Funky Worm

This track begins with one of the most recognizable synthesizer lines in funk history — a slithering, cartoonishly sinuous melody played on a Minimoog that seems to comment on itself with each repetition, too knowing to be taken entirely seriously, too infectious to be dismissed. The Ohio Players were experimenting heavily with electronic textures in 1973, and this track is the most explicit evidence of that — the synthesizer isn't decorating a conventional funk arrangement, it IS the arrangement, the horn section and rhythm section organizing themselves around it. The vocals drop in and out in spoken fragments, less lyrics than commentary, a kind of running narrative about getting down that doubles as a guide to the song's own pleasures. The tempo is deliberately unhurried, almost languid, which makes the groove feel more hypnotic than driving. This is funk as psychedelia, music designed to make you question what you're hearing even as you're compelled to move. The track's influence on hip-hop was enormous — its unusual textures and willingness to be strange while remaining danceable made it perfect sample material for decades of producers. It belongs in headphones as much as on a dance floor, the kind of track that reveals new details on repeated listens, each one more specific and odd than the last.