Ohio Players
Pleasure WESTBOUND.
FOLLOWING Pain’s re-release a couple of month’s ago, Ace now have an equally clean, richsounding pressing of Pleasure, second chapter in the Players’ triptych of early-’70s funk blasts. The
Ohios lived up to their name back then and played. The fluid line-up’s core included Walter ‘Junie’ Morrison on piano/organ, who takes off on Walt’s First Trip, with Leroy ‘Sugarfoot’ Bonner on guitar/vocals, the sharp horn arrangements of Clarence Satchell and Ralph Middlebrooks, and hip-shaking rhythm from Marshall ‘Rock’ Jones (bass) and Gregory Webster (drums), who stay right in the pocket. The album’s title track and its Number 1 R&B single Funky Worm – a silly song but crisply done, it was their US breakthrough – are notable, and of two ballads Our Love Has Died has the stronger foretaste of later Ohios, while Joel Brodsky’s bondagethemed cover shoots with model Pat Evans still raise an eyebrow. Series climaxes with Ecstasy, promised before Christmas. Geoff Brown