I'm so glad I held on to my Wax Poetics issue profiling Sugar & the guys.

He was one of the top musical figures creating the soundtrack to my life and will be greatly missed but always remembered.

I saw them several times in their 1970s peak and also during the late 1980s when they regrouped. It was close, but they were my favorite band just slightly ahead of P-Funk and Earth, wind & Fire. Back then in my circles, the OP-EWF rivalry was akin to Michael Jackson vs. Prince in the 1980s.

Here is something I wrote some time ago: http://wfnk.com/ohioplaye...pedia.html. Hope you like it.

RIP, Sugar, LAWD!

Scott

http://www.youtube.com/wa...zduixvIVAk

it kinda describes how i feel

Identity said:

I'm so glad I held on to my Wax Poetics issue profiling Sugar & the guys.

Proud owner also

I also spent my last dollar and bought this magazine last year.

HuMpThAnG said:

Identity said:

I'm so glad I held on to my Wax Poetics issue profiling Sugar & the guys.

Proud owner also

theAudience said:

A friend sent me a text with the news while I was at NAMM...



...I Want To Be Free



And he finally is...



Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

I like this.

What we really need is a vintage full-length concert DVD to be released for the Ohio Players. Overall, they have not received the same due given to peers like P-Funk and Earth, Wind & Fire, they themselves not given equal due of similar white/rock bands of the era like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Kiss, and couuntless others.

I remember there was a Midnight Special aired in the 1970s that was at least a complete hour of only the Ohio Players. A guy I knew recorded it onto cassette tape and played that horrible sounding thing all the time, monoral with an annoying buzz and all. I belive clips of that performance might be in circulation but where is the entire thing?

I hope someone steps forward to release something, and soon.

Peace,

Scott

There's a really good bootleg DVD that's been circulating for a few years now. Mostly Don Kirshner Rock Concert footage with a Musikladen performance:

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert - Oct 11, 1974
Jive Turkey
Heaven Must Be Like This
Skin Tight

Musikladen - May 5, 1975
Fire

DKRC - February 14, 1976
Love Rollercoaster
Fire
Sweet Sticky Thing
Honey

DKRC - Oct 22, 1976
Love Rollercoast
Who'd She Coo?
Fire

DKRC - Sept 10, 1977
Merry Go Round
Love Rollercoaster
Angel
I Don't Want To Be Alone
O-H-I-O

2elijah said:

MadamGoodnight said:

The Ohio Players had some funk jams for sure, but I also loved thier slower songs: Heaven Must Be Like This, I Want To Be Free, & Sweet Sticky Thing. They were my faves along with Skin Tight, Love Rollercoaster, Fire, Pain, and I listen to them often. My older family members listened to the records back in the day. It sounded soooo good when I heard it as a child, and it still sounds the same now. Much respect!

[Edited 1/28/13 7:51am]

Lawd you just brought back some memories with those tracks listed. Just hearing the words 'Ohio Players' and you knew you would get good music. 'Skin Tight' reminds me of my young summers and all my friends listening to the Ohio Players' music.

Good times indeed! Their music always takes me back.

hardwork said:

mltijchr said:

wow, now Sugarfoot.

absolutely 1 of the ALL-TIME BEST.

very distinctive voice that was both rough & smooth. his vocals made the music funkier & rawer when that was needed.. but also smooth when that was more appropriate.

for someone from Ohio - typically considered "north" - Sugar had an impressive southern drawl on many of his songs. his trademark "aww" has been imitated by many - Larry Blackmon from Cameo & Sugar Bear from EU (whom I think was just imitating Blackmon)

SO many great performances on vinyl. among my favorites/right off the top of my head:

+ "I wanna sleep with you tonight!" & subsequent hearty but devilish laugh near the end of "it's your night/words of love"..

+ his entire vocal in "I wanna be free" - "I don't need yo lovin' no mo"..

+ "they say that I'm mean and I'm evil ('evo').. aw girl.. oh but how else can a stubborn man be?"

this might be my all-time favorite vocal from Sugar..

then of course his guitar playing.. I can't begin to describe how BRILLIAN it was.yet he made it look totally effortless.a case could be made that he was underrated as a guitarist..

he was 1 of the few "old school" singers/musicians who was openly critical of rap music. justifiably so, for the most part. I have the impression that most of his criticisms fell upon deaf ears..

"one of a kind" is an overused expression.it totally applies to Sugarfoot.rest in peace my funky, soulful brother.

I will wear out my OP titles over the next several days.

I am from Ohio and will say this: The great migration of blacks out of the South into the North from the 20s thru the 50s had a certain sort of logic to it. Blacks from Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana came to California. Blacks from Virginia and the Carolinas came up to New York, Philly and Boston. Blacks from Mississippi and Alabama came to Chicago and Detroit. Not universally true of course, but something of a hazy general pattern of the migration. Now since the migration was (mostly) based upon jobs - better jobs - a lot of blacks that ultimately were headed for Detroit wound up finding work in the Cincinatti and Dayton Ohio areas (as well as other areas of Ohio)and they wound up staying and then bringing family and friends up with them. Thank God that they did because the music that came out of the Dayton, OH area in the 70s - made by the children of that migration - is funky without precedent. Hence Sugarfoots strong Southern voice and tracks like "Far East Mississippi" (which I intend to jam all evening.) And speaking of "borrowing" from Sugarfoot, let us not forget Chunky A!!

[Edited 1/28/13 19:05pm]

Great posts! So on point! ^^^ Also, this describes my fam, and that of many people that I know.

Look at all the love up in here for Sugarfoot!

Bootsy sent out a message reminding folks of his collaboration with Sugarfoot and Herbie Hancock...

...Vibe Alive

Hello friends & funkateers. I know most of you have not seen this video, so I wanted to send it out in dedication to my friend "Sugarfoot" whom we very resently lost.

He will be missed by our generation & Generations to come. I took "Sugarfoot to New York to record this track with "Herbie Hancock in 1988.

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

I remember the Vibe Alive record with Herbie Hancock. I actually

had that 12 inch. I probably still have it somewhere.

Sugar reformed the Ohio Players around this time and actually

remade a funkier version of Vibe Alive on their album Back.

this was just a silly game girl...we were playin... playin...ay ay eee.... ooo oooh....i will even take tha blame...hear what i'm sayin chile?... Play on... Sugar play on....R.I.P.

The Ohio Players 1975 Interview

Over the past year or so, I can't think of a group who has made as much impact on our music as the Ohio Players.

Since switching from Westbound to Mercury, the Players have turned out two chart-topping albums, both of which have sold in excess of two million dollars worth of business. And they are the only soul group to ever have two consecutive albums topping the American pop charts — an honour usually reserved for the likes of Elton John et al. But now comes the all important third Mercury set.

The album will be released shortly and will bear the name of "Honey". "Yes, we've changed the sound a little from 'Fire' and 'Skin Tight'," explained Satch Satchell, the group's demonstrative spokesman during a break in the finishing stages of readying the album tapes for their journey to Mercury's prestigious offices overlooking Lake Michigan in Chicago. "I think you'll find that the beat is more subtle and that there is a definite progression in what we are doing. On one track for example, there is only a piano and guitar plus Sugar's vocal — it's almost a folk song, really!"

The last time we spoke to Satch was just prior to their highly successful London concert and he mentioned that the group had been so impressed with their first trip to the eastern shores of the Atlantic that he felt the trip would have a bearing on their next recording session. "Yes, the trip was an inspiration behind this album," Satch proudly insisted. "The material stems from our feelings gathered during the European tour. I even think that you'll find the album more easily appealing to European ears — I wouldn't say we recorded it specifically for the European market but it is a fusion of what is instilled in us and what we learned during that tour. In every album we do, you'll find a part of us built into it. It deals with our trials and tribulations of that particular period and though we do deal with the man to woman type of love, we strive to adopt a more overall theme of love."

I next learned that the album does include one track with an interesting title — "Sweet Little Sticky Thing" — and I had to demand an immediate explanation from the jovial Satch. "Well, we were going to call it 'Dr. Jazz' at one time,' he laughed aloud, immediately after the suggestion was put to him that the song should be offered to the Commodores as their follow-up to "Slippery When Wet"! "But the song is a very serious comment on how some women allow themselves to be used and then not really show any real sense of even caring. You know the type of girl that allows herself to be wined and dined for the obvious outcome. But one day they meet someone and almost wish they didn't have that background behind them — but it's too late."

So, how many tracks will "Honey" boast? "We've actually cut ten new tracks," Satch replied, "but they're all long so we'll probably end up with seven or at the most eight. The rest will go in our ever growing can — you know, there are still three or four cuts left over from both "Skin Tight" and "Fire". But we'll have selected which ones will be included within the next few days and we'll be sending the finished product to the company. There's one track that has a sort of Otis Redding type lead that should definitely appeal to Europe, by the way. And we're hoping to be back over your way towards the end of September — by which time the album will have been released and we'll know if the people like it."

Even if you don't happen to approve of the Ohio Players music, you can't ignore their unusual sleeve concept — over the years it has ranged from shaven-headed girls with whips to kinky firegirls so it was a fairly natural question on our part to try to get an insight into the sleeve concept for this new album. "Well, the sleeve depicts a lady with a jar of honey in one hand," Satch began, obviously proud of his latest creation. "Between where her legs are there is a picture of the group and in the other hand she is holding a spoon with honey dripping into her mouth. The whole sleeve has honey all over it. The actual idea came from my backyard! We had intended to call it "Do You Understand" but I've been having a running feud with these bees for the past few months and it's a kind of tribute to their endurance. We like to use a 'heavy' type of word for the sleeve because it's so much more powerful. But these bees were almost as determined to get me out of my home as I was to get them out of theirs so I gave them this award for persistence!"

To coincide with this new album, Satch has also completely renovated the group's stage act, too. "We've always felt that the visual appearance is at least as important as our music when it comes to concerts," Satch explained, obviously happy that another of his favourite subjects should have come up during the interview. "As it looks today, we'll have our bass players sitting on a pyramid with our drummer in a jungle scene. Sugar (the guitar star) will be standing in front of a tepee, Red Indian type scene. The front guys (brass and vocals) will be in front of huge mirrors and there will be carpet on the floor and a completely new form of lighting. The whole thing will open up like what we think a realistic scene from Hell would be like. The whole backdrop will be a skyline to a typically American city.''

''Yes, I've done a fairly accurate costing and if it's done properly it should cost $4500 or so. But since we could take most of the props with us wherever we go, the cost would only be at the beginning and all we would need each time would be little improvisations. This way, we feel we are helping you to take your own dreams a little farther. And the ending will be total chaos — with bubbles blowing everywhere and a big neon sign at the back flashing O-H-I-O. Remember — Einstein had imagination and look where he ended up!"

You can't really follow that, can you?

The Ohio Players 1976 Interview

Link

It had to be more than just coincidence. Here I was in Ohio Player Satch Satchell's luxurious hotel suite overlooking Grosvenor Square writing for our 200th issue which would be on the streets on July 4, 1976 — which, for those of you who have been dead for about a year, marks the 200th birthday of the good old U.S. of A.

And to add to the coincidence, was it not the Ohio Players who had scooped in with the first soul acknowledgement of America's birthday. "Bicentennial"?

"We just wanted to contribute a song or something to our country's birthday." Satch confessed. "Sure, there were reservations at the time because we had to be careful that it didn't come over as a phoney, right? But for our part, it's a genuine effort to show how much we love our country.

"The actual cutting of the record is something different, though Jones, our bass player, and Billy, our pianist, were just messing around in the studio and it came over so well that Sugar, the guitar player, just told the engineer to switch the machine on and start cutting. We immediately felt that this would be ideal for our birthday song, it was so pretty. In fact, we ended up doing very little to that basic idea and there are no drums or horns on the track to this day.

"I think we added some percussion just for effect but it has a natural rhythm just in the bass and keyboard tracks. We call it the heartbeat of the Ohio Players but it's easily the most natural track we have ever cut.

"And I'll tell you something else — it was the very last cut we did for the album and, we had three things in mind and we couldn't make up our minds what to do. But when Billy came up with the idea to hum the melody — you know, almost like the old slave dirge singing — that told us this was the one to stick with.

"That's the way it is with our songs all the time — we put them together in the studio and as we go along. It's been that way ever since "Sleep Talk" and I'll tell you how it happened.

"We were ready for a session when Junie Morrison was pulled away from the group — so we were left with studio time booked and we didn't want to waste it so we just started improvising and it's been that way ever since. Yes, I guess it'll always be that way unless we end up cutting another act. Then we may have to change our routine.

"But 'Bicentennial' just fell into place — and on the very last night because we probably would have ended up using an instrumental track, I think.

"The funny thing is, though, that when it was finished. I told myself: 'Now here's a song that everybody will play for the year' and I felt real proud. But it didn't work out that way because when the radio stations got the album, they immediately went for the funky, uptempo things because that's the way they know us. And people want to dance to our music and they can't dance to 'Bicentennial', right?

"But it'll be a sleeper! That's why I had it put on the flip of the single. It's a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing to do because to do something like that, you have to be motivated. And I wanted to celebrate my country's birthday in the only way I know how.

"It's the first time we have ever involved ourselves in anything political or where we have tried deliberately to get a message across. But then that is the basis of the whole album and that's why it's called 'Contradiction'.

"Right now, that's the way the world is — in a state of confusion and where people are continually contradicting themselves. And I'll tell the truth — there is contradiction within the group, too. And I stopped and asked myself: 'Am I making a sincere effort to be a better person?' Or 'how often do I deliberately go out of my way to make a friend?'

"You see, the concept of the group has always worked on the fact that we are one big family. You know that from the number of interviews you've done with us over the years — we've never changed, right? But today I have some money and a little power at my fingertips which I didn't used to have. Am I making the best use of these things?

"No, I'm more frustrated today than I have ever been in some ways. I'm only dedicated to moving from town to town and even when I'm home I get bottled up like a cat. I can feel it!

"Yet I love my home. I love my home town. Dayton. But I can't be bottled up! I guess we're like evangelists and we have to go from place to place to spread our gospel." ON A similar theme, I know that the Ohio Players have always had trouble convincing their home town fans that they are now international superstars.

"Lord, yeah," Satch exclaimed. "They love us everywhere but in Ohio! But it's that way with every act, I now know. Take the Temptations — put them back in Detroit and nothing happens.

"It's hard to convince someone you sat next to at school that you've got talent. He may have had a better IQ and so he automatically thinks you're lucky and that it should have been him, right?"

But the Ohio seven don't just talk about doing nice things — they actually get down and do them. For example, a few weeks ago they went out in the pouring rain in Chicago for a charity walk in aid of the March of Dimes fund.

"Right, there were thousands of kids and they all walked around set routes around the city in aid of the charity." Satch rather modestly explained. "And we drove around the city for the whole day — seeing them at their check points or just stopping the limousine and walking along with them.

"You know, Chicago is the largest chapter for the charity and we were proud to be involved with it. Sure, it took the whole day and we got soaked — but that ain't a lot to give up, is it? It's things like that that made us do 'Bicentennial'."

I really had to dig deep to prise out the fact that the guys are financing the building of a new wing at the Barney's Children's Hospital in Dayton. "It'll take about four to five million dollars to complete and what we're doing is making sure that the money keeps coming in," Satch pointed out.

"Things like that are always on my mind — you know, we have never been self-indulgent but it's only now that we have the resources to get involved in that kind of project. And we do our best to do it in a semi-anonymous way. That way, we can't be accused of being a bunch of fly black cats with too much money!

"But even that has gone against us! We recently bought a baseball team in the little league locally. But they just happened to be all white and some of the local black folk complained because they weren't black. But when we bought the franchise, we didn't ask what colour the guys were! Still, they have won three trophies for us since we became involved so that's something.

"I guess it doesn't always look right to be right. But we have started doing charity concerts now, too. A society was formed called OPWAX — it stands for…(ug!)…Ohio Players Women's Auxiliary something or other! Through it, we were able to arrange to get little extras for various charities. You know, things that were outside of their regular budget.

"We have a special favourite and that's in helping schools for retarded children because that goes right across the line and they really need all the help they can get."

GETTING back to the Bicentennial question, I asked Satch if he was happy that, after 200 years. America was on the right track.

"I'd say so," he said without hint of hesitation. "I'd say it's evolving as it was planned to do. There really isn't another place in the world that you can go to and see red, black and white folk living together in any kind of harmony.

"The U.S.A. really is a melting pot and it's the only one in the world. I'd like to see the people more willing to recognise the black heritage, though, but I guess that's because I'm black. Every other ethnic group in America gets recognition — take an Irish guy, for example. He may talk the same, dress the same but he's always Irish and you can't take that away from him. I guess that kind of evolution is the only thing I'd like to see happen.

"But America really is trying. I like the way that today, for example, we're going out of our way to make our heroes real people. We keep them as heroes but make them to be real human beings who have the same problems that we have.

"Sure, there'll always be room for John Wayne. There'll never be another John Wayne — he's a pioneer. You hear stories that he is prejudiced but I love him just the same. And that's the way I feel about James Brown. He's a pioneer, too.

"He kept standing up there and saying and doing the same thing over and over again until he got his message through. I'm proud of what he has achieved as a black American. To me, James Brown is like an…Abe Lincoln…or a John Wayne! But then I'm proud of being American.

"It took coming abroad to show me just how much I love my country. But I'm also proud to acknowledge England as the mother country.

"It's funny but even as a black American. I feel a strange sort of affinity with being in England — and it isn't only just the language. I guess the two countries are like two friends who start out together and along the way they separate — but because the friendship is so deep, it can't be destroyed."

The bit about James Brown intrigued me. To think of John Wayne, James Brown and Abe Lincoln seemed sort of sacrilege to me…and I won't say in which way because I might face being ostracised by my own people!

"James Brown has been, like I say, a pioneer. He was someone for young cats like us to look up and respect and I'll always have respect for the man for what he has achieved.

"Lord, I've got James Brown to thank for putting food on my table many a time because before we made it, we were just a straight stand-up James Brown imitation group. That's why I say we could, even to this day, include a straight Brown funk on our next album.

"Back in '68, it was James Brown who told us that there can only be one James Brown and that we should go off and be the only Ohio Players. Man, I can tell you that that hurt at the time — but he was right, man, he was right.

"He thought we were fine and he was flattered that we should want to imitate him. You know, we even had a guy singing with us then who looked like James. His name was Edmund Weedon — but because James and Bobby Bland were our two idols at the time, we called him Bobby Brown. So, we have James Brown to thank for that.

"And we thank the O'Jays — who come from Ohio, too. For years, we were their back-up group and we learnt a great deal from them. Then we got a lot from being around the guys at Funkadelic and Parliament when we were first with Westbound. We were new then and those guys were the superstars — but they helped us and we'll never forget it."

AND SO to the obvious question of the "Contradiction" album and are the guys happy with it. I was doubly happy to find them refreshingly honest about it and that my own estimation of the album tallied almost exactly with Satch's.

"At first, no — we were not satisfied with it. I'll be honest," Satch said after a brief hesitation. "But the more I listen to it, the happier I get and I end up by asking myself that if it had been an immediate reaction, it would have left nothing to come. And if the message was that easy to discover, then we hadn't achieved our own goal.

"But it's funny — as soon as I brought the dub back from New York, we all saw ways that we could have done things better. It's always that way.

"For example, we originally were going to do two more vocal phrases on "Who'd She Coo" but we never got around to doing it so we let it go. And we never put the horns on "Far East Mississippi". I guess we're never really satisfied but we had to let it go.

"It's like a mother and baby you have to get to a time when you have to just let it go. But we'd hate to be the type of band where you can just come home and put the record on and get instant satisfaction. We want you to have to listen to what we are doing because that way we know we have succeeded."

And I couldn't let the subject of "Contradiction" drop without asking about the sleeve. I mean, a naked woman, a horse and an apple!

"Hmmmmm!" the album's brainchild designer, Mr Satchell, mumbled! "It's Beauty and the Beast! No, it's really what the album is all about — it's a contradiction. You can form your own opinion, really. Even the guys in the group wanted to know what it was all about and I told them the same thing. I guess it reflects the world we live in."

And so to the British tour. Was it a refreshing change for the group to play to relatively small crowds again?

"Oh, yeah!" Satch smiled. "It's just like the old days all over again, man. We love it — once we got used to it! And that took some time."

FINALLY, keeping up the Bicentennial theme, I asked Satch what he would most like to see happen in America over the next two hundred years. "Just like it says in the record," he replied, clear as a bell. "The actual words sum it all up…Bicentennial, make a friend y'all; Love your mother, trust your brother; Have faith in one another. They are genuine sentiments. That's our spirit for '76 and we say it the only way we know how through our music.

"We hope that America pioneers true harmony — and, like our music, it takes more than one note to make a perfect chord. So, it'll take more than one race to make for perfect harmony."

I am one of the biggest Sugarfoot & the Ohio Players fan that they dont know personally. I heard that when they came to perform live in riverdale,georgia back in june 2012 last year that it was so good that people were still talking about it a week later and how Sugarfoot signed autographs and 45s. I missed this show but I have most of their important albums.

Im glad that I saw the legends of funk tour with Sugarfoots Ohio Players,the barkays,confunkshun,the dazz band, and slave back in august 2009 but I really hated that I missed them when Sugarfoot's ohio players performed in riverdale,georgia last year in june.

[Edited 2/2/13 14:43pm]

Sugarfoots Ohio Player live:

https://www.youtube.com/w...CYU8JxbF0Y

outsideofthebox said:

Sugarfoots Ohio Player live:

From the left:

William ''Billy'' Beck - keyboards, vocals

Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner - Guitar, vocals (deceased)

Marshall ''Rock'' Jones - bass

James ''Diamond'' Williams - drums, vocals

Ralph 'Pee Wee' Middlebrooks - sax, trumpet (deceased)

Clarence ''Satch'' Satchell - sax, flute, vocals (deceased)

Marvin 'Merve' Pierce - trumpet, trombone, vocals

Did anyone here ever saw The Ohio Players around the time they were on Westbound Records with Junie Morrison before switching over to Mercury with Diamond Williams and Billy Beck,their commercial peak?I e-mailed Sugarfoot once and he seemed really cool when he answered it.R.I.P.Sugar,thank you for all the great music and contributions!

DarylB said:

Did anyone here ever saw The Ohio Players around the time they were on Westbound Records with Junie Morrison before switching over to Mercury with Diamond Williams and Billy Beck,their commercial peak?I e-mailed Sugarfoot once and he seemed really cool when he answered it.R.I.P.Sugar,thank you for all the great music and contributions!

i caught them with funkadelic, grahmn central station and the lockers at radio city music hall.

jackson35 said:

DarylB said:

Did anyone here ever saw The Ohio Players around the time they were on Westbound Records with Junie Morrison before switching over to Mercury with Diamond Williams and Billy Beck,their commercial peak?I e-mailed Sugarfoot once and he seemed really cool when he answered it.R.I.P.Sugar,thank you for all the great music and contributions!

i caught them with funkadelic, grahmn central station and the lockers at radio city music hall.

What year was this and who stole the show?Did the P-Funk show also feature Eddie Hazel?Also,I wouldn't be surprised if any of those early shows were recorded and possibly filmed,but locked away in a vault.

phunkdaddy said:

I remember the Vibe Alive record with Herbie Hancock. I actually

had that 12 inch. I probably still have it somewhere.

Sugar reformed the Ohio Players around this time and actually

remade a funkier version of Vibe Alive on their album Back.

Yesss. THAT version kicks much ASS . Just had that bangin in the car the other day...

DarylB said:

jackson35 said:

i caught them with funkadelic, grahmn central station and the lockers at radio city music hall.

What year was this and who stole the show?Did the P-Funk show also feature Eddie Hazel?Also,I wouldn't be surprised if any of those early shows were recorded and possibly filmed,but locked away in a vault.

this was in 1974. it was a tight show all around.

I wonder what Prince would have to say about Sugarfoot passing away. I remember hearing Prince cover a live version of I want to be free on imeem.com when it existed and he has also covered skin tight and heaven must be like this and I remember hearing last year that the Ohio Players wanted Prince to do an album of covers of their songs.

Kimberly1 - I appreciate your comment about my comment on Sugar. even in "honey".. his vocal is smooth in each verse, e.g. "I know that I adored you.."

& then "rougher" when he belts out the "honey" ("hunnay") ad libs..

this might be why "HONEY" is probably my all-time favorite OP song..

hardwork made a very valid point too, which I had overlooked - about the migration from the south..

how they brought that accent with them, that "southern twang" that Sugar had mastered..

I wonder if/how many of his family are/were from the south?

lastly - I was fortunate enough to pull off youtube the OP live versions of "honey", "sweet sticky thing" "angel" (& 1 other song - "love rollercoaster") from their DKRC performances in '76

before those vids were removed/deleted.

GREAT STUFF

especially - surprise, suprise - Sugar's "yo daddy don' know, yo momma don' know.. but I'ma keep on lovin' you so" riff during that live performance of "honey".

I also like the simple choreography of Pee Wee, Merv & Satch as they play their brass during the last part of "honey"..

mltijchr said:

Kimberly1 - I appreciate your comment about my comment on Sugar. even in "honey".. his vocal is smooth in each verse, e.g. "I know that I adored you.."

& then "rougher" when he belts out the "honey" ("hunnay") ad libs..

this might be why "HONEY" is probably my all-time favorite OP song..

hardwork made a very valid point too, which I had overlooked - about the migration from the south..

how they brought that accent with them, that "southern twang" that Sugar had mastered..

I wonder if/how many of his family are/were from the south?

lastly - I was fortunate enough to pull off youtube the OP live versions of "honey", "sweet sticky thing" "angel" (& 1 other song - "love rollercoaster") from their DKRC performances in '76

before those vids were removed/deleted.

GREAT STUFF

especially - surprise, suprise - Sugar's "yo daddy don' know, yo momma don' know.. but I'ma keep on lovin' you so" riff during that live performance of "honey".

I also like the simple choreography of Pee Wee, Merv & Satch as they play their brass during the last part of "honey"..

Love that people really appreciate the various tones in Sugar's voice as much as I do! Honey is one of my favorites too. It's really hard to say which is #1 because the music has stayed fresh alllll these years.

The song Angel is another favorite. The album has recently been released on Amazon and it arrived at my house about 3 weeks ago! Loving it all over again.

Skin Tight and Heaven Must Be Like This are just the cream of the crop!

Anyone heard anything about his funeral or the formal obituary? RIP Sugar**

Bootsy Collins MEMORIAL/CELEBRATION for: "Sugarfoot"

LEROY "Sugarfoot" BONNER of the (OHIO PLAYERS) passed away 1-27-13
Saturday, Feb. 9th a celebration of "Sugarfoot's Life will be held at the HOUSE OF JOY.

5912 Hamilton Ave. Cincinnati Ohio Phone number: 541-4600 .

Time: 3PM TO 7:00PM

Proclamation from the State of Ohio & a Proclamation from the City of Cincinnati will be presented.

Bootsy Collins & some of the Original "Ohio Players" will speak along with other great celeberties which will perform with Bootsy's band "Funk-Unity".

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records