“In order to get something
You got to give something
In order to be something
You got to go through something
Be a cook in the kitchen, a lady in the streets
You can't show your teeth to every guy you meet
It's alright to be a little sweet
But be a mama with the kids and you know what in the sheets”— Betty Wright
Without artists like Betty Wright, there probably would not be a Beyoncé or a Megan Thee Stallion. Wright, the Grammy-winning R&B singer is known for her hits such as “The Clean Up Woman,” “No Pain, No Gain” and “Tonight is the Night,” died of cancer on May 10 at age 66.
Wright is just one of the music legends, including Little Richard, Ellis Marsalis, Bill Withers, and Andre Harrell to transition during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wright, the first black woman to score a gold record label on her own label, was one of the architects of the black female storytelling tradition, a line of soulful lyricists and performers who paved the way for empowered singer/songwriters such as Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Megan The Stallion.
In the 1970s, my cousin Valerie had a massive vinyl collection; shelves and shelves of R&B records that took up most of the living room space in her tiny Pasadena home. That’s where I discovered the legendary Betty Wright.
I spent many summer vacations exploring Valerie’s vinyl collection; and one evening, she played a record that caught my attention. My cousins and I giggled under the covers when we heard the lyrics. I call it the teenager’s guide to losing your virginity. The correct title is “Tonight is the Night.” https://youtu.be/M3VklaglsEU. The melody is as engrained in my memory as the lure of the ice mid-afternoon cream truck on sweltering southern California summers.
My 13-year old mind had not even begun to grasp concepts such as the blues aesthetic, black feminist thought or the sexual power of the divine feminine. To me, the song was nasty and sweet at the same time, something we had to sneak and listen to. The 1974 hit combined spoken word and music, making Wright one of the first female rappers, before Teena Marie started talking square biz.
Basically, the song is about a young woman waiting for her lover to come over so that they can make love for the first time.
On the actual record, Wright sets up the song with a narrative of presenting the song to her mother before releasing it to the public.
“Now I never intended recording this song
It was a personal poem
That is until the day that my producer
Happened to thumb through the pages of
my notebook
He came across the words and he said
We got something with these words
It’s happening every day
And people wanna hear about it Betty
“Tonight’s the Night” was a savage track even in the seventies. Classy, bourgie, rachet. Tonight’s the night that you make me a woman...
“Oh,but what if my mama should come home early
And catch us doin' what we're doin'
Not only will I never live it down
But my whole family relationship it'll all be ruined
But we've gone a little bit too far now
Oh, to turn around
So let's just pray
That true love is what we've found…”
This was the first song I’d heard that depicted the art of seduction from a woman’s point of view.
As for “ The Clean Up Woman,” https://youtu.be/r0ssMVL9I1Q, written when she was just 17, well, it’s basically a woman’s guide on how to keep your man once the seduction phase is over. In the song, Wright confesses to losing her man to the clean up woman.
“I took this man's love and put it on a shelf
And, like a fool, I thought I had him all to myself
When he needed love, I was out havin' fun
But I found out that all I had done
Was made it easy for the clean up woman…”
Imagine how cute the video for “Clean Up Woman” would be in post-pandemic culture, where sanitizing is the new sexy.
As for “No Pain, No Gain,”https://youtu.be/9KZG3O5sW; it is sort of an instructional guide to maintaining a healthy relationship so that you do lose your lover to the clean up woman. Wright says that you have to be a lady in the streets and a you know what in the sheets. I can only guess that you know what was 1970s code for what Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion boastfully call a savage. A savage. The two young women have taken the objectification on the black female body and a stereotype that grew out of the transatlantic slave trade, and used it as a term of empowerment, a badge of honor.
Oakland based producer Larry Batiste paid tribute to his friend in a recent Facebook post.
“In one of our conversations, I asked, how did she come up with the idea for the song ‘Clean Up Woman’ at the age of 15,” said Batiste. “She said that she used to eavesdrop on her mom and aunties’ gossip before they would catch on and shoo her out of the room. She said the words just flowed onto the page.”
LEGACY
In her later years, Wright was called upon to mentor artists such as Diddy, Joss Stone and DJ Khaled. I’m gonna miss Betty Wright, with her sultry contralto and sharp wit. Without her; there would probably be no 5/9/20 love fest between Jill Scott and Erykah Badu on Instagram.
“Man, having Sister Betty get out of here really hurts,” said dj and music historian Harry Duncan, who hosts the radio show, “In the Soul Kitchen” on KCSM. “I play more of her music on my show than almost any other woman soul singer. I am very familiar with her history as an artist, songwriter and creative catalyst in the whole Miami soul sounds of the ’70s and I talk about her and her contributions. We just have to enjoy each other and be grateful for every day we’re here.”
