Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Martha Davis

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Martha Davis

In my own personal big gay church there are many wings. One is dedicated to The Rockbirds - so named after a turn of phrase coined by Debbie Harry, one of the divas who resides there. These ladies raged against a very specific machine: the misogynistic heart of the corporate music business. They endured countless interviews asking them how they felt being a woman in the world of rock n' roll - the assumption being that it was exclusively a man's world. Are they the women of rock? Hell, no... they just rock! And they did it all with a singular style and unique voice.

One such diva?

Martha Davis.

Smokey, seductive and... slightly dangerous.

The vision of a siren from film noir, she planted her persona like a fingerprint on the stage of L.A.'s Madame Wong's, catapulting into the mainstream by way of a record deal and MTV. 

Was it a natural fit? Not according to her. 

With success came expectations to conform. Soon, all that had once made her edgy had been worn smooth. 

Too smooth.

Separating her from the band she loved was the final straw. She left the record label, determined to find her way back to herself, back to a time when she was...

....not tied to the earth.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic? Stravinsky.

"I remember being 8 or 9 at home and it was raining. I was wearing this yellow tutu. I push away all the furniture and rugs from the living room and put on my mom’s old 78s. One of the records was Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. When I put that on, that was the first time I ever felt like I was in outer space—like I had literally left my body. I was not tied to the earth."

"I can’t say there are particular ‘influences’ that stand out. I think various parts of all the music I love enter into my writing, from Stravinsky to Sondheim. When I write I never try to control the muse, they pretty much manhandle me. I go where they lead and sometimes they lead back in time."

"Even with that song (Only The Lonely) it was the first time we had a hit, it definitely was not what I was envisioning for myself and then as time goes on, you get a hit so they say, 'Oh, I guess this is working, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing', it became more and more in that direction MOR (middle of the road)."

"So as the career went on and the records stayed … I actually started feeling not as happy with the direction of the music. It wasn’t satisfying that weird itch, you know? That thing where you want to do something different with the music? It was very homogenous and very safe. And I don’t like safe—never have."

"I've always tried to write that way - raw, kind of lyrical. Probably thanks to Stravinsky I like to try to throw in notes that create that dissonance and that rubbing that creates tension. When you’re doing it, you’re always your own worst critic."

Only The Lonely - The Motels

Don't Tell Me The Time - Martha Davis 

Mr. Grey - Martha Davis

And one last parting shot...

"Any artist will tell you … a lot of it is hard work but a lot of it is being open to these things that are floating around. When they decide to land on you you’re a lucky person. When I wrote Only the Lonely I literally picked up my guitar and it was sitting there. It was complete in form. I wrote down the lyrics that were coming out. I wrote down the chords. Except that one little crazy high note that everyone’s so nuts for was an accident in the studio."