Two Moments in Time: Funky Bugs

February 24, 2020 6:18 PM

Sampled by more than a few in the land of hip hop, Scorpio was released by Dennis Coffey in 1971. It has a pretty awesome break at the 1:12 mark. Totally unrelated, ten years later (or maybe eleven years, depending on how you want to count it), Grandmaster Flash released Scorpio. Named after one of the band members, Scorpio did ok on the charts.
posted by ashbury (7 comments total)

Dennis Coffey was part of the legendary Motown Funk Brothers, the backing band that played on hundreds and hundreds of Motown songs. Coffey's Scorpio sold a million units which is maybe how he became the first white musician to grace the Soul Train stage.

Why the Grandmaster Flash? Well, it's scorpion day, so why not?
posted by ashbury at 6:37 PM on February 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

I don't think I know the original, so... when my eye glimpsed "Funky" and "Scorpio"... I heard the Flash song as that's all I knew. Nice :)
posted by symbioid at 9:24 PM on February 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pretty sure Dennis Coffey also still plays free weekly gigs at the Northern Lights Lounge in Detroit pretty regularly. Local legend, but I guess he's off the radar of even many locals aside from jazz circles and music nerds.
posted by p3t3 at 9:49 PM on February 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just heard this the other day on my sisters Satellite Radio. The Whole glorious thing.

The Detroit Guitar Band was just that, Guitars and Percussion. Pretty radical an experiment at the time.

That song drove a lot of conga sales as well from that awesome solo.
posted by djrock3k at 8:10 AM on February 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Is today possibly national scorpio(n) day or something?
posted by glasseyes at 9:42 AM on February 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Neat! Thanks! Is Baker's Keyboard Lounge still going in the D?
posted by Slothrop at 9:50 AM on February 25, 2020

DUDE. We little 9 year old girls danced to this in 4th grade. (I blush to think how we tried to be provocative.) Thank you for this flashback.
posted by corvikate at 10:58 AM on February 25, 2020 [1 favorite]