Martin's funk thread

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America Eats Its Young is always the one you end up back playing because it's not played as much as the others and you kinda forget a lot of stuff on it so you play it again.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:58 (eighteen years ago) link

That Mark S thread is some serious reading.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Friday, 10 February 2006 00:54 (eighteen years ago) link

mark s can be very tiresome.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 February 2006 00:56 (eighteen years ago) link

mark s cantankerous?!?!??! Surely some mistake!

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Ain't That a Bitch

I got this only a few weeks back. To explain, I remember John Peel playing a lot of JGW (if I may abbreviate) on his show and I always remember liking it, in spite of the fact that at that time I wouldn't have known what funk was if I'd tripped over it on the way to school in the morning. So I was delighted to eventually find a cheap JGW album but... a bit underwhelmed when I actually listened to it, boo! Not that it's bad, it just seems a lot less wild and wacky than I remembered - but, as this was his sort of breakthrough funk-era album, maybe the later ones are a bit more freaky?

This album is quite smooth and sedate and, the more you listen to it, the more and more like a blues album it sounds. Because there's not a band on it as such, it doesn't have a great feel - I think it's bass playing I find a bit pedestrian and Johnny's vocals don't have much of a range. The title track is a CLASSIC however - brilliant lyrics (Johnny knows computer programming and Japanese but still can't get a decent job). And, amazingly, Paul Dunmall played on this album!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 February 2006 11:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Sorry to have vanished for a while - thanks to BT I have been offline for six days. I have some review notes for lots of things, so expect catch-up sets of reviews for a few days.

Yes, I do realise that there won't have been many people losing sleep and lamenting this thread's disappearance...

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Graham Central Station - Now Do U Wanna Dance
This is often strong and punchy funk (along with too much leaning towards prog, plus more palatable doowop references), but something like their version of 'Love and Happiness' demonstrates why I don't like a lot of '70s funk anything like as much as early-'70s soul. The Al Green original has the most beautifully played intro in the history of recorded music; this is clodhopping in comparison. The original finds a groove that gets me moving, and stays with it, with the right amount of minor variation. This is too keen to show off virtuosity - and I don't think any of the musicians here were as good as those in that Hi house band, including Larry Graham compared to Leroy Hodges. And finally, the singing - funk had some terrific singers, but it had too many poor and bad ones, and the comparison here with the peerless Al Green is painfully stark.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Meters - Cabbage Alley
I love the Meters - one of my favourite collections of musicians ever, maybe especially drummer Joseph 'Zigaboo' Modeliste. This is a tremendous set of New Orleans late soul/early funk numbers, a total pleasure throughout, if lacking any real standout classics.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Drugs - The Prescription for Mis-America
A very dreary '90s US alternative rock album, mixed in with the funk - I am guessing, from the DVDR it came from, that someone in the band is linked to P-Funk in some way, but that's hardly deducible from the music. Not my thing at all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Funk, Inc. - Chicken Lickin'
Hmm, just two days after playing it I can't really remember anything much about this, beyond that it includes a cover of B.B. King's The Thrill Is Gone. I think I liked it, mostly. Jazz-funkish, well played.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:29 (eighteen years ago) link

General Johnson - All In The Family
I had high hopes for this, as I love the Chairmen of the Board, and it starts with a rereading of Patches, which he had already done beautifully with the band. The rest of it is less stellar - he sings well, of course, but he is looking for something other than the post-Motown hits with Holland-Dozier-Holland, something different, maybe trying to grasp disco, and it doesn't really take off.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Isaac Hayes - At Wattstax
I love Isaac Hayes. This is a live show from 1972, but not just another gig, this was more meaningful in a political sense. I think it was the occasion he debuted his golden chains, which must have been an absolutely breathtaking moment. It also catches him at the height of his powers, especially evident in the strong and confident singing, with great versions of Never Can Say Goodbye and the Shaft theme, and an epic 17-minute Ain't No Sunshine which ranks with his greatest moments. Glorious.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Sly & the Family Stone - Thee Thesaurus of Funkasaurus
Lots of live clips and short interviews from TV appearances in their heyday. The sound quality is very patchy, and most of the talking clips are horribly awkward, and the 2.5 hours is kind of repetitive, in that the biggest numbers of the day are performed again and again - but since all those Dance/Stand etc. numbers are magnificent, this is not a burden, and some of the performances are really outstanding - but even at their least special, in their prime, they were still pretty magnificent.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:31 (eighteen years ago) link

"epic 17-minute Ain't No Sunshine which ranks with his greatest moments"

omg this is def. one of the greatest things ever. totally blew me away the first time I heard it - beautiful the way it builds up and drops down and back up again, such a groove.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago) link

WQelcome back to the land of the internet, Martin.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Thursday, 16 February 2006 07:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Pleasure - Joyous
The first track is the horn part from the Sugarhill Gang's great Kick It Live From 9 Till 5! Hurrah, I spotted one! (It is blindingly obvious - I'm lousy at spotting samples.) This is musically terrific throughout. When there is singing it's kind of ordinary at best, but there is wonderful playing of guitar, bass, keyboards, strings and horns all over this. Good tunes too. At the jazzy end of funky.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 16 February 2006 20:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Cameo - She's Strange
The title track is clear evidence of their finding their mighty late voice when most funk acts were going or gone; still a bit awkward here, but powerful and rich. On the other hand, the weedy and lifeless Tribute To Bob Marley is a painfully feeble attempt at reggae. Very patchy.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 16 February 2006 20:52 (eighteen years ago) link

Brothers Johnson - Look out for #1
Smooth funk that isn't punchy or exciting or especially lovely - it's kind of okay, pleasant, but I find it hard to imagine anyone getting passionate about this. Includes a Beatles cover, which is no good at all, of course.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 16 February 2006 20:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Bar-Kays - Soul Finger
Late '60s instrumental soul, mostly quite like a party-oriented Booker T & the MGs, and as wonderful as that implies. I love this album, and I think it'll get a lot of plays, down the years. It's desperately tragic that most of them were killed in the plane crash that also killed Otis Redding, soon after this was made.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 16 February 2006 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Quazar - s/t
Another of those countless P-Funk-affiliated acts, this is a pretty enjoyable funk album that I was kind of forgetting by the time it had finished. That might be a bit harsh on it, since I didn't have any bad thoughts about it, but I can't see it making many people's lists of all-time greats.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 16 February 2006 20:55 (eighteen years ago) link

James Brown - Live In Zaire
This is from 1974, towards the end of his long peak. I'd be tempted to cite a five-minute sax solo as a sign of wrongness, but actually it's terrific, as you'd expect from Maceo. It suffers a little from James's regular tendency to remind us of songs then move on. For the previous several years, there were at least some where he'd get into them in a big way - Man's World was always a highlight, but here it lasts one minute, and he doesn't really get his teeth into anything. It's all very enjoyable, but I have at least half a dozen better James Brown live albums.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 16 February 2006 21:09 (eighteen years ago) link

The title tune from Joyous is one of my all-time favourite songs. Good to know the whole album finds favour with you. I must get this sometime.

I have Pleasure's first two albums Dust Yourself Off/Accept No Substitutes on a 2fer. Some good stuff on these too.

― Jeff W (zebedee), Thursday, 16 February 2006 22:17 (eighteen years ago) link

They're both in the stack too, as is Future Now. Dust Yourself Off might come along as early as next week, in fact.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 16 February 2006 22:34 (eighteen years ago) link

so what's yr system for ordering how you listen to all this stuff?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 February 2006 22:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Ahh Martin the Quazar is fabulous. I'm disappointed you don't think it's anything special.
Glen Goins was the best p-funk singer of them all. A real tragedy he died before the album was completed.
(and yes I love Fuzzy Haskins)

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Friday, 17 February 2006 00:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Too complicated to explain, Mo! I stopped short of a database, but have a complicated spreadsheet with all the albums listed, assigned to categories (basically 3x2: P-Funk, other funk, jazz; pretty sure I'll really like it/don't know), with counts of any act with 5 or more albums, to enable a fairly even distribution of all the categories and acts. Then I have to sort out sizes and organise them in folders for burning onto CDRs, as well as just putting some on the PC for home playing.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 13:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Chairmen of the Board - S/T & In Session
I thought this was a best of at first! 24 tracks (it's a twofer) of great tunes and great singing (though I like those where one of the others sings classic show tunes a LOT less), the natural successors to the Four Tops thanks to Holland-Dozier-Holland moving from Motown to Invictus, where this lot filled the gap. I guess General Johnson is a notch short of Levi Stubbs' greatness, but that's no kind of put-down - his qualities are actually pretty similar, and equally well-suited to the material. This is about three quarters magnificent.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Rufus & Chaka Khan - Ask Rufus
I was expecting punchy funk with potent vocals, but actually this is almost entirely soul ballads. I think I've not given her enough attention as a singer, probably because of the caricature performance on Lady Marmalade, which was when I first heard her. She's really very good on this, with more subtlety than I had expected, as well as the strength I knew about.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Tower Of Power - Back to Oakland
The singing here is entirely middling, but the playing is good enough to more than make up for that, with lots of horn-powered soul-funk. I listened to it in fragments on noisy streets and the tube while doing other things, but it's one I'll go back to, to get a fuller grasp on it.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Politicians - Psycha-Soula-Funkadelic
I enjoyed this at the time, but don't remember too much about it, other than particularly liking Love Machine (not the Girls Aloud one, sadly).

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Errrrrrrrrr, Patti Labelle on "Lady Marmalade" surely Martin!

― Adidadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Parliament - Chocolate City
This seems like the epitome of what I like best about P-Funk: get in a groove and stay there, relentlessly. Very funky, strong and kind of rough sounding. Really terrific.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:13 (eighteen years ago) link

ha, sorry - misremembering my disco classics there! The first Rufus I recall was what I always start singing as (when not concentrating) 'Climb Every Woman'.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Ruth Copeland - I Am What I Am
She has a strong and rich voice, and the P-Funk musicians are good of course - but mostly they are going for a West Coast hippy rock sound, more Jefferson Airplane than P-Funk. Not my thing at all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:17 (eighteen years ago) link

War - All Day Music
I was thinking while I listened to this that I think of War as one of the blackest acts ever (irrespective of their actual mixed race make-up, which I don't think I knew way back when), then I tried to work out what that meant, and why.
1. The era was big on asserting blackness, lots of pride in black skin, lots of bare skin on album sleeves and so on, especially within funk.
2. Something about the looseness of their grooves - there's a relaxing into a beat which reminds me of some hip hop.
3. Their range of references: jazz, soul, blues, reggae even - it sometimes seems like a deliberate attempt to integrate black music history.
Anyway, nonsense about blackness aside, I really like their sound. This album also has an old favourite, Slipping Into Darkness, which I am sure Bob Marley must have heard before writing Get Up, Stand Up.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:18 (eighteen years ago) link

And by the way, what you said about "Love and Happiness" - spot on

― Adidadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Politicians - Psycha-Soula-Funkadelic

Didn't you recognise the bit Primal Scream nicked for Losing More Than I'll Ever Have/Loaded?

Oh wait i bet you only know Loaded. Well its obviously on that anyway and a lot of people mistakenly think that was a Wetherall bit. But it's on the original.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Saturday, 18 February 2006 12:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Chocolate City is one of my fave Parliament albums.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Saturday, 18 February 2006 12:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Gainin' on ya!

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 18 February 2006 13:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Slave - The Concept
Enjoyable enough funk, and I've a notion there may just be more to be had from this one, but it didn't really hook me or demand my attention enough - seemed too polite or something.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 February 2006 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Bloodstone - I Need Time
Good singing, lacking the WTF element of their soundtrack album reviewed upthread. I like Bloodstone and enjoyed this, though I can't say that any particular track here really shone.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 February 2006 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link

BT Express - Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)
A couple of excellent disco numbers here, and the rest is more than pleasant, if filler really.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 February 2006 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Curtis Mayfield - Roots
This I think is a genuine masterpiece: his second solo album, and it is a masterly combination of his so-sweet voice, one of the most lovable ever, with the dance-soul music - those distinctive vaguely Latin rhythms and his fine guitar playing - and the lyrical ambition. It's an album to set right next to What's Going On, I think, without suffering by the comparison, and I love it totally.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 February 2006 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link

George Clinton - Computer Games
A huge amount of referential moments on this - lots to his own past, with little quotes from old Parliament/Funkadelic tracks, but also nods to for instance the Four Tops, and parts that were later quoted by Dre & Snoop, all of which gives it something of a spurious pivotal feel. This also has something in common with Rod Stewart's solo abums a decade before: yes this is a solo album, yes it has pretty much all the band members on it, what is your point exactly? Anyway, very lively and enjoyable.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 February 2006 14:02 (eighteen years ago) link

I am now up to date!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 February 2006 14:03 (eighteen years ago) link

i wish i heard more parliment

― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 19 February 2006 14:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Just like to say I'm really enjoying this Martin, especially since the idiot trolls have disappeared (for time being anyway).

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Sunday, 19 February 2006 14:36 (eighteen years ago) link

I expect they'll be back. They always are. Thanks, Billy, and to the others who are liking this, as it is indulgence on my part.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 February 2006 15:24 (eighteen years ago) link

What ILM's own Statler & Waldorf Think of Funkadelic.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Monday, 20 February 2006 15:53 (eighteen years ago) link

haha.

Zappa sucks.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 20 February 2006 22:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I like zappa but ...they are so wrong.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 02:02 (eighteen years ago) link

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