Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Shuggie OtisEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-04-03
Music Label: Luaka Bop
Soundtracks:
- Inspiration Information
- Island Letter
- Sparkle City
- Aht Uh Mi Hed
- Happy House
- Rainy Day
- XL-30
- Pling!
- Not Available
- Strawberry Letter 23
- Sweet Thang
- Ice Cold Daydream
- Freedom Flig
Free Music Notes for Inspiration Information
Free Music Review: Lost gem alert!
Hit: 5 Stars
I love it when I stumble across albums like this on Amazon. Shuggie Otis is one of the few out there that can really pull off the one-man-band concept. The end product is 70'sish, soulful, laid-back, and upbeat. There's generous use of early drum machine tech, but unlike many people who have experimented with such devices he figured out how to incorporate it properly into his overall sound. I think where most people fail is they try to use it like a real drummer instead of treating it according to its own sonic characteristics. His guitar playing is just tasty and never too brash or overblown. In many ways this album is a masterpiece of understatement. Most musicians seem to try and kick your doors down to get their point across. Shuggie just lays it down and lets it soak in.
Inspiration Information Poster
Inspiration Information, the brainchild of guitar prodigy Shuggie Otis, more than justifies the cult following garnered in the years since its (largely ignored) 1974 release. Son of R&B legend Johnny Otis, Shuggie was a late-'60s celebrity due to his Super Session duets with Al Kooper. Opting out of arena rock -- he reputedly refused an offer to join the Rolling Stones -- the 19-year-old Otis spent three years in the studio generating this one-man opus. His multitracked rhythms recall the laid-back funk of the Meters embroidered with psychedelic filigree, and his voice resembles Allan Toussaint's. But in every other regard, this is singular, sexy music, dislocated in time. Drum machines propel "Island Letter" and the beat-box-plus-organ stabs of "XL-30" predate England's Young Marble Giants by several years. Also featured are four bonus cuts from the artist's 1971 set Freedom Flight, including "Strawberry Letter 23," which was later a hit for the Brothers Johnson. Heard here in its original form (with a surprise prog-guitar coda), the song conveys the impression of "Good Vibrations" being played by a lone musician. Unbelievably wonderful. - BillboardLike Stevie Wonder and Allen Toussaint before him--and Prince and D'Angelo afterward--Shuggie Otis was a musical visionary whose early 1970s recordings showed he could do it all, writing, arranging, performing, and producing some of the decade's most satisfying, innovative, and, unfortunately, overlooked music. This reissue of his 1974 Inspiration Information album--a soulful song cycle that took three years to create and was worth every minute--ranges from early drum machine-driven experiments like "Xl-30" and "Aht Uh Mi Hed" (note the Sly Stone spelling influence) to Otis's most stunning pop confection ever, "Strawberry Letter 23." (The latter song, which ended up being a big hit for the Brothers Johnson, is one of four bonus tracks taken from Otis's 1971 Freedom Flight album). Otis, who once turned down an offer to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, continues to perform around the Bay Area on his own and with his father, bandleader Johnny Otis. Hopefully, the long-awaited resurrection of this material will help bring him the attention he deserves. --Bill Forman
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