by Cousin Geoff

Hamilton Bohannon moved to Detroit in the 60s after Stevie Wonder hired him to be his drummer.  After splitting from Stevie, he capitalized on his bandleading abilites and signed onto Dakar.  Bohannon then put out some incredibly funky dance records in the early to mid 70s, among them this LP titled “Insides Out”.

This was one of the leftovers that I snatched up after it didn’t sell at auction, mainly because it’s on a crazy Korean bootleg label, like the rest of them were (I also took home a Korean pressing of Maggot Brain, so ghetto that it was listed as Funk Adelic on the typewritten label, and filled with misspellings and botched song titles).  But I’ll take this copy of Insides Out until I can upgrade, because it’s a fun, funky, groovy record.  I put it on for the first time while hanging out with my 6 month old daughter, and she bounced and squealed in her Johnny Jump-Up as I played the djembe while the record blasted.  My wife was out so we jammed on and on.  And that is what Bohannon does on this record, he picks up a groove, lays it down and just keeps it going. 

He’s joined by fellow Detroiters LeRoy Emmanuel and Mose Davis of The Counts.  The first side is like one big all-nighter, while the b-side is much more mellow, mostly love songs.  It’s worth it to seek out this album for the a-side though, and you’ll see easily see the inspiration for modern electronic music.  When you’ve got the funk and you’re holding it down, why let go?

Check out Foot-Stompin’ Music (about half of the 7:00 min. + track):