Johnny Guitar Watson – The Funk Anthology

A few months ago I spent a little bit of time with one of our younger Funkateers here on Soul-Patrol at an event and we were discussion some trivial aspect of Parliament-Funkadelic and in the course of the conversation I remarked "Oh they got that from Johnny Guitar Watson. To which my young funky friend replied…."Who is Johnny Guitar Watson". Flabbergasted I replied…."you are kidding me right". To which he said that he wasn’t. I then proceeded to give him "my 5 minute version" of the Johnny Guitar Watson story and ended with a promise "to do something on the Soul-Patrol site on Johnny Guitar Watson" Well the good folks at Shout Records have made it easy for me, by putting together this loving retrospective of the Funk portion of the career of Johnny Guitar Watson. If you call yourself a funkateer, this CD is essential to have in your collection. It’s all here and includes Funk classics such as: Ain’t That A Bitch, Superman Lover , A Real Mother For Ya , Funk Beyond The Call Of Duty, It’s About The Dollar Bill, Gangster Of Love on Disc 1and more. Disc 2 includes some STANK material from his 1994 comeback release called Bow Wow.

Now to get this whole story, this is one of those CD’s that you really do have to buy, just downloading the tracks simply won’t do. In order to completely understand the context, I really did need the rather comprehensive book/liner notes that comes with the two CD set. Written by David Ritz, it’s packed with facts about the life of Johnny Guitar Watson along with many quotes from many different artists who worked with him along the way, family members and sidemen including Soul-Patrol’s own Gemi Taylor.

Don’t even think twice. Just buy it, it’s essential to have in your collection. You need to have it handy if for no other reason than when an aspiring Funkateer asks you the question…"What Is Funk".

Track Listing For: Johnny "Guitar" Watson – The Funk Anthology

Disc: 1

1. Ain’t That A Bitch

2. Superman Lover

3. I Need It

4. A Real Mother For Ya

5. I Want Ta-Ta You Baby

6. Baby’s In Love With The Radio

7. Tarzan

8. Funk Beyond The Call Of Duty

9. It’s About The Dollar Bill

10. Love That Will Not Die

11. I’m Gonna Get You Baby

12. ET

13. Miss Frisco

14. You Can Stay But The Noise Must Go

15. Feel The Spirit Of My Guitar

16. Gangster Of Love

Disc: 2

1. Don’t Be What Uc

2. What The Hell Is This?

3. I Don’t Want To Be President

4. Strung Out

5. Cop & Blow

6. Booty Ooty

7. Lone Ranger

8. Telephone Bill

9. Love Jones

10. Before I Let You Go

11. Voodoo What You Do

12. Come And Dance With Me

13. Ain’t Nobody’s Business

14. Bow Wow

15. Johnny G Is Back

–Bob Davis