Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner, guitar player and front man for the classic lineup of the Ohio Players, passed away on Friday at the age of 69. If you were around in the 1970s you could not have missed their huge funk hits like “Fire.”
As a kid in Ohio at the time, I heard them a lot too. I remember looking through my older sister’s record collection and seeing this strange Ohio Players album with a woman firefighter. I am not sure what I expected to hear when I put the album on the record player, but from the band’s name and their roots in nearby Dayton, I did not expect what I heard. It sounded nothing like anything else in my sister’s collection of heartfelt singer-songwriters, and it was my first exposure to this strange new sound that I would later hear in their other songs like “Love Rollercoaster” (later covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers).
I had not kept up with the members of the Ohio Players for a long time. In later years after their heyday in the 1970s, Bonner had put together his own spin-off band, Sugarfoot’s Ohio Players. And I never really knew much about their background beyond their music. But this interesting documentary about the Ohio Players tells more of their story. (Thanks to @WWedlock for pointing me to the documentary.) [2016 Update: Unfortunately, the documentary Unsung is no longer available on YouTube.]
What is your favorite Ohio Players song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)