''Contradiction'' is the eighth studio album by

The Ohio Players ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

, and the fourth album recorded for Mercury.

History

''Contradiction'' was not as ballad-heavy as ''

Honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

'', but it did expand on the mixture of funk, soul, and rock that they played with on that album. The title track also showed a leaning towards the work they did on Westbound. " Who'd She Coo?" was released as a single and went to No. 1 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' R&B chart. The band recorded ''Contradiction'' at three different recording studios, each session utilizing Barry Mraz as their engineer. The album cover depicts a nude woman feeding a horse a shiny red apple. While the horse is identified by name and breed in the liner notes (an Anglo-

Trakehner Trakehner () is a light warmblood breed of horse, originally developed at the East Prussian state stud farm in the town of Trakehnen from which the breed takes its name. The was established in 1731 and operated until 1944, when the figh ...

stallion A stallion is an adult male horse that has not been gelded ( castrated). Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cre ...

named Wasyl), the model is uncredited. It is the fifth and last Ohio Players album to be announced also as a

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic, also called quadrasonic or by the neologism quadio ortmanteau, formed by analogy with "stereo" sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are po ...

(four-channel stereo) release in the

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, ...

format. However, it was never actually released as no known copies have surfaced even among collectors, and there is no evidence the remix was ever performed. ''Contradiction'' was one of three Ohio Players albums released in 1976. Westbound released ''Rattlesnake'', featuring songs not used during their time with the label. With four Mercury albums under their belt and hit singles on the charts, the group would approve a greatest hits compilation, ''

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

''.

Track listing

Personnel

*Billy Beck – grand piano,

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

piano,

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from 1954 to 1983. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptually similar to ...

, Hohner

Clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

, RMI Electric Piano, ARP "Odyssey" Synthesizer,

ARP String Ensemble The Solina String Ensemble, also marketed as the ARP String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral string synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Eminent BV (known for their ''Solina'' brand). It was distributed in the United ...

, percussion, vocals *James "Diamond" Williams – drums, timbales, congas, cowbells, steel drums, temple blocks, percussion, vocals *

Marshall "Rock" Jones Marshall Eugene "Rock" Jones (January 1, 1941 – May 27, 2016), professionally known as Rock Jones, was an American bass player. He is best known as a founding member and bassist of the funk, soul music and R&B band Ohio Players. Marshall "Roc ...

– electric bass, percussion *Marvin "Merv" Pierce – trumpets, trombones, percussion *Ralph "Pee Wee" Middlebrooks – trumpets *Clarence "Satch" Satchell – flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, percussion, vocals *

Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner Leroy Roosevelt "Sugarfoot" Bonner (March 14, 1943 – January 26, 2013) was a musician, vocalist, and producer. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Cincinnati in 1943, Bonner grew up poor, the oldest of 14 children. He ...

– guitars, harmonica, percussion, vocals

Production

*Ohio Players – producers *Barry Mraz, Lee Hulko – engineers *Rob Kingsland, Karl Richardson, Steve Klein, Hank Neuberger – assistant engineer *Jim Ladwig – art director *Joe Kotleba, Jim Schubert – design *Paul Gremmler – cover photography *David Alexander – Ohio Players photos

Charts

;Singles

References

External links

*
Contradiction
' at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{Authority control 1976 albums Ohio Players albums Mercury Records albums