reprinted from liner notes on Charly CD - "The Ohio Players: Summertime"
For most people the Ohio Players are that slinky funk act with a penchant for sadomasochism and a fetish for all seasons. A sweaty, lip-licking crew whose art work screamed phallus in chains from a succession of album sleeves while their music insinuated like some funky work. Well, yes, initially, in the wake of Sly Stone and shadowed by sometime stablemates Funkadelic this was undeniably true, but their history held more surprises than that.
They started life in the late fifties as the Ohio Untouchables in obeisance, no doubt, to TV's gangbusting hit series. They were the hungry brainchild of guitarist Robert Ward and in 1959 the lineup comprised Marshall 'Rock' Jones (bass), Clarence 'Satch' Satchell (sax & guitar), Cornelius Johnson (drums), and a certain Ralph 'Pee Wee' Middlebrook (trombone, trumpet) who had recorded "The House In The Alley" with Crazy Brassetts down in Atlanta, Georgia.
Naturally when a relative of Ward's founded Lupine Records late in 1961 they travelled to Detroit where they backed the Falcons on "I Found A Love" (Lupine 1003). The combination of Wilson Pickett's searing lead vocal and Ward's quirky guitar took the disc to number six R&B-wise during April 1962 and gave them all the encouragement they needed. After backing Benny McCain with rather less reward they took center stage themselves and secured local success as the Ohio Untouchables with their recording of "Love Is Amazing" where Ward handled the singing chores.
When he elected to go solo in 1964 the nucleus of the group, which consisted now of Middlebrook, Jones, and a guitarist called Leroy 'Sugarfoot' Bonner, headed home for Dayton, Ohio, where they recruited Andrew Noland (sax) and drummer Gary Webster. It has to be admitted that at this juncture there remains some confusion about the last-mentioned musician because some sources have Gary as a member of the Untouchables from the outset and even have him billed separately as the leader. Singer Joe Harris also joined their ranks but his duties were quickly taken over by Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson when he left for some measure of fame and fortune with Motown's Undisputed Truth.
So this was the aggregation which in 1967 began recording as the Ohio Players under the watchful eye of manager and producer Johnnie Brantley, first with TRC and then as the house band for Compass Records, NYC. It seems likely that supported Helena Ferguson on her solitary hit "Where Is The Party" (Compass 7009) which made number 27 R&B-wise during November 1967 and even breached the hot hundred.
In their own name they cut a powerful single, "Trespassin'" (Compass 7015), which somehow combined a sound reminiscent of Stax-Volt with rockier strictures redolent of Hot Wax-Invictus productions, a fact which undoubtedly helped carry it to number 50 R&B-wise during February 1968. A compelling follow-up, "It's A Cryin' Shame", flopped despite the fact that it worked exactly the same territory with its murderous mixture of bass and horns. The same year Compass gathered up both sides on an album later repackaged by Trip Records as First Impressions and it was very much a collection at the crossroads as they thrashed about in search of an identity. Deep Southern soul collided engagingly with the pounding sound of Detroit, while the night-walking spirits of James Brown, Sam & Dave, Lamont Dozier and the Holland brothers presided.
For confirmation just listen to "A Thing Called Love", all screaming intensity and Wilson Pickett styled interjections, or try the riven pain of "You Don't Mean It" with it's manic attack. "My Neighbours" is another one to tear the penthouse down with it's rapping exchanges while there is an inescapable, tumbling urgency to the horn spliced delights of ballads like "I Got To Hold On". There's no gainsaying the variety on offer here and there are more than a few conundrums. Who, for example, is the sophisticated lady featured on two tracks? During this period they worked with Gloria Barnes, alias Towanda Barnes, and don't forget those sides with the aforementioned Ms. Ferguson. Another matter for speculation concerns the demo tapes which they made on their own time at Compass. When the company teetered on the edge of bankruptcy Brantley took the tapes with the group to Capitol Records where some songs, at least, found their way on to OBSERVATIONS IN TIME midway through 1968.
By now the group had solidified into Dutch Robinson (piano, vocals), Bobby Lee Fears (vocals), Marshall Jones (bass), Greg Webster (drums), Ralph Middlebrook (trumpet, sax), Clarence Satchell (sax, flute), and Leroy Bonner (guitar). They created a few ripples with "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow", flipped with "Bad Bargain", a coupling which also introduced them to the British public when it was released during April 1969. The top deck was very much a five star performance blending impassioned vocals with rhythms simultaneously sharp and relaxed. And if this side was all anguish then "Bad Bargain", a southern style soul ballad, with Fears and Robinson trading vocals over horn charts recalling Stax-Volt, was very much the clincher. Too much of this and they might have given Sam & Dave pause for thought.
The rest of the album was suitably catholic. On the one hand there were lazily swelling ballads like "Cold, Cold World", weary and riddled with despair. On the other were hot items like "Stop Lying To Yourself", all chattering funk and grim realism, alongside gutbucket R&B workouts such as "Find Someone To Love". And then there were the anachronisms, including an acerbic revamp of "Mother In Law" and the moody beat ballad "Lonely Street" which sounded tailor-made for older singers like Gene McDaniels. But the alpha and omega of this set were undoubtedly "Summertime" and "Over The Rainbow". On the first Fears' oddly dehumanized voice was woven into the fabric of a standard so funked up that Gershwin would have had trouble recognizing it. A broody, bluesy sound with haunting trumpet contributions from Middlebrook, this was fusion music with a vengeance. Ever since Judy Garland introduced it in "The Wizard of Oz" in 1939, "Over The Rainbow" has been tried by almost any doowop group you can care to name and as late as 1980 was tackled country-style by Jerry Lee Lewis with considerable panache. But what we have here was, and remains, utterly unique as the Ohio Players had their cake and ate it. With Fears soaring over a fat horn section they succeeded in delivering the essence of doowop while sounding completely contemporary, a feat unequalled until the Regal Dewy cut "Love Music" in 1977. It was the shape of things to come, a side too idiosyncratic to ignore, and doubters would do well to remember that this was the version chosen for Judy Garland's funeral in 1969.
Whoever called the album OBSERVATIONS IN TIME got it right. It really was a case of back to the future and with this in mind we have programmed it first, as a bridge to those Ohio Players who burned their way across the seventies, and we have followed it with FIRST IMPRESSIONS for those anxious to explore the source.
Despite their quality neither set registered strongly at the time and around 1970 the group disbanded. Bobby Lee Fears went solo to cut EXODUS on Forward Records while Dutch Robinson surfaced on Smokeout Records fronting the Caretakers with "Make Her Stay" during September 1972.
The others slowly drifted back to Dayton, recruited Walter 'Junie' Morrison (keyboards), Bruce Napier (trumpet), and Marvin Peirce (trombone) before launching themselves afresh with the pace-setting "Pain" which they recorded for the local Rubber Town Sounds. Originally promoted on Top Hit Records with "Proud Mary" as its flipside, "Pain" was picked up by Detroit's Westbound label and issued in two parts. By December 1971 it had made number 35 soulwise and the rest, as they say, is history.
Between 1971 and 1988, mainly on Westbound or Mercury, but also on Arista, Boardwalk, Air City, and Track, they were the most fashionable young studs in town, twirling their horns under the light while they racked up 28 R&B hits including five at number one. "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster" actually topped both charts, R&B and pop. Indeed between 1973 and 1976 there were eight entries in the national top 40, half of them certified million sellers, and even more astonishing for and R&B group they made it to number one popwise with their album FIRE.
But what we have here, equally fascinating in their own right, are the two stepping stones on their journey to such enviable success.
Clive Anderson ©1994
acknowledgements: Fred Bronson, Tony Cummings, Jenny Ferrera Quan, Joel Whitburn
