🎵 AotW AOTW: The Brothers Johnson - BLAM!! (SP-4714)

[LPJim]

The Brothers Johnson
BLAM!!
A&M SP-4714

SIDE ONE

Ain't We Funkin' Now 5:36
So Won't You Stay 3:20
Blam 4:55

SIDE TWO

Rocket Countdown/Blastoff 0:51
Ride-O-Rocket 4:43
Mista' Cool 3:27
It's You Girl 3:32
Streetwave 5:09

Produced by Quincy Jones, who arranged horns with Jerry Hey and Tom Bahler
Mixed by Bruce Swedien
Photography by Glen Wexler
Album Design by Chuck Beeson/ Art Direction by Roland Young

Drums - Harvey Mason & Steve Shaffer
Bass & Vocals - Louis Johnson
Backing Vocals - Bobby Rodriquez, Bobby Floyd, Frank Floyd, Gwen Guthrie, Kenny Pickens, Patti Austin, Raymond Simpson, Richard Heath, Tom Bahler, Yallanda McCullough, Vivian Cherry, William Eaton & Zachary Sanders

Piano - Richard Tee & Wayne Vaughn
Guitar - Larry Carlton, Steve Khan
Lead Guitar & Lead Vocals - George Johnson
Lead Vocals on "It's You Girl" - Alex Weir

Percussion - Eddie "Bongo" Brown
Acoustic Piano - Richard Tee
Synthesizer Programmed by Steve Porcaro
Sax & Flute - Kim Hutchcroft
Tenor Sax - Michael Brecker
Sax, Synth, Flute & Clarinet - Lawrence Williams

Synth & Electric Piano - David Foster
Timpani - Steve Foreman
Trombone - William Reichenbach
Trumpet & Flugelhorn - Jerry Hey (also French Horn) & Gary Grant

Available on CD

JB

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Wow, that is a SHORT album! Side 1 is under 14 minutes.

 

[Rudy]

Reminds me of Gino Vannelli's "Crazy Life" which is, I think, a bit over 25 minutes total.

Great music on this set though. I should have my "twin" hop in and comment.

 

[JH12"fanatic]

Reminds me of Gino Vannelli's "Crazy Life" which is, I think, a bit over 25 minutes total.

Great music on this set though. I should have my "twin" hop in and comment.

Did someone call my name?

"Blam!" is one of my favorite Brojay albums. It also sold quite well considering it didn't have a major pop hit on it like their first two albums. I've noticed that Universal deleted the CD from their catalog. There was also a noticeable tape glitch at the beginning of "Rocket Countdown/Blastoff" on the CD reissue.

 

[Rudy]

Did someone call my name?

"Blam!" is one of my favorite Brojay albums. It also sold quite well considering it didn't have a major pop hit on it like their first two albums. I've noticed that Universal deleted the CD from their catalog. There was also a noticeable tape glitch at the beginning of "Rocket Countdown/Blastoff" on the CD reissue.

Was this one as big of a seller as their other albums? I notice that A&M over the years had reissued a lot of "catalog" CDs, but they didn't remain in print very long. Not to beat Gino's example to death, but a lot of his earlier CDs were in print, but are now hard to find.

I like the lead-off track on this one.

 

[JH12"fanatic]

Was this one as big of a seller as their other albums? I notice that A&M over the years had reissued a lot of "catalog" CDs, but they didn't remain in print very long. Not to beat Gino's example to death, but a lot of his earlier CDs were in print, but are now hard to find.

I like the lead-off track on this one.

Their first four albums all went platinum. "Blam!" actually even made the top 10 on the pop album chart ("Look Out For #1" peaked at #9, "Right On Time" peaked at #13, and "Light Up The Night" at #5) peaking at #7.

I noticed also that A&M tended to delete a number of album reissues quickly. The Herb Alpert stuff is another example. Once those went out of print, the secondary market prices for those discs went through the roof!

 

[Rudy]

I grabbed those early Herb discs as they came out, except for Blow Your Own Horn, which seemed to be one that sat unsold in the bins. (Then of course, when I decided I wanted it, it was gone. ) That was typical of 80s and early 90s catalog reissues, especially A&M it seems: they dumped a lot of catalog onto CD, but much of it was cut out, especially as the company changed hands from A&M to Polygram, then Polygram to Universal.

Bros. Johnson did have a nice showing on the charts! I know they played on a lot of the funk/R&B albums back in the day, and they also had the Quincy Jones touch which helped their sound IMHO.

 

[AM Matt]

The song "Ain't We Funkin' Now" is a great song which they sing "Ain't it funkin' like we like it shoo ghoul....." Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Dave]

I remember first hearing an instrumental on the radio, years ago, and the DJ saying: "That was The Brothers Johnson", and that song, is "Streetwave" from the album Blam!...!"...

My first time hearing BroJo's...



Dave

 

[Captain Bacardi]

The song "Blam" is not an instrumental. "Streetwave" is the instrumental on this album.




Capt. Bacardi

 

[Dave]

Oops...! Yeh, now I think I remember; I made the corrections, above...! ^



Dave