OHIO PLAYERS: FUNK
ON FIRE
It's
important to recognize Ohio’s place in rock/soul/funk/punk history.
While most other states have one or two towns which can claim a sound, a movement,
or hit band of their own; Ohio has–in the last thirty years–quietly
punted forth a vast array of seminal groups and artists, spanning the bulbous
and seemingly-malformed state. Where would underground rock and artsy pretense
be without Akron's Devo? What chick-rocker worth a sneer hasn’t tried
to cop the Chrissie Hynde sound, if not look? And where would post-college
rock indie 4-track geeks be without Dayton-sons Guided By Voices? The list
goes on and on with influential Ohioans (New Bomb Turks, Pere Ubu, The The
Breeders...), but since our train landed in Dayton, we might as well get off
here.
And "get off" is right. No buckeye-state stalwart can hold their
own against the only group secure enough in their provinciality to actually
name their group after their home state as if it were a badge of honor: The
Ohio Players. Of the above-mentioned outfits, no one group owned an era, a
style, and a look more so than the Players. In the early seventies you couldn’t
turn on the FM without hearing their signature jams "Fire," "Skin
Tight," and the biggest of them all, the infectious "Love Rollercoaster."
Though the Ohio Players had many contemporaries, it’s debatable as
to whom arrived on the scene first or who did it best or brightest. Many would
say (and likely be correct) that Sly and the Family Stone were the first,
and most heralded of the funk/rock crossover specialists. The Commodores made
it bigger with the bland pop soul only a Lionel Richie could bring. For every
B.T. Express or Brass Construction, there was another Dazz or Gap band waiting
in the wings to drop a bomb on you. But the Players were quite arguably the
greatest of them all. While Southern Ohio is well-noted as a bastion of the
more complex and hard-hitting groove (as the liner notes point out, Cincinnati
was the home of not only King Records, but also the king of all bass—Bootsy
Collins, and the group for which much of the soul/rock crossover can be attributed—The
Isley Brothers), the well-seasoned Ohio Players hit it from that angle and
many more, infusing slices of jazz, country and anything else laying around
into the stock. Stirring the cauldron was the in-the-pocket rythmn section
of bass player Marshall Jones and tastefully non-flashy drummer James "Diamond"
Williams. The result was music that didn’t always leap off the vinyl
at you, but seemed more content to grab you by the pants and guide you around
the dance floor...and ain’t that just what it’s all about anyway?
This collection grounds itself in the era following their Westbound Records/Junie
Morrison-led days of solid funk grooves, found on such racy-covered works
like Pain, Pleasure and Climax, instead dealing squarely in their sexy non-sadistic
bald woman Mercury Records oeuvre. As a result, there are some crucial tunes
missing which give a better scope as to where they were coming from. Those
whom are even randomly familiar with the Players know that a party just ain’t
a party without the wicked Morrison keyboard jam of "Funky Worm."
The omission of the title song from Pleasure does an equal disservice to
the uninitiated, as does the lack of the hidden gem from Skin Tight, "Streakin’
Cheek To Cheek." Like "Pleasure," this cooking stretch-out
showed the Players playing at their most relaxed and funky. And that’s
another key element not portrayed enough on this retrospective. Sure, the
slow-jams are all in place–the sensual groove of "I Want To Be
Free," the long, spacious "Heaven Must Be Like This," the tremendously
unremarkable "Angel"–but when you think of the Ohio Players,
what comes up first in your mind?—the thick, dirty grease of "Fopp,"
"Jive Turkey," and loose-booty shake of "Who’d She Coo?"
This was their bread and butter; that which justified the ultra-steamy and
salacious album covers (one of the many great reasons to own OP on vinyl),
and slapped you in the mouth with a cry of "O-HI-O in the houuuuuse!"
At least on that level, Funk On Fire delivers, hands-down. The bigger hits,
the crucial hits, the ones you’ve been humming for years even though
you can’t recall the last time you heard ‘em—they’re
all present and accounted for. There is no argument that "Fopp"
is heavier than a thousand Black Sabbaths, or that "Fire" out-shreds
all guitar riffs within the immediate post-Hendrix landscape, and we don’t
even need to bring up the undisputed funk-rock champion—the much imitated,
never-duplicated "Love Rollercoaster." On these tunes alone you
get more than your money’s worth.
So while this collection attempts to combine the full flavor of the soul/funk
legends at their peak, Funk On Fire seems to strain under the weight of what
they didn’t do best. There is no need to include possibly the most annoying
Christmas ballad ever: the single-only "Happy Holidays, Pts. 1 and 2,"
or such dull-edged snoozers as the previously-unreleased "Wonderful"
and "More Than Love." But for a limited-scope overview, you couldn’t
do much better than the five years represented here. It is guaranteed to–like
the state for which they are named–get your ass all round on the ends,
and HI in the middle.
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