Millie Jackson: Millie Jackson (1972)

Georgia-born, New Jersey-raised soul singer Millie Jackson is better known for her dirty mouth than her Gladys Knight-like voice, and she clearly doesn't mind, but she shouldn't be dismissed as an exploitative joke. At her best she's a canny writer/producer and an intelligent, passionate performer, and she did pioneer the raunchy "tellin' it like it is" patter for which she's infamous. Her 1972 debut is one of the freshest albums of her career, her style remarkably mature and the sound an infectious blend of '60s soul influences (from Motown to Stax to early Philly soul). Even though the arrangements are done north of the Mason/Dixon line (in New York by Bert DeCoteaux, and in DC by Tony Camillo), the record feels like it was lifted off the pressing plant in Muscle Shoals or Jackson. Millie is just as tough and aggressively honest here as she would be on her breakout, 1974's Caught Up, and songs like ‘I Ain't Giving Up’ and ‘I Miss You Baby’ are of the same high caliber. She injects the perfect measure of anger and genuine confusion into the hypocrisy fable ‘A Child of God (It's Hard to Believe)’ (her first R&B hit) and has no trouble switching gears for the affectionate ‘My Man, a Sweet Man,’ with a driving bassline and handclaps making direct connections to the classic Motown sound. The biggest hit here was another love song, the swinging ‘Ask Me What You Want,’ her second R&B Top Ten entry. Even though it never came together quite like Caught Up, Jackson's first LP introduced a major talent to the R&B world. ~ http://www.answers.com/
ee
Millie Jackson singing 'Hurts So Good' (Soul Train '73):

ee