The winding career path of Bettye LaVette, who learned to sing soul in the pub, brings her to Groningen

In the history of talk show The world goes on it was a special moment. Do you remember that one minute that the musical guests in that program were given, that infamous one? DWDD -minute to avoid turning that musical moment into a zap-away moment?

That was very different on the broadcast of March 16, 2015. Bettye LaVette was a guest, and she would sing the song When I Was A Young Girl to sing. Directly on television, in one minute. Preceded by a breathless promotional talk as only Matthijs van Nieuwkerk could do. Illuminated with images of the inauguration of American President Barack Obama in 2009, where Bettye LaVette sang together with Jon Bon Jovi. Not the best, that Bettye LaVette.

Only, it didn’t last a minute. Our diva was not happy with the sound, her voice, the backstage catering, she didn’t realize it was live, who knows. But most likely: the bad sound, because with Dutch bands DWDD infamous for that reason.

Raw and passionate

She stopped her tape, and again, and again. This went on for four chilling minutes – some of the most exciting minutes in the history of live television.

Especially with Van Nieuwkerk’s now infamous fits of rage in mind, the evaluation must have been a spectacle in itself. Anyway, once she got going, she sounded raw and passionate as ever.

Bettye LaVette is more than a diva with mannerisms or a brave challenger DWDD -terror, whichever comes first. She is a soul singer of the old school, with a smooth yet rough-edged voice and a messy career path.

Raised in Detroit, as Betty Jo Haskins, she made her debut in 1962 at the age of 16. She subsequently made several singles for a range of labels. Her career lacked much continuity, also due to bad luck.

Sinead O’Connor, Dolly Parton

“My entire career has been full of mistakes. When I was at Motown they were more interested in Diana Ross, and Aretha Franklin’s success got in my way when I was at Atlantic in the 1960s. I’ve always suffered from terrible timing. But record deal or not, I have always kept singing. Even though I couldn’t get out of my own city with it.”

She told me that in 2005, when I spoke to her about the album I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise. That was a beautifully soberly produced album with covers, just like the successful comeback album by professional brother Solomon Burke (and with the same producer, Joe Henry). Covers, in this case by women – Sinead O’Connor among others, and Dolly Parton.

It was only her, roughly, third album, more than forty years after that first single. That’s how winding her career path was. Of course, she missed God’s blessing, because as one of the few black vocalists of her generation, she did not learn to sing in church.

“In the 1940s my family sold illegally distilled liquor at home. There was also a jukebox there, and otherwise it was the hangovers that kept my relatives out of church. According to the cliché, good black music either comes from the church or from the pub. I am proud to come from the latter tradition. It was a raw talent that I molded myself and no one else.”

Disco ecstasy

Bettye LaVette also played a key role in the history of disco, almost unintentionally. In the creative heyday of that genre, 1978, DJ and remixer Walter Gibbons took her Doin’ The Best That I Can in hand, and the result is eleven minutes of pure dance floor ecstasy.

Gibbons was not content to simply have certain passages repeated as on most 12-inch mixes of the time (and later). No, he changed the entire arrangement, slowed it down to the edge of danceability, added his own rhythms, let instruments fade away and fall in dramatically, messed up the string parts: total madness, just what you need on a sweaty dance floor.

An absolute classic in (and outside) that genre. But star LaVette herself didn’t like it much, she said in 2005. “I sang it and when I heard it again, Mr. Gibbons had done all kinds of strange things with it. I immediately asked if I could get out of my contract. I couldn’t do much with a song like that, which contained instrumental passages of three or four minutes. But it sold well, yes.”

LaVette, now 78, also performed at the Rhythm & Blues Night in 2016. This time she is joined by Walter Trout, Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed, Barrelhouse and Danny Vera, among others.

Rhythm & Blues Night: May 11 from 4 p.m., Oosterpoort Groningen