The Funky Worm Returns........... Posted by Junior

Junie Morrison: Tight Rope and Not As Good As You Should From: The Westbound Years (Westbound, 1994) When I posted about the Ohio Players album Ecstasy a while ago I was shamed by cHUCk dA fONk into admitting I knew nothing about the man behind the album hits, a mister Junie Morrison. Some research and lazy crate digging later and it's time to give the man the respect he deserves.......... Often credited as the creative force behind the Ohio Players most successful three albums, Pain, Pleasure and Ecstasy, Junie was responsible for their massive hit Funky Worm, laying down the grandma vocals on the track in his own imitable style. After the success of these three album Junie split from the group to undertake a highly productive but short lived solo career before joining up with the P-Funk crew in 1978 to add his keyboard skills to Clinton's sound for the next ten years. After parting ways with the collective he's continued to lay down the funk as a solo artist, still releasing albums after over thirty years in the game. You can read more about this highly influential artist at his own website. Anyway, back to the music. The first track, Tight Rope, taken from his first solo joint, 1975's When We Do, is a perfect introduction to Junie's solo sound, a combination of seventies pop and pure funk. A nice tight funky riff keeps things bopping along with a trademark awesome Junie bass line. On top of this is the most gorgeous of choruses which pops up and gets me everytime, one of those classic moments you come across on your musical journeys every once in a while. Junie dealt with the problem of having a lack of a group to back him up by playing pretty much all the instruments himself and he does a sterling job. The second track, Not As Good As Should, is taken from Junie's first album, also released in 1975, Freeze . This is a more dirty funk effort but just as tuneful with a real Sly & The Family Stone feel to it. Something of note in both this track and Tight Rope is the drumming, I love the kick the beat gets particularly on Not As Good As Should with the stop start drums working beautifully with the keyboards and the shifting bassline. Both tracks are also available on the linked Westbound compilation which is a lot easier to get your hands on than the original albums which are still awaiting for that all important reissue, hint hint. Great stuff.