is "strawberry letter #23" soul-prog?

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It kinda has that proggy solo thing going on. I've never heard anything else brothers johnson did - is it all this good? And is it me or did color me badd nick part of the melody for "I Wanna Sex You Up"?

― djdee (djdee2005), Sunday, 27 February 2005 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

strawberry letter #23 was covered by tevin campbell and was my introduction to this classic.
color me badd stole all their choruses

― cevin tampbell, Sunday, 27 February 2005 10:35 (twenty-one years ago)

the original ...by shuggie otis - is mighty fine also

― toe-foo (toe-foo), Sunday, 27 February 2005 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i heard this the other night when it was on Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" - great tune. Didn't the Brothers Johnson also do "Stomp"? I'm sure i had the 7" of that years and years ago.

― Neil FC (Neil FC), Sunday, 27 February 2005 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"Strawberry Letter 23" is 70's Quincy Jones in full effect.

― neil tacus (tacit), Sunday, 27 February 2005 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The middle section on the Shuggie Otis original is pure Prog.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Sunday, 27 February 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't find it to be any proggier than Sly and the Family Stone or Curtis Mayfield. I guess they're all prog-soul in a way though.

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 27 February 2005 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Really? I do think that middle section, with that looped arpeggio, sounds like it could be Robert Wyatt.

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

(Which I don't think I could say for anything from Sly or Curtis.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

i like the idea of quincy as "prog soul in full effect" though

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

from my second book:

"The Brothers Johnson's 1977 hit 'Strawberry Letter 23' is vaguely reggaefied LSD bubblegum that anticipates mid-'80s Prince with hippy-dippy hallucinations about purple showers, not to mention a 'Strawberry Fields'-like title and waterfalling filligrees *exactly* reminiscent of Yes."

(If I had written that a few years later, I probably would have added that OutKast ripped off the melody in "Ms. Jackson." As is, the above passage appears in a paragraph about soul-prog by Sly Stone, Prince, Barabas, Donna Summer, and Earth Wind and Fire.)

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I am so chuck eddy.

― djdee (djdee2005), Sunday, 27 February 2005 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

shuggie otis played on zappa's "peaches en regalia" = shuggie otis is prog.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 27 February 2005 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I always liked that single. The middle section is like something Peter Banks would've done, in Yes or Flash; it always reminded me of that old Flash song "Small Beginnings" somehow. I bought that damned Shuggie Otis reissue, with all the encomiums from the usual people, and I found it pretty lacking. A good guitar player, a lousy singer--no Prince. Anyway, I'm a sucker for the kind of AM formalism shown in "SL23."

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Sunday, 27 February 2005 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"Strawberry Letter 23" was permanently imprinted on my memory during a weeklong Lake Huron camping trip in Summer '77, as it was apparently one of only four records the local radio station owned. ("I Feel Love", "Barracuda" and "Rock 'n Roll Never Forgets" being the others.) Took me 20 years & a viewing of "Boogie Nights" to finally correctly match the song to its long-suspected title - kinda hard to identify a song from its keyboard-hook alone, if the title's never sung & the only lyric you know is "Hello my love, I heard a kiss from you."

I'd say prog-soul is a decent enough description. It just occurred to me now that the song's vaguely similar to "Fly Like An Eagle", what with those little Terry Riley arpeggio-loops they both have

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 28 February 2005 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I prefer the Shuggie version, despite the fact that I more or less agree with xpost that the critics overexerted themselves for Inspiration Information on the whole.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 28 February 2005 00:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The lyrics do allude to a "strawberry letter 22," though the allusion is kinda mumbled . . .

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 28 February 2005 00:57 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost ( and xxxpost)
Yeah, I kind of like the Shuggie version, but I too feel like I was duped by the hype. I also bought its hype companion piece, Gary Wilson's You Think You Really Know Me.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 28 February 2005 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"Gary Wilson's You Think You Really Know Me. "

I don't know about this. What is it?

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 28 February 2005 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Really? I do think that middle section, with that looped arpeggio, sounds like it could be Robert Wyatt.

(Which I don't think I could say for anything from Sly or Curtis.)

I'm only cursorily familiar w/Wyatt's work (I like what I've heard) and may just be thinking more Eno here, but what about "Time" off There's a Riot Goin' On?

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 28 February 2005 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

when wyatt was in Matching Mole, they have sections that are very riley-esque. i believe they were homies?

― LaToya JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 28 February 2005 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"Gary Wilson's You Think You Really Know Me. "

I don't know about this. What is it?

he was/is a weirdo pervy guy that lived in his parents basement. when he was 16, he sent music to John Cage and they became homies. he put out a record in the late 70s that sounds like an outsider take on steely dan with some weird ambient john cage elements. it's pretty fucking rad. he recently put out a cd on StonesThrow of all places. i listened to it briefly at the store but didn't get into it.

― LaToya JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 28 February 2005 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

and if anybody's soul-prog, it's so obviously parliament/funkadelic. everything from the outrageous playing, the costumes, the mythology

― LaToya JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 28 February 2005 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Just remembered that there was a red-vinyl 12-inch of the Brothers Johnson version that's worth keeping an eye out for. I got mine for a buck or something somewhere.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 28 February 2005 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Me too, I got it in South Shields market, 50p.

"Get the funk outta my face" is the b-side.

― MG, Monday, 28 February 2005 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Matos, I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically in "Time"?

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 28 February 2005 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a windchime on my front porch that, occasionally, when the wind blows right, will play the melody line of this song!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 28 February 2005 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Gary Wilson
Yeah, he was this bizarre white boy doing funky futuristic music, like Gary Numan crossed with Prince. His trademark look was to wrap himself or at least his face in bandages or in a plastic dropcloth while wearing shades, as if he were the victim of a housepainter-performed eyes-without-a-face operation. His trademark vocal tic was a series of bizarrely unconvincing "whoos" and "heys." His album had some sort of small cult spearheaded by Beck until it was rereleased on CD around the same time as the Shuggie Otis. They seemed to come back to back. I think the good people at Other Music took the one album cover down and put the other up in its place. I'm listening to it right now- maybe it was unique enough to deserve the hype- I dunno.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 28 February 2005 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"I've got a REAL crush...on Karen."

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 28 February 2005 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

exactly how prog were funkadelic? THIS prog:
teaching mark s a *LESSON* response three: FUNKADELIC

(i still prefer the idea that quincy is the curator of prog in this territory tho)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 28 February 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

I think this may be the best song ever that I have no desire to listen to the lyrics of.

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 00:40 (eighteen years ago)

Matos, I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically in "Time"?

I'm also curious which aspects of this song are reminiscent of Wyatt or Eno, not that I'm a Wyatt expert.

― Sundar, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 01:37 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tgWS9c4kI8

GONNA FEEEEL ALRIGHT

― deej, Friday, 30 March 2007 21:17 (eighteen years ago)

whoa check out the crazy slap-bass action part

― deej, Friday, 30 March 2007 21:19 (eighteen years ago)

Just got "Light Up the Night" on vinyl for $3. Couldn't be happier. The liner notes provide a warning against drug use and implore the reader, "Don't trust that Dust!"

― matt2, Friday, 30 March 2007 21:29 (eighteen years ago)

haha

lasigmaman (2 hours ago)
After watching this, I'll get physically nauseous thinking about the crap the young cats are putting out.
(Reply) (Spam)

― walterkranz, Friday, 30 March 2007 22:14 (eighteen years ago)

'Happy House' may be a better candidate as soul / prog candidate due to its changing time signatures and key changes.

― calstars, Friday, 30 March 2007 23:03 (eighteen years ago)

seven years pass...

Have listened to this at least ten times today and every time I notice something different - not so much prog as psychedelic, during the guitar solo I am transported utterly, then it just goes back to the funk. Everything is just right, and is anyone doing anything like this now?

― agincourtgirl, Friday, 15 August 2014 14:40 (eleven years ago)

Yeah, I always described it as psychedelic soul.

Except in this thread, it seems

― Mark G, Friday, 15 August 2014 22:58 (eleven years ago)

the "prog" section sounds kinda like gary wright

― brimstead, Saturday, 16 August 2014 00:14 (eleven years ago)

the cymbals playing triplets are hella funky

― brimstead, Saturday, 16 August 2014 00:15 (eleven years ago)

five years pass...

I think this may be the best song ever that I have no desire to listen to the lyrics of.

― knowing for certain the first touch of the light will finish you (fionnland), Tuesday, 2 June 2020 21:40 (five years ago)

hi Finn !!!

― budo jeru, Tuesday, 2 June 2020 22:17 (five years ago)

Hey, budo jeru! How’s things? It’s been a while since I’ve last been here, the occasional lurk and dig in the archives but no frequency whatsoever! I do love reading the old threads here- most recently been lost in the ilm disco poll and getting heavy into a genre I hadn’t previously given much thought! Glad to see the Sun Ra thread is continuing strong, I’ll need to have some good listening sessions to get up to date!

― knowing for certain the first touch of the light will finish you (fionnland), Tuesday, 2 June 2020 22:43 (five years ago)

no need to feel "up to date" — just jump in and start posting ! and if i ever end up taking over for sleeve then your edits and addenda will be especially needed :)

― budo jeru, Wednesday, 3 June 2020 16:21 (five years ago)

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