From 1974 through 1980,
Johnny "Guitar" Watson was on a tear no one, including
George Clinton or
Bootsy Collins, could equal. While the
P-Funk machine began to run out of steam by 1978 -- with the exception of the
Brides of Funkenstein --
Watson kept churning out the weird, kinky
funk well into the era of
Rick James.
Love Jones, his last fine record for quite awhile, had all the trademarks in place: the choppy, heavily reverbed and wah-wahed guitar that had made
Watson a
blues sensation, the sci-fi keyboards, the handclap that
Nile Rodgers and
Bernard Edwards ripped off for
Chic, the expandable horn section that intertwined with the guitar riffs, and the punched up basic basslines that kept the
funk a simple but ultimately moving thing. It's true that some of the crazy lyrics that graced
Ain't That a Bitch had given way to chanted cliches by this time, but it hardly mattered since
Watson was making music for discos and clubs, and not for radio play any longer. He got hip to the fact that if you wanted to break a record you had to get a club DJ to play the hell out of it. Here, the standouts are
"Booty Ooty," the truly weird and wonderful
"Goin' Up in Smoke," "Telephone Bill," and the hilarious -- and extremely funky --
"Lone Ranger." This may have been the last real winner in
Watson's catalog for a long time, but there is plenty of magic still present in these grooves. [
Shout Factory's 2006 reissue of
Love Jones features two previously unreleased bonus tracks.] ~ Thom Jurek
![Born Under A Bad Sign [Stax Remasters]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0888072343344_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Born Under A Bad Sign [Stax Remasters]")
