Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information/Wings Of Love 2CD (2013)

Inspiration instantly earned comparisons to Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, and reportedly made Sly Stone’s jaw drop upon hearing it. The LP’s title track– every bit as good as “Strawberry”– was issued to radio, though it only reached #56 on the R&B chart. The album failed to live up to Columbia’s expectations, such as they were, and Otis was unceremoniously dropped from the label after its release. In August 1977, as the Brothers Johnson version of “Strawberry” was emanating from car stereos and DJ booths, no one had heard a peep from Otis for more than two years. He wouldn’t return to public life for nearly 40 more.

Reissues are weird things, particularly for albums that don’t instantly announce themselves along clear genre lines, and especially for artists who don’t show any interest in adding to the conversations themselves. Which is why Epic/Legacy’s 2xCD reissue is the definitive version. On the first CD, Inspiration is included as its own entity, and appended with four extra tracks from those sessions– solid B-sides, but impossible to imagine on the original album. The second CD, Wings of Love, is the collection’s real revelation, comprising 14 tracks that Otis recorded between 1975 and 2000. Wings reveals that while Otis was reclusive, he was far from idle. Listening in 2013, it’s hard not to compare it to the year’s other album, m b v, that’s composed of tracks that theoretically could have been written anytime over a period of decades. Reissues are pop music’s preeminent form of historical revisionism, but the great thing about the Inspiration and Wings set is that combined, they’re closer to a parallel universe greatest-hits compilation, in a world where a label embraced Otis’ genius and eccentricity, instead of driving him away altogether.