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Shuggie Otis — Sweet Thing
Album: Freedom Flight
Avg rating:
7.6

Your rating:
Total ratings: 573









Released: 1972
Length: 3:51
Plays (last 30 days): 0
Oh baby, sweet thang
Oh baby, sweet thang

Oh baby, sweet thang
Oh baby, sweet thang

Sweet thang, sweet thang
Sweet thang, sweet thang
Sweet thang, sweet thang
Comments (73)add comment
 jptl wrote:
This has been around for 40 years and I'm just now hearing it? Thanks, RP {#Clap}


That's RP for ya. Yay!
 jptl wrote:
This has been around for 40 years and I'm just now hearing it? Thanks, RP {#Clap}


same. omg. 
Yikes... I was barely a pup when this was released. What a lovely piece of music! 
love this!
 bokey wrote:
    Back then they didn't have magic software that let any moron fart into a microphone and come out sounding like a genius.


Contrary to popular belief, they still don't.
 zanref wrote:

So true!
And he wrote it when he was 19.... now I realize how pathetic I am...{#Frustrated}
 
ditto
Freedom Flight is a classic album.  This is not one of its best tracks, however.  Give me Strawberry Letter 23 and I'll be happy!!
 Propayne wrote:

Fork you, Shuggie rocks. . .
 
Yeah, what he said. {#Arrowu}
 Bend the strings like that, they're gonna get loose after awhile.

 You gonna take a chance on blowing a take like that by tuning mid song and taking a chance on going sharp and f****** the whole thing up? I'd let it go,stay in the pocket and play a little play a little flat myself.

    Back then they didn't have magic software that let any moron fart into a microphone and come out sounding like a genius.

 

 jptl wrote:
This has been around for 40 years and I'm just now hearing it? Thanks, RP {#Clap}
 
So true!
And he wrote it when he was 19.... now I realize how pathetic I am...{#Frustrated}
Calling Dr. Winwood?
This has been around for 40 years and I'm just now hearing it? Thanks, RP {#Clap}
very cool
Very cool groove.
 crockydile wrote:

Shuggie lost his tuner. Simple A-fork would do just fine...
 
Fork you, Shuggie rocks...
Score another surprise for RP!!!   Fantastic  {#Notworthy}   I LOVE the diversity on this station.
 Propayne wrote:
Thanks for playing Shuggie!
 
Shuggie lost his tuner. Simple A-fork would do just fine...

Thanks for playing Shuggie!
 cohifi wrote:

SWEET

 

THANG
 peter_james_bond wrote:

This is the first time I've heard Shuggie Otis on any medium (I'm not kidding). Wonderful!

 
SWEET

 DoctorHooey wrote:
Awesome! I'm thrilled to hear Shuggie Otis on RP!!!
 
This is the first time I've heard Shuggie Otis on any medium (I'm not kidding). Wonderful!

Shuggie Otis?
Sounds like some new children's breakfast cereal. 
Tasty!
The entire rest of this album sucks. Go figure.

 doctec wrote:
Seconded. Looking at RP library it looks like there's just one cut off Shuggie's "Inspiration Information" (the title cut), last played in 2005. The whole album's brilliant, if I uploaded other cuts what is the chance they might get played? Otis is one of the unsung heroes of Pop/R&B, way ahead of his time.
 
Absolutely great album the whole way through. Would love to hear more from Inspiration Information  it on RP, please.

I don't think anyone wants to be president of General Motors anymore :oD.
{#Bounce}SWEET!
Ya think the Doors might have been listening to this?  Not sure of the chronology...Research indicates the album came out in 71 so I guess they were both hearing the same thing, rather than each other.

 wenatchee wrote:
Wondering if Mark Knopfler picked up something from this . . . the intro had that Dire sound to it? *Shrug
 

Quite possibly.
Wondering if Mark Knopfler picked up something from this . . . the intro had that Dire sound to it? *Shrug
 RedGuitar wrote:
Whatever happened to Shuggie?  He was a great player.

 

I guess he's still out there playing clubs or doing studio work...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuggie_Otis

I never realized he wrote "Strawberry Letter 23".


hal990 wrote:
oh yeah
feels like I'm up to no good just listening to this


feel the same! love it!

Whatever happened to Shuggie?  He was a great player.

 Ericac wrote:
Ok, I give up. How am I supposed to get anything done on this fine Friday with RP playing one great song after another. It sends me to internet to research the artist if I'm not familiar and if I am, I'm just lost in my thoughts.

 
Here we go again.  Another Friday, four months later and the it's one great song after another.  Oh well, work wasn't very appealing anyway.

oh yeah
feels like I'm up to no good just listening to this

{#Wave}Judas Priest this is good

RockinBlueVoodoo wrote:
Ummm...not to be picky but it's actually Sweet "Thang"
It's for the folks who couldn't find 'thang' in the dictionary.
DoctorHooey wrote:
Awesome! I'm thrilled to hear Shuggie Otis on RP!!!
Seconded. Looking at RP library it looks like there's just one cut off Shuggie's "Inspiration Information" (the title cut), last played in 2005. The whole album's brilliant, if I uploaded other cuts what is the chance they might get played? Otis is one of the unsung heroes of Pop/R&B, way ahead of his time.
Ok, I give up. How am I supposed to get anything done on this fine Friday with RP playing one great song after another. It sends me to internet to research the artist if I'm not familiar and if I am, I'm just lost in my thoughts.
Awesome! I'm thrilled to hear Shuggie Otis on RP!!!
7 8
too good
Somehow a guy named "Shuggie" SHOULD be playing the blues like this (but the Brit term of "Shag" keeps coming to mind as does "Shaggie").
You betta shuts yo mouth!Dam Dam good......ohhhhhh yeaaaaaaaahhhhhh
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! I love this tune.
First time hearing this. VERY COOL :)
It's a sweet thang when this song rolls around
A quadruple plus!!! 10 times 10 times 10
RockinBlueVoodoo wrote:
Ummm...not to be picky but it's actually Sweet "Thang"
There's one in every bunch Ooohhh Baby!This is a cool groove indeed.
Curse you Shuggie Otis. Both you and your brain inhabiting guitar lick that will not leave my head.
Oh Shuggie.
Well cool
Dang, and here I thought Shuggie was only doing music like this! Man, this is one talented artist.
Ummm...not to be picky but it's actually Sweet "Thang"
intherough wrote:
Around the time of "Inspiration"'s release, the Rolling Stones offered Mick Taylor's newly vacated guitar spot to Shuggie. When Billy Preston called with the proposal, Otis politely declined.
I thought I remembered something about that. Thanks for the info. Saved me from having to look it up! Makes me wonder, too ... how might the Stones have evolved if he'd said yes?
damn. love the feel and the guitar on this. then the vocals come in....dang. gotta pick this up.
That's some nasty,skanky sounding guitar. Gotta love it. This is gonna get a high rating from me I think.
Wow.
sometimes, the whole damn conversation slams shut and you just gotta run to the mac and see who is jammin out the sweet slide guitar RP, home of the brave and many, many, running-list discoveries. Only drawback is a staggering iTunes bill (I'll pay it! I'll pay)just keep the flow flowin
ooooh. very nice.
very very cool
he's very good,but i like chris thomas king better. my bro can sure play a do'bro.
shuggie got da boogie oogie blues thang goin on
Yes, and YES! crowhog2000 wrote:
WOW...opening my eyes to jam I've never heard.....that's why RP is the best!
WOW...opening my eyes to jam I've never heard.....that's why RP is the best!
... ...
underarmor wrote:
Pretty cool. And you have to like anybody named "Shuggie".
Ain't it the truth. Ain't it the truth!
Very cool. Just the type of thing I tune in (click in?) to RP for. Thanks for the upload Rough.
Smooov! (P.S. I want to change my name to Shuggie!)
Sorry for the long post...... but this is my up-load and RP found it necessary to change the album (wrong), this song is actually from the reissue of Inspiration Information from: www.luakabop.com/shuggie_otis, and what follows is a little background about Shuggie from same website: Shuggie Otis Biography Time was, they reserved the vision thing for the scant few artists who truly envisioned panoramic music -– Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, John Coltrane. Today they hand out the "visionary" tags as freely as they dispense the gold records, like party favors out of a cardboard box. Shuggie Otis truly had the vision thing. Compared at the wispy age of 15 with Hendrix and the great Kings of blues guitar (B.B., Albert, Freddie), the young phenom went on to make two expansive, genre-defying, deeply curious albums, 1971's "Freedom Flight" and 1974's "Inspiration Information." The records, essentially crafted as a one- man band, floored Sly Stone, gave the Brothers Johnson their most enduring hit ("Strawberry Letter 23") and predated the stylistic synthesist Prince by half a decade. Otis, son of the rhythm and blues bandleader Johnny Otis, was a guitar prodigy, but he didn't stop there. An exceptional drummer and vibraphone player, he immersed himself in drum-machine technology in its earliest incarnation. He played piano and organ, and he arranged for horns and strings; friends say he was at least as good a bass player as he was a guitarist. Johnny Otis says that his son was as natural a musician as they come. When the senior Otis urged his teenage guitarist to pursue his interest in film scoring by signing up for composing lessons, they didn't last long. After a few days, he remembers, the tutor came to the father and begged off: "He already knows this shit!" After showcasing with his father's band, Shuggie cut sessions with Frank Zappa and Al Kooper, then set out on his own. "Freedom Flight" combined his innate fluency in the blues with a budding interest in exploratory, style-fusing soundscapes. Nearly three years in the making, the deeply personal "Inspiration Information" was the culmination of Shuggie's intense self-imposed apprenticeship, a genuinely visionary song cycle that featured primitive but soulful drum-machine meditations ("Aht uh Mi Hed," "XL-30"), satiny pop orchestration backing shrewd jazz guitar ("Rainy Day") and suitelike funky dance music that glides from a roots-reggae backbeat to swirling Love Unlimited-style strings ("Not Available"). Insatiable as it was, the album foretold several pop music developments to come: soulful auteurism, D.I.Y.-style recording, organic computer music. Musicians were his biggest fans. "I've always been in love with his stuff from "Inspiration Information," says George Johnson of the Brothers Johnson. "That album was right up there for me with (Sly's) "There's a Riot Going On." But the album proved too futuristic, too stubbornly unique for the rock marketplace of 1974. By the time of its release, Otis had squandered whatever momentum he had earned as a rising star at the turn of the decade. The album met with commercial indifference, and it turned out to be Shuggie's swan song. Now 48, Otis makes the occasional recording session, the odd live gig. But health issues have kept him from sustaining his musical career with any consistency. And he isn't exactly eager to talk about the past. Strangely, no one who was around at the time can recall just what Shuggie was up to in the studio. Johnny Otis, credited as the album's executive producer, says he called sessions for strings and horns at Shuggie's request. That's about all he remembers. "I executive produced it," he says, "but he was the creator." Steven Paley was Shuggie's A&R man at Epic during the "Inspiration" years. "He was signed to me, but I had very little to do with him," says Paley, who was also Sly Stone's A&R man. "I had absolutely nothing to do with the record other than, "Hi, how are you?" Perhaps it's no coincidence that a gaping lack of information now surrounds the record. In the original liner notes to "Inspiration Information," the writer proclaimed that the former adolescent guitar prodigy "is a man and an artist now. He is creating in the seventies, time whose conflicts are being shaped by information – and the lack of it." Few may recall how the masterpiece was realized, but they all remember how boundless Shuggie's potential seemed at the time. Larry Cohn, producer of the groundbreaking Robert Johnson boxed set and the man who first signed Otis to Epic Records, equates Shuggie's unfulfilled talent with Johnson's. Cohn offers another lofty comparison, this one reflecting Otis' mastery of so many instruments. The jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke, dead at 28, was known as Louis Armstrong's match on the cornet, but he was equally gifted on the piano. "In his piano playing you can hear Bartok, Debussy," Cohn says. "That's probably the avenue Shuggie would've traveled, to my mind." Among the classical composers of the rock ‘n' roll era - the electronic artists, DJs and post-rock musicians - the ones who have been turned on to Shuggie agree. "'Inspiration Information' is almost like a new style of music that could've developed but never did," marvels Tim Gane of the group Stereolab. "That's the problem. It never developed past this record." Around the time of "Inspiration"'s release, the Rolling Stones offered Mick Taylor's newly vacated guitar spot to Shuggie. When Billy Preston called with the proposal, Otis politely declined. "I had my own group, my own label deal," he said years later. "I just wanted to do what I want to do. I had my own identity." More than that, he knew where to find the inspiration. -- James Sullivan
OH YEAH!
I like...
Nice sound. Blues meets funk.
Pretty cool. And you have to like anybody named "Shuggie".