{"id":22606,"date":"2022-03-18T05:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T09:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22606"},"modified":"2022-02-24T10:34:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T15:34:10","slug":"march-through-time-shuggie-otis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/18\/march-through-time-shuggie-otis\/","title":{"rendered":"March Through Time: Shuggie Otis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Shuggie Otis is a criminally under-recognized artist. A one-man-band when he was a mere teenager, he was also a superb guitarist right out of the gate. Son of legendary bandleader Johnny Otis, Shuggie never caught on with the record buying public like he should have. His song \u201cStrawberry Letter #23\u201d is a bona fide classic, though most know it form the Brothers Johnson cover version. Admittedly, his career has been erratic, and he went quiet for nearly 30 years. I had the privilege of meeting, interviewing<\/a> and seeing him live onstage a few tears back. It was one of the best concerts I\u2019ve ever witnessed<\/a>. Yet around the same time, someone whose opinion I respect saw him at another date on the tour, and considered it one of the worst shows he had seen. Go figure. Regardless, his records are all rewarding.<\/p>\n

Kooper Session <\/b><\/i>(1969)<\/b> \u2013 \u201cDiscovered\u201d by Al Kooper, even though he had been playing with his dad for years and was doing session dates with Frank Zappa, Shuggie\u2019s work on this set is amazing. He\u2019s co-billed with Kooper, and the material is split into two sides, one \u201cthe songs,\u201d the other \u201cthe blues.\u201d Both are excellent.<\/p>\n

Snatch & the Poontangs<\/b><\/i> (1969)<\/b> \u2013 Raw and raunchy, this is a set of \u201cblue\u201d tunes with titles like \u201cThe Pissed-off Cowboy\u201d and \u201cTwo Girls in Love.\u201d It\u2019s not deathless, to be sure, and Shuggie\u2019s limited to guitar, but it\u2019s worth a listen.<\/p>\n

Here Comes Shuggie Otis <\/b><\/i>(1970)<\/b> \u2013 You must hear this record. The two to follow get the most acclaim, but on Here Comes<\/em> young Shuggie presents a stunningly wide array of styles. \u201cOxford Gray\u201d is jaw-dropping in its beauty, a sort of progressive blues with other things happening as well.<\/p>\n

Freedom Flight<\/b><\/i> (1971)<\/b> \u2013 A bit more focused than its predecessor, Freedom Flight<\/em> is amazing start to finish. The title track goes on a bit long (nearly 13 minutes) but it\u2019s never less than interesting. \u201cPurple\u201d is really good as well.<\/p>\n

Inspiration Information<\/b><\/i> (1974)<\/b> \u2013 Shuggie still seemed to be on fire when he released this one. It\u2019s filled with great tracks, and interesting use of the Rhythm King drum machine. He\u2019s as compelling when he\u2019s relaxed as when he\u2019s in high-octane mode. Sadly, this would be the last we\u2019d hear from him for some three decades. More here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Live in Williamsburg<\/b><\/i> (2014)<\/b> \u2013 A hastily thrown-together document, this could be better. The show from this tour that I attended certainly was. I don\u2019t place the fault with Shuggie, but with the record company. A few fixes and this could have been excellent. As such it\u2019s merely very good.<\/p>\n

Inter-Fusion<\/b><\/i> (2018)<\/b> \u2013 The first studio release from Shuggie in nearly 35 years. Much of the composition credit comes form places other than Shuggie, but his instrumental mastery remains ion display. His vocals are strong as well. It would be nice to hear more from him. Alas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shuggie Otis is a criminally under-recognized artist. A one-man-band when he was a mere teenager, he was also a superb guitarist right out of the gate. Son of legendary bandleader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,65],"tags":[1953],"class_list":["post-22606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-review","tag-shuggie-otis","cat-27-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22608,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22606\/revisions\/22608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}