Personnel: Johnny "Guitar" Watson (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass); Bill Haley, Albert Wing (saxophone); Gregory Davis, Walt Fowler (trumpet); Tony Coleman, Bruce Fowler (trombone); Bobby Howard, Deon Estus (bass); Emry Thomas (drums, percussion).

Given the gleefully irreverent album cover (featuring the bewildered artist in seriously bold threads, sitting on a tricycle flanked by three female gas station attendants), listeners know that they're in for a fun time before WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? even begins. This 1979 record finds Johnny "Guitar" Watson in a serious funk mode, a fact made immediately clear by the surging opening title track, on which the Texas-born Watson muses about the YWCA and ponders unemployment over a dense, Parliament-worthy backdrop. While Watson does indulge in some of his signature bluesy, pyrotechnic six-string playing, this is a giddy funk/R&B outing that's steeped in thick keyboard and bass lines, and it stands as an underrated gem of the late '70s.

Genre:

• R&B / Soul

Labels:

• Collectables Records

Music Categories:

• R&B: Funk