The grapevine says that Mr. Otis might be doing some gigs around the L.A. area at some point in the future...



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Honestly....I have always heard the name, but I have no idea who Shuggie Otis is....am I a bad funk fan?

ernestsewell said:

Not bad but maybe late on him, just play his music. It's great. You know he's the original vocalist and writer behind "Strawberry Letter 23", right?

Timmy84 said:

I don't know that song.

ernestsewell said:

Here you go:





The Brothers Johnson version is the most famous version:

island letter has always been my favorite.

I like the digable planets song "For Corners", it samples it well

ernestsewell said:

Yes u do! It's one of Brother's Johnson's biggest hits.

daPrettyman said:

I listened. I don't know it. The intro hook was sampled somewhere, because I recognize that. Or at least a very similar one. I can't place it right now.

ernestsewell said:

It's been done lots of times. Tevin Campbell did it on his debut album (with "Round and Round" on it).

daPrettyman said:

And apparently Quincy Jones and Akon are covering it. Yeeeeesh.

ernestsewell said:

Yep. I don't think it's horrible, but I'm not crazy about it.

ernestsewell said:

Nope!

I never really got into him untill these past recent years myself and guess what how I really paid attention? BEYONCE and Raphael Saadiq(who threw shade @ her in his song I Know Shuggie Otis).

If you love Sly Stone, you're gonna appreciate Shuggie Otis(some call him the Sly Stone understudy but I still think he has a unique style of his own). Like Sly too, he's a real one-man-band to the truest sense. I think he played in one of Frank Zappa's album, can't remember which one though

Another cool thing about Shuggie, he's directly descended from R&B royalty, Mr.Johnny Otis who was responsible for launching Esther Phillips' career(among a long line-up of heavy duty talents of the time).

theAudience said:

He appearently released new music 2 years ago


And I haven't heard a thing about it here absured.

Also...

Harlepolis said:

Some live stuff...



...here in L.A.


90s in the first clip. The next one with Mos Def looks relatively recent.



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HamsterHuey said:

I think this was the original cover of the album then when it was re-released it got replaced with another cover.
[Edited 4/15/10 12:26pm]

Oh thank goodness for this Shuggie Otis thread. He is so overlooked

A favorite in my book for sure though. True music lovers know about him!!

http://www.7silhouetteproject.com/

Timmy84 said:

True. The re-release also has some songs off Freedom Flight, most importantly Strawberry Letter 23. So I always saw the Inspiration Information re-release as a compilation.

HamsterHuey said:

That is a handsome man!

Harlepolis said:

Harlepolis said:

"The Lord works in mysterious ways."

Harlepolis said:

I love his shoes.

Leave it to Harlepolis to pull out the GEMS!!!!

theAudience said:

I hate to say it, but I've heard some terrible things about his rare appearances in recent years .. can you shed some light on this?

theAudience said:

Hope it doesn't turn out like this :

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...158107.DTL

NuPwr319 said:

Thanx

NuPwr319 said:

Yeah, that's what I was referring to .. I admire his work, and I'd be very disappointed to learn that he's among those legends who have lost the connection to their own talent ...

MrSoulpower said:

NuPwr319 said:

Yeah, as the clips I posted and the review NuPwr319 mentioned, it hasn't been good.
I don't have any inside info as to why.

Supposedly, he's looking for musicians to do some local gigs here.
We'll see how it pans out.



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