Customer Reviews

Here Comes Shuggie Otis & Freedom Flight

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3 star:		(1)
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Thanks to Luaka Bop, Shuggie Otis became sort of a backpackers' household name on the strength of the "Inspiration Information" reissue. The bonus cuts on this CD were a teaser for what remained only on dusty vinyl.

Well, thanks to Raven (sort of the Australian equivalent of Rhino), funk/soul fans finally have (most of) the rest of the picture. And you only have to hear Shuggie tear through the opening funk/blues strains of "Oxford Gray" to be converted. "Inspiration" fans will be pleased to hear "Strawberry Letter" and "Freedom Flight" in context (at last).

Genre-bending and genre-blending, Shuggie Otis was a little too baroquely ornate to be called "blues." But he was also much too expressive and emotionally direct to be lumped in with the 70s California folk singer/songwriters. He had a flow all his own: experimental without being opaque, exact without being tiring, and soulful without cliche.

Shuggie was definitely a musicians' musician; his multi-instrumentalist skills link him with one-man-band artists like Paul McCartney (1st solo record), Lenny Kravitz (Let Love Rule), Stevie Wonder (Talking Book), and Sly Stone (There's a Riot Goin On). Shuggie's do-everything-yourself tendencies came to fruition on "Inspiration Information," but you get to hear the seeds being planted on this reissue as Otis handles guitars, bass, vocals, organ, harpsichord, and piano.

For the classic rock fan whose soul/blues collection only goes as far as Jimi...

For the hiphop head who wants to hear the kind of hooks DJ Muggs would sample...

For the exacting music fan who wants to add another gem to your collection...

Pick up this disc. Now all we need is a decently remastered "Al Kooper Introduces Shuggie Otis"...

This is a double shot of Shuggie albums on one cd, so you get almost an entire 80 minutes worth of music. However, this cd costs a small fortune.

It's amazing that both albums were recorded when he was still a teenager. There seems to be a lot of overlap with 'Inspiration Information', most notably 'Strawberry Letter 23'.

The albums feature good blues-guitar playing. The music was very much ahead of its time and very much ahead of his age. Overall, there's lots of good solid blues/R&B here.

As a side note, I swear a lot of the instrumental licks have been sampled by hiphop throughout the years; they're stone-cold grooving at times!

This double of Shuggie is good stuff, especially if you liked Inspiration Information. I'd say it's almost better than that one because this features more vocal tracks. A little pricey though....

Since Shuggie only made three albums and retired, I would have to rate this package pretty highly. If you are a serious student of early 70's R n'B, don't hesitate to add this to your collection, if only for Shuggie's great guitar prowess. Get the Luaka Bop reissue of Inspiration Information, and you'll have his complete catalogue.

man this is a smokin combo of shuggie albums, the brotha is bad! Everybody should know about this cat!