We live in a sick, sick world, a world wherein a couple of no talent jheri curled schmoes can just shit a bunch of synths over someone else’s perfectly good song, rake in tons of money for it and get to play on the soundtracks to Bill Cosby films, while the creator of the original, superior song becomes so distraught he turns down the chance to tour with the Rolling Stones and ends up a virtual unknown, despite having massive, crushing talent.I am, of course, referring to Shugie Otis, whose Strawberry Letter 23 was transformed by the sinister Brothers Johnson into a terrible synth funk disaster that somehow hit #5 on the Billboard Charts, while Shuggie developed a “reputation” and saw his career suddenly disappear.
To be fair, the Brothers Johnson aren’t that bad, if you’re into that kind of thing, and, okay, I guess if you turn down the chance to tour with the Stones maybe you should expect to have a little career trouble as a result. And, fine, so he probably got some pretty fat royalty checks back in the day.
Still, it would have been nice if Shuggie had gotten to play on that Cosby soundtrack.
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I dare someone to cover the Brothers Johnson's version of "Strawberry Letter 23," ranked several spots higher.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to guess, it will probably pop up somewhere in the lower-870,000s. So sick.
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