“Scorpio” by Detroit guitarist Dennis Coffey was one of the crucial gateway drugs that led to my addiction to funk. For that reason, it will always hold a special place in my trunk.

Growing up in the Detroit area in the 1960s/70s (forgive me if I sound like a broken record), I listened to a lot of radio. Back then, some commercial stations were actually damned good. You could hear an incredible funk instrumental like “Scorpio” or Billy Preston’s similarly stunning “Outta-Space” during prime time and nobody in radio’s power structure thought that Western civilization would crumble or that mass heart attacks would ensue. Now, that’s all changed, of course. Oh, how we’ve fallen…

But this post isn’t about the decadent state of commercial radio; this is about the unfuckwithable magnificence of “Scorpio,” one of the funkiest tracks ever cut (you can also check it on Coffey’s MySpace). Released in 1971, the song was Motown session guitarist Coffey’s biggest solo hit (he also played on a grip of Temptations and Edwin Starr classics, among other gems in Motown’s mosaic of excellence, as well as lending six-string illumination to immortal hits like the Spinners’ “It’s a Shame” and Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold”).

“Scorpio” has gone on to get sampled by loads of recording artists (see list below from www.the-breaks.com) and to become a staple in the breakdance-enabling repertoire (I’ve seen awesome routines busted to it). I think it would make the best score ever for a fast-paced, sports highlight TV show or serve as dynamite accompaniment to a chase scene in a remake of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassssss Song. Get “Scorpio” stuck in your head and you will never suffer an energy crisis.

You can find “Scorpio” on the best-of collection Big City Funk (Vampisoul; dist. by Seattle’s Light in the Attic and released earlier this month) and on the Kurtis Blow-curated comp The History of Rap Vol. 1 (Rhino). Big City Funk is strong all the way through and a great intro to Mr. Coffey’s psychedelically inclined funk m.o.

A Partial List of Tracks That Sample “Scorpio”

Busy Bee’s “Old School”
Double D & Steinski’s “Lesson 3”
Geto Boys’s “Do it Like a G.O.”
House of Pain’s “All My Love”
LL Cool J’s “Jinglin’ Baby”
Lord Finesse’s “Keep it Flowing”
Moby’s “Mobility”
Mos Def’s “Universal Magnetic”
Professor Griff’s “Bro Kemit Splitting Atoms in the Corporate War Zone”
Public Enemy’s “Night of the Living Baseheads”
Queen Latifah’s “Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children”
Roni Size’s “Share the Fall”
Young MC’s “Bust a Move”