. —about being black and about "All the Way Lover" (written by aot being Aretha Franklin. Millie a southern soul singer, Benny was not, like AreUm, the daugh- Latimore) was a national hit sin- ter of Reverend C.; although gle about having oral sex, or, to Lady Soul is no goody-goody, use Jackson's radio airplay eu- she did grow up in her father's phemism, about knowing how church. Aretha relies on her sx- to partee. "A year ago, people traordinary voice to get her mes- wouldn't admit to oral sex," she sage across; Millie, a great singer says. "Not that they weren't par- but no Aretha, vdies CG bitching, ticipating then, just that they kidding, and the good humor of wouldn't admit that they did. But an audience who's wi!!mg to go I find especially among the blacks, along with her changes. with Feelin' Bitchy, they're ad- Fk'om the first, her music askaa mitting to it more freely, 'Oh yes, angrily, "Are you on my side? I partee,' because it sounds bet- Because I have & problem Lo share ter. Before they didn't know how with you." In a style that would to express themselves." become characteristic, she rapped., Totally in character—some- sang verse, chorus, verse, asd what self-righteous, and impa- rapped a little nicre. She sane "A tient, too: "One black writer said Child, of God (ft's Hard to Be- I embarrassed my entire record lieve),"'' putting clcwrj the losers company and him by discussing among her ows. people and hypo- oral sex in depth. But, urn, being crites who prolonged the agony. the person 1 am I told him to kiss It wasn't hard to convince peopie where I sit and asked was that she was right even -when the truth oral enough for him." hurt—that was something she Get It Outcha System, her lat- learned to do very early. With the est album, doesn't use the O.W. economy of the best popular song- schtick at all. "Keep the Home writers, she could break your Fires Burnin'," also by Latimore, heart with her pen its 25 words or and its accompanying Jacksonian less. Supported by a steady Mem- sermon, "Logs and Thangs," phis rhythm section sx.d soprano ternational star by making re- tour-de-force; she was sometimes sex; it was a familiar fantasy. Be- takes up most of side one. The back-up, Jacksos. borrowed ihs marks like "My dad called me a nasty, sometimes hilarious, al- ing beautiful, talkative and sexy second side is a scenario in which intensity of gospel but reserved dog just because I stole his televi- ways a know-it-all, and the shoe herself, Jackson effortlessly com- Millie falls in love with a musi- the podium for herself. She was sion." She credits Richard Pryor fit. At least it sold records. A municates this fantasy. cian, is betrayed, fools around a especially hard on women, but "or a lot, for proving "you could woebegone triangular love story, Jackson's genius was making little herself, and gets him back, she did not apologize for being say anything in the world and no- "I Don't Want to Be Right" be- the Other Woman not just desir- only to wish him well as he leaves one. She was the competitive type. body would get offended." came her theme song; she still able but a plausible role model. the tour. She trafficks in roman- In the style of s minister, cr In 1974, Jackson was nomi- sings it as though she wrote it her- The O.W. defended a woman's tic happy endings now; when I James Brown for that matter, she nated for a Grammy for her ver- self, embellishing it with Pryor- right to good sex, and suggested, first heard this one, it didn't jive combined singing and shouting sion of Luther Ingram's ballad, ish raps, one of which concludes usually on the "A" side of her with her character. with telling it iike it was. But sfee "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I in an epiphany at the laundro- records, all the other advantages Wait a minute, I thought, Mil- resembled more than anyone else Don't Want to Be Right." The mat: the best thing about loving of her lifestyle, from the ridicu- lie wouldn't settle for a guy who'd the comedian who became an In- Other Woman became Millie's a married man is that you don't lous to the realistic; on payday chose his career over her. She'd have to wash anyone's funky her man would come over and get a man who'd stay at home! of the earth. drawers but your own. give her a little off the top, and Logs and thangs! Then I real- Some of the asexual, preachy Millie made concept albums: she liked that. ized that the singer going off to Herlam quality of the book may be the Caught Up, Still Caught Up, and On the "B" side of her records, pursue his career was really her. consequence of Gilman-the-prop- Feelin'Bitchy were the big sellers. Continued from page 22. usually, she spoke as the wife, de- Millie the financially independent agandist's attempts to reach a When she acted "normal"—Free fending her right to good sex, and woman, the only black woman in tals. Oilman was not an anarchist isainstream audience in 1915. and in Love, Lovingly Yours, her argued that if things were right the industry to her knowledge but Herland, like most Utopias, Much of the book's blandness re- albums stiffed. Yet there's an between wife and husband, the who doesn't have a manager be- • offers its readers the appeals of a flects a grim part of her own char- evolving introspective voice on O.W. wouldn't be around to cause "All he does is find some- stateless, decentralized society. aster, the sad consequence of Lovingly Yours, the one that sings make a record. She presented a body to book you and okay the However excsHsst and sor.- 'years of over-work with little "You Can't Turn Me Off (In the better case for marriage than dates, so I don't figure it's neces- crete many of HsrisniE's '?"iis':s credit and few peers. Middle of Turning Me On)"—a most monogamoids, and almost sary to give him 2D percent of my policies may be, CiissE rsl:es c- Oilman merits attention and re- woman who's decided she doesrf't in spite of herself.