Thursday 1 December 2011

The Brothers Johnson - Look Out For #1 (1976)


This album is so funky it should be used to help the elderly rehabilitate broken hips. Haha I know, ok joking aside, this is a seriously funky album draped in the smoothest of grooves with rhythms and bass licks that dive deeper than Marianas trench. Brothers Louis “Thunder Thumbs” on bass and George “Lightnin’ Licks” on guitar were first ‘discovered’ by Quincy Jones in February of 1975.
Edward Eckstine (former president of Mercury records) recalls Quincy saying, “These are the two baddest cats I have ever heard” In the liner notes he writes, “When they walked into the studio and started to play I could not believe my ears. Louis, the younger of the two is 20. He picked up the bass and started playing in a matter of ten seconds the entire studio was silent, with all eyes on him.”
This album captures the virtuosity of the two brothers at the very beginning of their professional career. It is raw with badass bass lines, sultry guitar licks and of course it has that special ‘Q’ treatment (crunchy synths, potent hand percussion et al).

Quincy was recording Mellow Madness at the time (1975) on which the Brothers ended up writing four of the songs. Interestingly enough, prior to joining ‘Q’, the Brothers cut their teeth while touring the States as a sideman with Billy Preston.

Songs to look out for include the hard driving Get The Funk Out Ma Face and the Hendrix-esqe Land of Ladies. Not surprisingly Look out for #1 reached #1 on the US R&B charts and #9 on the US Pop charts. It is a fantastic debut album that is a must have for anyone trying to groove or just rehabilitate their hips. As the Brothers themselves say, “Thunder Thumbs and Lightnin’ Licks gonna get to your soul in ’76!”

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much, I've been looking for this for ages.

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