Martin's funk thread

"The root of funk was created in the studios. Earl Palmer, the drummer, was really responsible for that word 'funk.' He would say all the time, like if them guys like Lee Allen were playing at the recording sessions, he would say, 'Look, man, let's play a little funkier,' and the word would start going around....Then it emanated right on out until everyday people just say it. It implies a concentrated rhythm and stiffness and more concentration. Sometimes Charles Williams, 'Hungry,' they called him, a drummer that intensified everything....he would tighten everything up and this would be funky because everything would get stiff, man." As a description that, in my opinion, can hardly be improved upon. It really comes down to the rhythmic conception, the drumming, the "tightened-upness" of it all. And so I think it was happening before James Brown did it; I look at it not as some genre of music but as a more general *way of thinking about music*. It's like "Northern Soul": I mean to me, an American, that's a meaningless term, I know what people mean when they say it and I love the songs folks lump into "Northern Soul," but I think it's just some records British people like Ian Levine decided he was gonna make popular, that mostly weren't popular in the United States (at least until they started cutting records specifically for that market, which is a different thing). Hats off to him for finding those records in Miami, but that term just describes a regional *taste*, that's all. What musicians do is a lot different from what people make out of it. So, I kinda think people tend to put the cart before the horse when they think about all this--I like to keep it basic. None of which is to deny James Brown or Sly or Clinton props, but to say that those ideas were in the air long before someone decided to lock them down and name them. And they come from
New Orleans, if you ask me.

he used the word FONK a lot. kinda annoying.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312134991/qid=1139300488/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3182528-1209630?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

(Actually I'm listening to Mingus at the moment - my work CD drive has been repaired, which might up the review rate. I will have very positive things to say about Mutiny and the Ohio Players tonight.)

Tower Records was good for some vinyl and CD's too.

Uncut Funk RFI: Quazar

Do you like the album covers?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f594/f59486jardx.jpg http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre100/e161/e161293scl8.jpg
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f542/f54204h03d1.jpg

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f556/f55606zhy8t.jpg
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf600/f600/f60027w60jy.jpg
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc400/c479/c47980hrh9o.jpg

i think i read somewhere that Brailey was actually trying to mock and/or show how easy it was to make music like Clinton.

after just re-reading the amg bio this is what they say, just in better english than what i was trying to say: Mutiny's debut album, Mutiny on the Mamaship, was released by CBS in 1979 and featured several pointed satires of Clinton, even as the music mostly replicated his style (though it did so quite effectively).

I do remember seeing some 90s Mutiny cds in there too, but I never bothered with them.

so i'm relistening to the whole thing right now. it's been over a year since the last time i listened to it and i actually think it's pretty alright. at the time, i had been in a BIG soul/funk/pfunk addiction phase and this musta come at the tail end of it. so i was probably just getting sick of hearing all the same kinda shit. now that i hardly listen to any of that stuff, it's not so bad on fresh ears.

While I disagree with most of Martin's opinions, it's "Martin's funk Thread" folks. No need to hate on the man because he's the disco kid, instead of the undisco kid.

Nothing????? Oh my.

Fuzzy Haskins 2 solo albums are pretty good.

There's a great "America Eats Its Young" thread around here on ILM somewhere, involving chuck eddy - that's a weird album, but its become one of my favorites over time, particularly because there isn't much else like it in the P-Funk catalog. Really its closest analogue is "Osmium".