How to play “Shuggie,” part 1
by Andy Timmons
MELODIC MUSE
ON MY LATEST album, Electric Truth, there’s a song called “Shuggie,” which is an homage to the legendary R&B/blues artist Shuggie Otis. Shuggie, son of R&B impresario Johnny Otis, started out playing guitar in his father’s band at the young age of 11. He began recording for Epic Records in his late teens and in 1971 released the album Freedom Flight that included the song “Strawberry Letter #23,” which went to become a smash hit for the Brothers Johnson in 1977.
The Brothers Johnson version of “Strawberry Letter #23” is a song I’ve always loved since I first heard it, and it always reminds me of growing up in the Seventies, when commercial radio wasn’t segregated in any way. You could hear songs by Dolly Parton, Queen, ZZ Top and Earth, Wind & Fire all on the same station, and we listeners were just soaking it all up. “Strawberry Letter #23” features a fast, harmonized guitar part that has always leapt out at me and is one of my favorite moments in guitar history.
Years later, in the early 2000s, someone turned me onto Freedom Flight, as well as Shuggie’s follow-up record, Inspiration Information. When I heard his original version of “Strawberry Letter #23” I was gobsmacked, as the Brothers Johnson had basically lifted Shuggie’s arrangement exactly. Like Todd Rundgren and Prince, Shuggie played all of the instruments on his record, so he was an innovator in that department too. Compared to the Brothers Johnson version, Shuggie’s is a little earthier, with some acoustic guitar on there, but when that guitar break comes in toward the end, it’s absolutely brilliant. I was inspired to recreate it and write a tune around it, and that’s what became “Shuggie” on my new record.
FIGURE 1 represents the higher of the two harmonized guitars. Over the chord progression Gmaj7
- Bbmaj7 - Fma7/A -
Abmaj7, phrases based on 16th-note triplets are played on each of the four downbeats,
and these melodic shapes change slightly to accommodate each chord. I begin over Gmaj7
with the notes F#, E, D and B, which translates intervallically to the major 7th,
6th, 5th a
