Junie

George Clinton once hailed Walter “Junie” Morrison as “the most phenomenal musician on the planet.” Although Morrison issued several solo recordings, his lasting influence came from shaping landmark funk productions across the 1970s and 1980s—ranging from the Ohio Players’ first number one R&B single, “The Funky Worm,” through Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove to Clinton’s Computer Games. A multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, and arranger, the Dayton, Ohio native first recorded with the Ohio Players on their 1971 album Pain. He returned for the 1973 follow-up Ecstasy and, essentially on his own, created the group’s 1974 smash “The Funky Worm,” which secured him a Westbound solo deal. In the next two years he delivered three LPs: When We Do and Freeze in 1975, then Suzie Super Groupie in 1976. Soon afterward Morrison entered the P-Funk orbit, contributing to nearly all of the collective’s projects between 1978 and 1981. He also released Bread Alone on Columbia in 1980 and Evacuate Your Seats on Island in 1984, while remaining a regular presence on Clinton’s solo work and P-Funk All Stars releases. Morrison passed away in February 2017 at the age of 62.