THE O’JAYS
The O’Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1958. The O’Jays made their first chart appearance with “Lonely Drifter” in 1963, but reached their greatest level of success once Gamble & Huff, a team of producers and songwriters, signed them to their Philadelphia International label in 1972. The O’Jays emerged at the forefront of Philadelphia soul with “Back Stabbers” (1972), and topped the Billboard Hot 100 the following year with “Love Train”. The O’Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. (More from Wikipedia)
One other thing. Stratavarious might fill an annoying hole in the roster of the Under-Appreciated Rock Bands: Nobody so far has been African-American. I do know that Johnny Usry is black, as is Poison. Also, most of the people that Usry has worked with over the years are African-American: Besides the Three Degrees, they include Teddy Pendergrass, Lou Rawls, and the O’Jays; however, that is not true of Air Supply. I have no photos so far, and the music itself could go either way, so I am still not sure.
(March 2012)
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Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff founded Philadelphia International Records in 1971 and (as Allmusic put it) “ruled the mid-’70s R&B world with the same sound”. Major artists that were signed to the label include the O’Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Lou Rawls, the Three Degrees, and Billy Paul. Blue Notes lead singer Teddy Pendergrass later signed a solo deal.
(July 2014)
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Writing in 2010 for the Detroit Metro Times, Bill Holdship writes that “the Ramrods [were] Detroit’s first ‘official punk’ band” and also gives a great overview of what the Lovemasters were all about: “Bootsey X & the Lovemasters were the best live rock ’n’ roll show in town then — sometimes approaching rock ’n’ roll carnivaldom. . . . [I]n the mid-to-late ’80s, a Bootsey X & the Lovemasters performance was akin to seeing Iggy Stooge fronting a James Brown and His Famous Flames Revue — that is, if both the Godfathers of Soul and Punk had even greater senses of humor . . . plus, everything else such a concept would involve (with flashes of George Clinton’s Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone, both of which were psychedelicized versions of the [James] Brown revue anyway). The act came complete with horns, keyboards, a jive-talking emcee (who doubled on sax), and the ever-present — and ever-hot — Sugarbabes of Soul. . . .
“And if that weren’t enough, the crew mixed it all with such perfect punk-ified covers as Neil Diamond’s ‘Brother Love’s Travelin’ Salvation Show’, Elvis’ ‘Kissin’ Cousins’ and ‘Suspicious Minds’, Roy Head’s ‘Treat Her Right’ (the instrumental that always announced Bootsey’s imminent arrival onstage), and perhaps the greatest cover of the O’Jays’ ‘Love Train’ of all time.”
(March 2016)
