Shuggie Otis: Inspiration Information : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Guitar prodigy Shuggie Otis cut his gap teeth in the Sixties, in his legendary dad's R&B-soul revue, the Johnny Otis Show. Recording his first album in his teens, he played with everybody from T-Bone Walker to Frank Zappa to Bob Dylan; in the mid-Seventies, he was even invited to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones. Otis' smooth, trippy soul-funk opus, Inspiration Information -- first released in 1974, now remastered and reissued by David Byrne's Luaka Bop label with four bonus tracks from 1971's Freedom Flight -- was his third album for Epic records; in the Stevie Wonder soul-auteur vein, he wrote, sang and played almost every instrument on the album. Songs like "Happy House" and "Strawberry Letter 23" (a Number One R&B hit for the Brothers Johnson) embraced the incense-and-peppermint psychedelia of the times without falling out of the pocket. The electronic grooves of "XL-30" and the Isaac Hayes-like power of "Not Available" reveals an expansive creativity that appeared unlimited -- maybe even a Prince-size talent in the making. But in the late Seventies, Otis largely faded from the scene, only to become a favorite of crate-digging DJs. This first-ever CD pressing of Inspiration Information should help change that. (RS 864)

ANDY GENSLER