From: Bob Davis (earthjuice_at_prodigy.net)
Date: 2005-09-10 16:16:02
A lotta bad stuff has been happening lately around the corner and around the world. In fact,
based on what we have been watching on TV for the past week it almost looks as though we have
indeed reached "the last days in time".
Sometimes even I have to just tune it all out, because if I don't I will lose perspective. At
times like these I reach for Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information. It's one of my favorite
albums of all time.
It's a document of lyrical and musical genius that still resonates in my mind 31 years after
the first time that I heard it.
If I were a "black music expert" working for an entity like Rolling Stone Magazine I might say
something like this about the album Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information...
"It's the bridge between Sly and the Family Stone and Prince.."
But I'm not, nor will I ever be, so instead I'll simply talk about this album from my own
perspective...
No matter what my mood or how bad things might seem to be at that particular moment this album
never fails to make me smile. Perhaps it's just nostalgia? Or perhaps it's just the expression
of pure joy that this music brings to me. It was in it's time one of the most cutting edge and
experimental albums ever made. Back in 1974 it was kinda the "drugged out, ultimate freak
out". Listening to it today 21 years later it's tame, hardly "cutting edge" at all. Today
Inspiration Information almost sounds like it could be used as the soundtrack for a show on
Nickelodeon or some other childrens programing, perhaps that's why it makes me feel good?
Sometimes when an artist seems to disappear before their time, it feels like they have missed
an opportunity to make the impact that they could have made. Even worse is that it sometimes
makes us feel as individuals that we have also missed out on something, we often feel so
exhilarated by their genius that we may even fell cheated by the artist.
Certainly these are some of the types of feelings that I have felt in my heart about Shuggie
Otis over the years. Sometimes I have even selfishly cussed him out for depriving me of more
of himself.
However today as I sit here in 2005 listening to Inspiration Information, once again for the
12 gazilionth time in my life I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter. The
only thing that matters is that this album actually exists and once again it's available to
me, to put a smile on my face whenever I need one.
I don't know how Shuggie Otis feels about all of this. I have never spoken with him. I suspect
that he must be on an emotional roller coaster about Inspiration Information, damn near every
day of his life and I'm sure that ride must be extremely painful for him to take every day.
However I think that he needs to know that in creating this album, its enough of a legacy of
his vision that it will last long after he leaves this earth and that certainly that for a
certain fan of his, located on the east coast of the United States and I'm sure for many
others who are down, he can rest assured that his influence is major and far reaching into the
future. Today in 2005 I see and hear the influence of Inspiration Information all around me.
Lots of artists who are associated with Soul-Patrol (ex: SonnyBoy, Martha Redbone, Stozo, etc)
are "direct descendents" and are "inspired" by the "information" contained in this album. So
their music continues the thought process and expands it in a way that Shuggie Otis probably
never even imagined back in 1974.
So for that I am happy, because if there was ever a thought process that we needed here in
2005, as we try to deal with both the physical, emotional and spiritual realities of what may
indeed be "the last days in time", the perspective of Inspiration Information is something we
can still absorb to serve the purpose of keeping us whole. My endearing hope as I sit here
listening to Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information once again for the 12 gazilionth time in
my life is that, you will take the time to listen it at least once?
It's the ultimate expression of a thing that existed for just a relatively short moment in
time during the 1970's, where all of it came together, under the umbrella of "peace and
positivity". At the time it felt like something that would last forever, but ultimately it
would prove to be fleeting. However fleeting that feeling ended up being in terms of
influencing the masses, ultimately it lives on in the hearts and minds of people who know that
"peace and positivity" really is the only way and that life itself therefore must become a
restless search for bringing the truth of "peace and positivity" to your heart and to your
mind.
And that my friends is one hell of a legacy for Shuggie Otis to have created....
NP: Happy House
--Shuggie Otis
http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/shuggie.htm
<a href=" http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/shuggie.htm "> Shuggie Otis Lost and Found </a>
--------------------
Bob Davis
earthjuice_at_prodigy.net
--------------------
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