Yesterday, Walter "Junie" Morrison, a key member of the Ohio Players and Parliament-Funkadelic, passed away at the age of 62. Morrison's influence on musicians spans decades, including Solange, who published a letter today about the inspiring and motivating power of his music.
Solange begins with a memory of when she first heard Morrison's music at Q-Tip's studio in New Jersey. It was a song called "Super Spirit," and "No song had ever made me feel quite like it. It tapped into places and spiritual frequencies that I couldn’t even put into words. I listened to it on loop for an hour, each listen hitting me deeper and deeper."
From that moment, she became a super fan; the song "Junie" from her recent album A Seat At The Table is dedicated to Morrison. In the letter, Solange describes the song writing process with André 3000 which was also inspired by a classic viral video.
"It was really a kind of cosmic, collaborative experience with incredible people who I feel are connected to the song with a purpose," Solange wrote. "['Junie' is] the last song that made it onto A Seat at the Table and the one I feel the closest to today."
The finished track is not just a dedication, but a gracious acknowledgement from one musician to another for paving the way. "The more I learned about Junie, the more I learned how much of his gift he shared through his musical contributions to others; how we have all in some way or another been touched by his contributions to funk music..."
Solange concludes with sharing "the greatest lesson" from Junie's life and work. "[It] is that the magic was endless….and the truest testament to real authentic magic….is that it can’t be made….. it just is."
The FADER spoke with Morrison last year about his thoughts on Solange's dedication on A Seat At The Table. "I believe Solange intuits that this type of attitude is the only attribute needed to keep our world from changing," he said.
