13. The Ohio PlayersSkin Tight
I knew The Ohio Players before they even had records. They were playing around Cincinnati around the time that we were. This was before we got together with James Brown were they were the first professional group that I’d ever, ever seen. They were just so on it. To me, they were better before the records and I got to feel the stuff they didn’t know they was doing. When they started to make records, they made records to make records, you know? But before that, they was raw; so raw. I got a chance to see that and they’d really put on a show.
And so any time The Ohio Players was anywhere within 100 miles of Cincinnati, all the musicians would show up and they’d want to be on the first seating because they wanted to watch. These cats were so dominating when they first came up on the scene. When they started making records, that’s when they started to get popular. And I’m not saying they stopped making a good show but it wasn’t like it was when they didn’t make records. I got a chance to see that and feel that up close.
