Ohio Players - Skin Tight

All right, it a new year. Let’s get back to the ol’ alphabet game. I’m up to letter O & counting down. So representing the round letter, what better than those round on both ends & hi in the middle Ohio Players.

By 1974, the Ohio Players had been together as a band for fifteen years. That was before funk per se even existed. James Brown was still doing ballads. But by 1974 bands like Parliament-Funkadelic were starting to blow the roof off R&B with the sounds of FUNK. The Ohio Players were already there to help.

Starting with their 1971 album Pain, the Players garnered a reputation for their hot cover art, usually being so S&M-inspired, that many music stores refused to carry their albums. Albums like Pleasure, Ecstasy, Climax, & Orgasm continued the tradition, but the hits came at a slower rate. Finally, "Funky Worm" became a left-field hit in 1973 & the Players left their original record label Westbound Records for the bigger Mercury Records. Their first album for the new company was 1974's Skin Tight.

Skin tight it is. On the surface, with only six songs, this new album might not seem like a great deal, but with songs that all clock in at over 5 minutes, there is plenty here to like. & unless you’re brain-dead & rigor mortis has set in, you won’t be able to hold still.

Recorded at Paragon Studios in Chicago. The Ohio Players are: Leroy ‘Sugarfoot’ Bonner - guitar, percussion, lead vocals & backing vocals; Marshall Jones - bass; James ‘Diamond’ Williams - drums, percussion, lead vocals, & backing vocals; Billy Beck - piano, organ, electric piano, clavinet, synthesizer, percussion, lead vocals & backing vocals; Clarence Satchell - saxophones, flute, percussion, lead vocals & backing vocals; Marvin ‘Merv’ Pierce - trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, & backing vocals; & Ralph ‘Pee Wee’ Middlebrooks - trumpet, trombone, & backing vocals.

Year of Release: 1974
Label: Mercury SRM-1-705
Genre: Funk

Tracklist:
Side 1 -
Skin Tight
Streakin' Cheek o Cheek
It's Your Night / Words of Love
Side 2 -
Jive Turkey
Heaven Must Be Like This
Anybody Gonna Be Saved?

Download: Ohio Players - Skin Tight
Download Size: 92.8MB (ripped from funked-up vinyl at 320Kbps)