Bernie Worrell (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016) – I’ll Be With You (1978)

For his first solo LP All The Woo In The World, released in 1978, the legendary P-Funk keyboardist Worrell and Junie Morrison co-wrote this superb jam.

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The great keyboardist Bernie Worrell co-wrote and arranged many P-Funk classics as one of the members of Parliament-Funkadelic, and played a major role in the development of their sound.

See our post from April on Worrell for an overview of his life and career.

In 1974, several members of P-Funk including Worrell, Eddie Hazel, and Billy “Bass” Nelson guested on Chairmen Of The Board’s fourth studio album The Skin I'm In.

Besides the superb single “Finder’s Keepers,” another of its masterpieces was the instrumental jam “Morning Glory,” co-written by Nelson and Invictus songwriter Donald Baldwin, who also arranged the LP. It featured truly epic, symphonic keyboard work by Worrell, packed into less than two and a half minutes. Could somebody please whip up an extended edit of this gem?

Holy funk, the album’s producer Jeffrey Bowen already did! “Morning Glory” was only the first of four linked tracks on the album’s A-side that together comprised the mindblowing so-called “Life And Death Suite.” The other three were “Life And Death (Parts I and II)” written by Sly Stone, and sandwiched between them, “White Rose (Freedom Flower)” co-written by Nelson and Baldwin.

When it came time to record his first solo LP All The Woo In The World, released in 1978, Worrell and P-Funk musical director Walter “Junie” Morrison co-wrote the amazing jam “I’ll Be With You.” Like the rest of the LP, it was co-produced by Worrell and George Clinton.

#soul #funk #PFunk #BernieWorrell