Shuggie Otis remains a musical visionary
A child phenom, Shuggie Otis started playing the guitar professionally at age 12. He’d wear sunglasses so he wouldn’t attract attention from club owners while he picked out zesty parts with his father, renowned band leader Johnny Otis. Shuggie Otis played on a Frank Zappa album and appeared on stage with Al Kooper. He also turned down as plum a job as exists in rock ’n’ roll: playing guitar with the Rolling Stones. He wanted to make his own music.
Otis, now 61, briefly drew comparisons to Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix, and the admiration of Sly Stone. His work would influence performers such as Prince, OutKast and the Roots. He should be a well-known musician. Instead, he became the quintessential lost legend, defined as much by lore as by music. After his third album tanked in 1974, Otis dropped from sight.
But in 2001, that third album, “Inspiration Information,” a classic of progressive soul and funk that was years ahead of its time, prompted a comeback that continues to build.
Otis was only 21 when he released “Inspiration Information,” an album he started as a teen. Though the ambitious collection of funk, soul, R&B, blues, electronic pop, folk and rock took years to make, it took even longer to earn its reputation as a seminal work. At the time of its release, “Inspiration Information” barely scraped its way onto the Billboard 200.
Otis’ coiled guitar part on “Sparkle City” pings against a funky key vamp and bouncing bass line. On some tracks, Otis worked in an early drum machine, which provided a cool contrast to his high, soulful vocals.
Otis’ greatest success with “Inspiration Information” was making such complicated, dense music sound so effortless. So much popular music uses bombast to achieve the designation of “epic.” Otis’ brilliance is whispered.
Though “Inspiration
Information” found few listeners, it found the right ones. Prince shot for a similar scope — without regard to genre — not long after Otis’ masterpiece was released. Always looking for fresh samples, hip-hop musicians were the first to dig Otis’ music out of deep storage in the ’90s and ’00s. His songs have been sampled by Digable Planets, OutKast and J. Dilla. Beyoncé snared a bit of his “Strawberry Letter 23” for her song “Be With You.”
But for years, Otis was invisible. He doesn’t speak much about his disappearance, which followed a burst of youthful vitality and creativity that included “Here Comes Shuggie Otis” in 1969 and “Freedom Flight” in 1971.
Otis didn’t stop making music after “Inspiration Information,” he just didn’t release any of it. He played on a few of his father’s recordings in the late ’70s. And a reliable revenue stream started flowing in 1977 when the Brothers Johnson turned “Strawberry Letter 23” into a No. 5 pop single. But a fourth album never arrived. Then, in 2001, Luaka Bop, the label run by Otis fan David Byrne of the Talking Heads, rereleased “Inspiration Information.” For all but the few fans who bought the original album, it was a brilliant new recording. That it sounded so vital years later, helped make a case that Otis, then 50, was an unappreciated visionary ahead of his time. That he hadn’t toured, done any interviews or released any music during the ’80s and ’90s only added to his mystique.
The “secret” has now been out for more than a decade, but Otis’ performances remain rare. He did get around to putting out a some new music. “Wings of Love” was released in 2013. The album includes songs from 1970 to 2000 and is as disjointed a recording that spans 30 years as one would expect. But it also suggests Otis still has plenty of music in him and more than just his beautiful, eloquent guitar playing.
Otis likely passed through Houston with his father, who did some production work for Don Robey’s local Peacock label. But I can’t find any reference to him ever playing here on his own, which makes his show Friday at the Continental Club an opportunity to see a visionary artist reappear some 40 years after he faded from sight.