Funk on Fire: The Mercury Anthology [Original recording remastered]

Ohio Players | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 18, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Island / Mercury
• ASIN: B000068FUN
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,032 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Things Missing Are Those Beautiful Women, September 14, 2005

By 

Caesar M. Warrington (Lansdowne, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Funk on Fire: The Mercury Anthology (Audio CD)

Let's be real here. Those original gatefold sleeves are some of the greatest works of album art in popular music (see especially the CD, HONEY). Too bad Polygram/Universal didn't keep this important aspect in mind when they created this package. Each original album cover should have been reproduced in full-color and on full-page.
What you do get here is some of the greatest funk music, by one of the greatest funk bands in their prime. Two hours of 28 slabs of funk on two CDs, chronicling the years 1974-1978. Included are the great party jams: "Skin Tight," "Jive Turkey," "Fopp," "Sweet Sticky Thing," "More Than Love," "Who'd She Coo," and -of course- the anthems, "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster."
Sadly missing are some great original album tracks such as, "Smoke," "What The Hell," "Streakin' Cheek To Cheek," or "Running From The Devil." The inclusion of a couple of these gems would have made this an excellent anthology.
Purchase also the compilation, ORGASM: THE WESTBOUND YEARS. This is a great collection of tracks taken from their earlier, harder trilogy of albums they made for Westbound Records through the years 1972-1973: PAIN, PLEASURE, and ECSTASY.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Following James Brown and Sly Stone and Before Hip-Hop, February 1, 2006

By 

Ludwig J. Pluralist "avantepopgospeler" (Beacon, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Funk on Fire: The Mercury Anthology (Audio CD)

Following the earliest hits of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone, and preceding hip-hop, the 1970s gave us a number of really great examples of soulful funk music by African-American performers. And among the very best were the highly underrated Ohio Players, who, along with Earth Wind and Fire and Parliament-Funkadelic, were my favorites from the world of funk. I was in high school when this was out; listening now brings me back to an era of platform shoes, loud silk dress shirts, and movies like Rocky, Jaws, Car Wash, and Star Wars and to "Butterfly" a certain clothing store/head shop in my NJ neighborhood, staffed by some young, hip, partying Latinos (who'd have this sort of music, as well as stuff like Santana and Led Zep playing on the store speakers). In other words, it's a musical trip down memory lane.

This compilation, then, containing all the Players' classics, like the romantic jazz piece Sweet Sticky Thing (now these guys knew how to do smooth jazz), the dance hit Love Rollercoaster (a version of which was put to great use, years later, in the Beavis and Butthead movie) and brilliant tracks like Fopp (which like so many great pop tunes appears to be a euphemistic reference to doing the nasty) and Fire (a musical masterpiece), is a joy to listen to. While some of the tracks here are filler, nothing is unlistenable. Whatever weaknesses may be found here are more than offset by the record's many highlights.

One other point; these guys get a few bonus points from me for having some of the coolest Afros of the 70s. They always looked fly!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth in Advertising: This Funk is on Fire!, August 18, 2005

By 

tHE JB Experience "WM" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Funk on Fire: The Mercury Anthology (Audio CD)

Solid gold funk from one of the best self-contained bands of the 70s. Their jams made you sweat and their ballads made you fall in love. Fire is one of the best party songs of all time with bridges and breaks and drums and percussion and horns and whew!-I'm sweating just thinking about it. Love Rollercoaster seems to get faster as it races toward its conclusion. The Ohio Players played tight sounds with great horns and clever lead singer Sugarfoot is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Contains full-length version of all of their hits which allowed this funk band to stretch out and wade into jazz territory (See Sweet Sticky Thing for example.) If I had to register a mild complaint, the inclusion of the ballad "Let's Love" aka "Let's Do It" from the Honey album would have made this a more perfect listening experience. But no false advertising here, there is enough funk here to set you on fire. Put CD 1 in your car stereo on a long trip and watch the miles go by.