Walter “Junie” Morrison,who passed away yesterday at the age of 62,is a reminder to me of something me and friend Henrique Hopkins often discuss. With American pop’s music nonstop focus on vocalists,the musicians who helped create sounds we love to dance, listen and sing to often get neglected. Sometimes forgotten. I personally feel Junie is one of those people. One of the great Dayton Ohio funk innovators,Junie twice made his mark on the funk genre. First as a member of the Westbound era Ohio Players,with his Funky Worm” being their major breakthrough. And of course as a member of P-Funk.
Junie’s work with P-Funk on their late 70’s albums and jams,especially Funkadelic’s 1979 magnum opuses “One Nation Under A Groove” and “(Not Just) Knee Deep”,showcased him as an instrumental innovator yet to be. Whenever one of us here’s a flamboyant, melodic synthesizer riff from 80’s electro new wave to present day dubstep,they are in fact hearing a sound that Junie Morrison helped to created. Junie also maintained a successful solo career from the early 70’s to mid 80’s. My review of the Funkytowngroove’s reissue of a two CD set of a couple of a those solo records say a lot about what the man did for music.
Walter Junie Morrison is one of those three career punches in the R&B world. He started out in the Ohio Players during their Westbound years,started a solo career mid decade and of course became a starring member/contributer to P-Funk before relaunching his solo career in the early 1980’s. As one of the prime innovators of the “video game” style of melodic,high pitched funk synthesizer,a sound that’s come to transcend decades and fashion Junie already had something good to go with anyway.
Of course he’s also a very unique artist anyway. He really loves to be eclectic musically. And he also enjoys blending genres in ways that are very different and sometimes may even sound incompatible. That probably has a lot to do with why George Clinton bought him into his fold to begin with. Sometimes though artists such as this seem to say more as part of a whole than as their own people. Lucky for us that was definitely not the case for Junie here.
This set presents Junie’s 1980 recording ‘Bread Alone’ and 1981 realese ‘5’. Both of them showcase his interest in heavy songcraft,closer to the Ohio Players or Slave in that regard as opposed to P-Funk’s more abstract sound. Still that influence cannot help but show up. “Love Has Taken Me Over (Be My Baby)” for sure has a Parliament aspect to production. But songs such as “Why” and especially “Seaman’s First Class (Jock Rock)” have a much sleeker jazz-funk take with very strong sophistifunk overtones.
As a mutli instrumentalist “everything man” his bass,keyboard and drum lines all pop and thunder right with the demands of the melody and arrangement. “Funk Parts” is a very straight synth funk groove,heavy on the video game synthesizer. The title track,on the other hand is a very sentimental,romantic number mixing,interestingly enough country western and reggae. “Apple Song” showcases his unique take on arena rock with a very humanitarian/spiritual message over the seemingly simple melody.
‘5’ is another matter. Now this is pretty much stomping boogie funk all the way,starting with the mildly jazzy/pop styled “Rappin About Rappin” that has a very P-Funk inspired hook with the piano chords and female choruses-talking about “rapping about the games people play”. “I Love You Madly” and the hyper melodic “Last One To Know”, “Jarr To The Ground” and “Taste Of Love” follow in the same league-heavily crafted sophistifunk. On “Victim Of Love” Junie is rocking out on heavy cars belting out vocally JB style about a frustrating,forbidden love afair.
The ballad “Cry Me A River” again brings in that country pop flavor while the title track (there is one) sounds like it might be one of those implicit sexual messages that have gotten somewhat lost from music with time. Overall on both these albums Junie offers up a wide yet connected range of musical stylings into a music that is definitely eccentric and definitely his own. Actually on a similar path to Prince in a way,only with a much more obvious sense of wit and humor. Junie Morrison is probably one of the more unheralded all around talents in funk,soul and R&B. And for those in doubt these albums,especially taken together will go far in even changing the minds of any doubters.
Because Junie Morrison was a musical figure who deserves major celebration for his contributions to music (both sung and unsung),wanted to personally thank my Facebook friend Anthony Michael Calvert for being largely responsible for reissuing some of Junie’s solo albums on CD. He is the founder/joint owner of Funkytowngrooves,who issued this set as part of their Hidden Treasures series. So whether your a fan of P-Funk,the Ohio Players or just love that particular synthesizer approach Junie brought to the table,Mister Morrison’s musical life is one that deserves a strong degree of celebration.
Andresmusictalk 