and finally lets bring out the ohio players, since they are not only brilliant and lowdown funk but a true inspiration for prince (especially sugarfoot). my favorite albums:
- ecstasy
- pain
- pleasure
- climax
- skintight
- fire
- honey

LA funk fans take note. OHIO PLAYERS will be on the bill for
the LONG BEACH BLUES festival on Labor Day weekend.

http://www.klon.org/events/index.shtml

Nice chance to get into some new kind of grooves (if ya ain't there already).

:FRO:

Anybody wanna do this up hit me on the orgnote thingie. This is a
stone-cold party. Ain't no roof to tear off cuz it's out doors, but it's
always a blast!

PFunkjazz said:

I would join up but the funk's to far for me---

It's cool when Prince hits "Love Rollercoaster" on current tour, although he doesn't stay on it long enough.

Other favourites of mine are "Sweet Sticky Thang" and "Heaven Must Be Like This".

I have nothing but love & respect for the Ohio Players..

musicians of the HIGHEST order, they very deftly & seamlessly blended different styles of music which usually defied categorization.


I don't have too much of their pre-Skin Tight material-
in fact, I only have Rattlesnake on vinyl, but on that 1 I like "Introducing the players," "Spinning," "Varee" & the title track..

I remember being like 8 years old & just playing the Honey album over & over & over again. In retrospect, I think the fact that their music was so diverse, that laid the foundation for me to like other types of music, not just r&b/soul.
Then of course, those HOT album covers. Luckily for me, my parents dug their music as much as I did, & they never made a big deal about the (essentially) nude women on the album jackets..


Those 4 albums- Skin Tight, Fire, Honey & Contradiction are all very good albums. My favorite among those 4 would be HONEY, especially for the title track, "Fopp," "Let's love," "Sweet sticky thing" & of course "Love rollercoaster"


I especially appreciate some comments Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner made about the state of "r&b/soul" music today; he was right on it. Basically he said that this generation of performers is basically a group of non-talented, sampling hacks..
Too bad that he probably gets dismissed as a "bitter has-been" when of course he's not.

I hear that some of the surviving members still tour rather regularly.. I haven't seen them since like '92, in NW DC in this little park near Wilson High School. If I know they're coming through, I definitely will check them out.


The Ohio Players took music to a whole other, much higher level, & while I know that I have a huge amount of appreciation for their art, I wonder how much the general public does- even within the r&b community.


yeah..
nothing but love
for that group..

they had a Cool On-Line Site a few years back where they got Interviewed.I dug the Mercury Years.Alan Leeds Prince's Former Manager wrote a Cool Essay on them on there Mercury Anthology that came out in 95.the Ohio Players Hit Pay Dirt with the "Fire" Album I Read that Stevie WOnder set in the studio with them&Kicked it with them.Everyone from George Clinton to David Lee Roth ahve given them Props.I think there WestBound Era Stuff overall is Funkier Overall to Me.when Junie Morrison was the Leader.He is also a One-Man Band.Ice Cube Sampled Him "this is how we do it" TooShort,QD3(Quincy Jones's Son)Sampled His Sound alot as well in the early 90's.as much as I Dig "Love RollerCoaster" they got caught up with Pop&Disco&It Hurt them after that.I Remember Reading where SugarFoot was quoted as saying that the Early 80's was Cool Because they were Being Produced By Richard "Dimples" Fields.I Liked some of His Work but Him Producing the Ohio Players is like Brian Mcknight Producing Prince? not quite on the same page you know? Yeah I Know SugarFoot doesn't like how things are going down now in the Biz.I Agree.there Album Covers were Legendary as well.I remember barely them on 60 Minutes telling Mike Wallace why they have the Album Covers they do.SugarFoot is a Bad-Ass on Guitar.I heard about a Tape with Him&Roger Troutman that just Cooked all the way through.Cool Thread.

another nice little note: I have a copy of a 1967 downbeat mag issue with James Brown on the cover. in the interview JB was asked about new talents which he could see would get big. usually he would say things like "aint nobody better than JB". but this time he talked about a young group from cincinnati called the ohio players who will make it to a major funk act one day. that was one year before the players released their first self titled album.

mltijchr said:

Good Morning Everyone,

Yes... I agree the Ohio Players was one of the best groups in the 70's. Each one of the members were multi-instrumentalists. I loved everything about the Players. I love their background vocals. They had so much soul and could FUNK hard. Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner is a good harmonica player in addition to being a great guitarist. But a true major ingredient to the Players sound back then was the amazing drumming of James "Diamond" Williams. He really set the tone for their sound and he gave them their distinct sound. He was something else. Listen to him on "I Want To Be Free" from their 1974 album Fire. Also the Players were good on ballads, but that part of their greatness got overlooked.

BTW, I remember seeing the commerical for their 1975 album Honey during a commercial break on the Soul Train show back in 75'. The model was looking in the camera and was saying something like..."experience the tasty SWEET sound of the Ohio Players new album HONEY on Mercury Records and 8-Tracks Tapes". Then she took the jar of honey and held it above her head and took the spoon and dip it in the honey jar and poured the honey in her mouth...hence the photo on the front album cover.

Feminists protested the Ohio Players and their 1975 album cover for HONEY after it was alleged that the model got stuck to the floor with honey during the inside album jacket photo shoot. Rolling Stone magazine voted this album cover as one of the best album covers in rock history in the 90's.

CONTRADICTIONS!!!
How can anyone foget that one???
funny thing is, i always thaught 'GOOD LUCK CHARM' wsa
on that album... silly me, huh???
i try to hear FOP on a daily bassis.

Brother915 said:

Uh Huh. To Old School brothas OP is stone cold black male bondin' music. Chicks be comin' over and gettin' all uptight about the sexy-ass freaky covers. Then the lyrics & themes be flat-out raunchy (ok this was pre-Prince):


"Skin Tight" about fine-ass boooties in tight fittin' jeans.
"Streakin' Cheek To Cheek" 'bout streakin' fad of 70s
"Jive Turkey" about a chick who sleeps around a little too much (probably got knocked up too!).
"Fire" about a hot sexy babe.
"Love Rollercoaster" reveals intimate details 'bout the woman's libido.
"Sweet Sticky Thing" about a promiscuous, irresistible nympho.

OP also mellowed it out for the ladies so they wouldn't always be seen as so hard:
"Heaven Must be Like This", "Together", "Honey", "Ecstasy". "Angel", etc.

They had some hard stank funk jams too. "Fopp", "Alone", "What The Hell", "It's All Over".

Honey...is just..the shit. The cover,the music, the urban legend. Honey the song is sweet soul jazz gospel...high falsetto...and the drums? Shit. The horns...Fopp...wtf? This is funk rock at its finest hour...Fire my ass...Sugar getting guttural(rich can Fopp and so can the po). Why cant this be a long version? .Sweet Sticky Thing. Ha! A jam..the lyrics lol...you sweet sticky thing.Love it! Lets Love? It takes an L..and an O...Love Rollercoaster? Nuff said. Urban legend had it that the scream during Love Rollercoaster breakdown was the covers model screaming due to hot honey on her lol. Then the whole concept cover opening etc...everyone had this record..and those who didnt and still dont need to be pimp slapped.

yeah, Brother915..

Diamond is an AMAZING drummer, especially on "I wanna be free"

their style is so distinct..
they have this way of taking you to another place when you listen to them
& I love how all the different instruments blended together, how they augmented & accentuated each other-
especially the horn section
to me the horns are the most distinctive part of the OP sound.. from "Skin tight" to "Fire" to "Rollercoaster" to "Who'd she coo?" (a SERIOUS foot-stompin' OP jam) the horns always told me it was an OP song. On those few songs I didn't recognize right away, the horns always did it.


Then, there was of course the excellent singing, which was mostly done by "Satch" then often by Sugar..
[it's interesting how Larry Blackmon of Cameo developed (copied?) a style similar to Sugar's, then Sugar Bear from EU watered down that style even more.. nothing like the ORIGINAL..]
as good as those lead vocals were, equally impressive were the backgroud vocals, more specifically the falsetto vocals done by Billy Beck (& Diamond?) I like the falsetto singing on "Honey" of course, but also on "Together"..
my favorite Sugar lead vocal has to be "It's your night" though it seems like he's talking more than he's singing.. that's a very sensual song though..
that song has lead me to pulling down more than 1 pair of panties...
lawd..


yes, yes, yes
MAJOR, SERIOUS PROPS to
Sugar, Pee Wee, Satch, Merv, Marshall Jones, Diamond & Billy
(I know there were many other members, but this was the best lineup, in my opinion, when they made their best music..)

From an engineering standpoint, those MERCURY releases are some of the best recorded records around. Very Clean and clear with undetectable tape edits. HONEY was one of the first choices for the SUPER AUDIO CD format for this reason.

PFunkjazz said:

Mercury Records were bold for allowing the Players to release "Sweet Sticky Thing" as the first single off the HONEYalbum. That was kind of risky to choose a jazz oriented track as the leadoff single. It only went to number #33 on the top 40 pop charts but it went straight to number #1 on the R&B charts.

However,their next single "Love Rollercoaster" went straight to number #1 on the pop and R&B charts. I remember seeing Leroy and the fellas perform "Love Rollercoaster" on American Bandstand in early 76'. They had on those white glittering outfits.

OOO WEEE!!! That was a fine sister on that Honey album cover. Now if you bought the 8-track tape of this album back in 1975 you definitely missed an "added bonus". That sista in the inside album jacket for FIRE was nice too laying there with in a cloud of smoke with nothing on but a fire helmet. I remember my cousin having that album cover on his bedroom wall folded out. The CD cover format surely don't do the Ohio Players albums any justice.

Hey... thanks for all the great 70's group threads Mistermaxx and Soulpower.

mltijchr said:

I concur with this...you can tell a OP song from those Horn and yes Billy Beck be singing his behind off on falsetto. I especially like how he climaxed the end of the "Together" track. They were just good and talented...plain and simple!!!

Don't forget Mr. Walter "Junie" Morrison. He was the band leader/composer of the Ohio Players for Pain, Pleasure, and Excstacy.(Composer/voices on legendary pre-ganster rap song "Funky Worm")

He did some solo albums for Westbound, and then ended up w/ the P-Funk crew in about '76. He composed/co-composed many of P-Funks greatest songs. (check for W.Morrison or T.S. Theracon on the back of your fav. albums)

He is definately a HUGE influence on PRince. not only does he play EVERY instrument like Prince, but he was doing the sped up voice thing. His later material, especially the stuff released on George Clinton's Family Series are very religous, but in metaphoric , subtle ways.Songs like "Super Spirit" or "Triune" deal with the issue of God in non-aggressive ways. Much like Prince when hewrote songs like "I would die for you". This allows the average non-religeous fan to listen without feeling like your being preached at.

Oh, how I long for the days when Prince had an imagination and didn't have to push his ideas blatently in our faces.

I Love the Ohio Players Fire , Skin Tight, Honey albums. I Love that kind of Sexy,Hot , Funk. They are Awesome.

Thanx for the many positive replies. just curious: am I the only one who's diggin the westbound material? I think the laster albums are strong, but "honey" just cant beat "pain" or "pleasure"... only my opinion though...

soulpower said:

Of course, the Westbound years were great for them too. "Pain" used to hit hard and "Funky Worm" was super funky. Ole Grandma cutting up on that song!!!

soulpower said:

Probably less discussion because those CDs plus the Junie catalog are very hard to find stateside.( only PAIN is readily available). I got all mine on vinyl, but I usually play ORGASM for OP and THE WESTBOUND YEARS for Junie.

Things aren't exactly sweet with Armen Boladian (WESTBOUND owner) y'know. He's hemmed in with George Clinton on a shitload of legal problems with the FUNKADELIC catalog. If AB wasn't such a scum in ripping off GC & the funk mob, we'd have a full-blown reissue program in effect

like I said the only OP disc I have from the Westbound years is "Rattlesnake" & I dig that plenty..


I also have that, uh, "compilation" of EARLY OP material called "Lonely Street" but the only thing I really like on that is their KILLER version of "Summertime"..
I know this material is mostly from the 60s but the rest of this cd sounds too.. "Motownish" for me...


I've heard little else of the Westbound period, but I have seen "Pain" in the stores on cd.. that's the 1 with the man getting stabbed in the back??

There's 1 OP song from that era I hear every now & then:
I can't remember if it's called "Pleasure" or "Pain" or "Ecstasy".. it's got a mid-tempo beat, a repetitive, rumbling bass that falls & then comes back up.. I don't know if it's Satch singing or not, but the lead singer is like

"loving you, loving you.. (incomprehensible)"

& there's a background chorus that repeats some line..

that's the OP/Westbound song I want to identify & then of course buy..


in fact..
ARE ALL THE WESTBOUND ALBUMS AVAILABLE ON CD YET?
if not, WHEN will they be?


I suppose that's what I'm wating for..
I know some of it is available at cdnow.com & whatever, but I prefer to buy my music- especially the things I like the most- in an actual store..

anyway, the little that I've heard from the Westbound years sounds pretty good- & rather "unpolished" compared to their Mercury work.. but wouldn't that be expected?

mltijchr said:

PAIN, PLEASURE and ECSTASY are all worth having (even the Mercury stuff falls off after ANGEl). CLIMAX and RATTLESNAKE are collections of outtakes that Boladian had in the can when OP bolted for MERCURY. He was pimping the popularity of the group and most of the stuff is mediocre (ie "For Collector's only"). I'm not sure if he had Juine work on any finishing up, but Junie started his solo projects immediately thereafter.

Like I said no WESTBOUND reissues in the states but you can work something thru ACE RECORDS out in UK http://www.acerecords.co....abels.html.

Junie's gettin' ready to bust out allover. Here's his new website. http://www.juniemorrison.com/. It's really pretty cool with an on-line jukebox/mixer.

O-H-I-O

Also, they had Junie Morrison, who became a superfunkateer with the P-Mob. Ohio is a breeding ground of funk!!!


Peace,

JD

OHIO Players

On VH1 Soul Video channel they have been showing a clip of the OHIO Players doing a live version of Skintight. This clip is smoking. Check it out if you can. I have seen this clip at least twice a month.

laurarichardson said:

also Classic VH1 shows them performing back in the day as well.

mistermaxxx said:

What's left of the PLAYERS will be performing live at Long Beach Blues festival 08/31/02

http://www.klon.org/events/index.shtml