Junie: "Suzie Super Groupie"

It’s been a journey, but yes…I’ve finally completed the trilogy of the Junie Westbound albums, and I can’t recommend this cat enough.  If “When We Do” has the psychedelia and guitars, and “Freeze” has the talk box and synth, then “Suzie Super Groupie” has the pop appeal, probably as close as Junie ever got to recording anything that could be considered “mainstream.”  This album serves as the most logical bridge between Junie’s early work and his joining of the Parliament-Funkadelic organization, a collaborative move that I’ve discussed in previous entries.  You can hear Junie tightening up his sound on this record, from the production to the hooks, even as he foreshadows future P-Funk grooves (the basic refrain of Bernie Worrell’s “Woo Together” is taken wholesale from this album’s “What Am I Gonna Do”).  Junie’s strange lyrical sensibility crops up also, with the title track’s chorus chanting, “say that you love me/suzie thundertussy”…musta been a good night for old Walter “Junie” Morrison.  Then there’s “Super Groupie,” a song that I’ve heard in two different versions…on the album, the chorus is “we want some lovin’/you know we need some lovin’,” but on the Junie Westbound comp it goes, “we want some pussy/you know we need some pussy.”  Certainly the latter is more explicit (and fun), but the groove of the song itself is so furious that the lyrics are secondary, the rhythm section cooking up a funk that’s somewhere between mid-period Funkadelic and jazz-fusion, complete with an Ohio Players-style horn lines and some killer synth.  For those dreading Junie’s abandonment of his acid-guitar roots amidst the pop sheen, fear not, as he allows them to come to the fore on the Hendrix tribute “Spirit,” a crunchy funk-rock jam that lets Junie flex his chops with heavily distorted solos, all atop a monstrous guitar-bass riff.  George Clinton called Junie “the most phenomenal musician on the planet,” and the “Suzie Super Groupie” album is further proof of that point…I’m here to tell ya, BELIEVE THE HYPE.  Sucka.