The Brothers Johnson - Look Out For #1

In 1976, when I was a high school freshman, I got a gig as a DJ for my high school radio station ("K-O-L-Y / The rockin sound of Gateway High"). I was young, my musical tastes non-existent, which in retrospect is probably why I got the slot (power to the clueless). I had the Monday and Wednesday 2-4 slot. The DJ that precededed me was an older black kid, Randy Johnson.

Randy was smooth and snappy. He always wore a vest and had a wicked afro that was topped with a cocked brother hat. He was our own Venus Flytrap, though in reality he was closer to Sly, the jive-talking and wizened best friend of Lance Kerwin in James at 15. Randy was also radicalized, and spent a lot of time talking about "the Man". One of very few African Americans in my high school, he didn't trust many whites, but we became friends and I was the only white guy he'd greet with a soul dap.

Other than Earth, Wind & Fire the records he played were outside my sphere at the time: Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, Parliament, Graham Central Station, Rufus. He brought most of them from home. It's not an overstatment to say his influence on my "soul" psyche is immeasurable.

This was one of the first things he threw my way. I remember thinking he had to be related to them since they had the same last name. It clicked with me, especially the cover of Come Together. But the track that cinched it - that got my groove up to speed - was Get the Funk Out Ma Face. That bass, that wicked, rhythmic chant, the sinewy syncopation and that falsetto "outta ma faaaace" - this was the shit.

Over the years there were better records for me - funkier, more soulful, more in the pocket (it wouldn't be long before George, Bernie and Bootsy stole my heart away) - but this was my first. This was the record that snapped a little white boy's head around and started a deep love affair wit da funk.

allmusic:

The Brothers Johnson first earned national recognition as recording artists by singing the sensuously funky mid-tempo number "Is It Love That We're Missin'," featured on Quincy Jones' album Mellow Madness. The dynamic duo maintains that same groove on this, its debut release for A&M Records. The first single was the moderate number "I'll Be Good to You," which is soothing like a ballad but inducing like a liquid funk cut. The guitar tandem landed on top of the R&B charts with this gold-selling single. They returned to the Top Five with the bona fide funk jam "Get the Funk out of My Face," which peaked at number four. Their remake of the Beatles' classic "Come Together" comes with a soulful twist. Aside from this remake, the Brothers co-wrote every other song on this album, including the untarnished instrumental "Tomorrow," which later became a number one single for Quincy Jones' Back on the Block. This album is consistent throughout.

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