Martin's funk thread

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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

well I hardly ever agree with chuck abotu anything, George I don't know anything about, but criticizing Clinton for doing something "Zappa did first" is so bald-facedly ridiculous (and pointless)...

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Went to the store and picked up the Westbound 2005 reissue of Funkadelic's Stand On the Verge of Getting It On and while it's fair, I'm also not exactly getting it. They high regard, anyway.
If the hard rock numbers, of which there are about three, are supposed to be great, in 1975 these boys easily get stomped by second and third tier white boy blooz bands in the arenas. "Alice in My Fantasies" is the best of them, but it's brief. "Red Hot Mamma" has way too much George Clinton cough syrup and speed freak vocal bullshit at the beginning. "Jimmy's Got a Little Bit of Bitch In Him" is average -- probably seemed audacious at the time because it was about the down low -- but Frank Zappa & the Mothers were doing a lot like it a few years earlier. "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" is sub-Hendrix guitar wank from Eddie Hazel who I assume often did better and more George Clinton theology through cough syrup recitation. Album art is great, so are the liner notes. Title cut is OK but the funk ain't THAT funky and the best part again is Hazel's guitar. It's better as the single edit on the bonus tracks because it's shorter. And "Vital Signs" is a funky hard rock instro which is fair, included as a bonus cut.

Title of songs, I've noted in the Funkadelic catalog, are often actually better than the songs themselves, what I've heard of them, anyway.

I don't think any of those white blooz bands could stomp on Funkadelic somehow.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:22 (eighteen years ago) link

I wouldn't exactly call "Jimmy's Got A Little Bit of Bitch in Him" a "hard rock number" either.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:24 (eighteen years ago) link

But I would call it the Zappa number

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:26 (eighteen years ago) link

note he's talking about "the high regard" more than music itself. these guys care more abt rock criticism than rock, no news there.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Martin, I would like to point out that I am loving this thread. Thank you.

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:38 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost:
Ahem

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:41 (eighteen years ago) link

HAHAHAHAHA

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh, I kinda like those silly old rock guys

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:43 (eighteen years ago) link

right on re: Roots

try P Funk All Stars Urban Dancefloor Guerillas

you might like the later Slave LPS better or solo Steve Arrington

great thread

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:43 (eighteen years ago) link

That's the latest Slave album I have (of three); and I don't have Urban Dancefloor Guerillas.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Rare Earth - Willie Remembers
Appalling medium-paced lifeless rock. If you concentrate, a couple of the late tracks suggest that the members may once have walked past a shop where funk was playing, but that's about it.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Kool & The Gang - Spirit Of The Boogie
This is tremendous, really strong funk, beautifully played, rich and potent all the way through. I was sceptical about liking their funk better than their later disco stuff, but this has rather tipped the balance for me. Probably one of the best albums I've heard so far from the megastack.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Bootsy Collins - live in louisville 1978
Very enjoyable - I guess this is very close to his peak. All the big numbers, terrific playing, great fun.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Spirit of the Boogie is a great album (tho the latin excursions don't really do it for me), the great thing about Kool and the Gang is pretty much ALL their early- to mid-70s records sound like that. There's a couple standout singles, backed up with just a ludicrous amount of really tight jazz-funk playing, w/more snap than most. They're like a more urban/uptown version of the Meters or something.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 21:49 (eighteen years ago) link

That Slave album. You have no idea how hard it was tracking that down. No luck on Audiogalaxy because i didnt have a tracklisting to search each song individually. CD's werent in print.
Finally found it last year on slsk.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Roger - The Many Facets Of Roger
Starting with the WORST cover of I Heard It Through The Grapevine that I've ever heard is not good, especially after the title has already made me dubious. Lots of vox or vocoder or whatever it is, but otherwise the rest of the album is enjoyable enough funk.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Funkadelic - Uncle Jam Wants You
This is Funkadelic going disco, and while I mostly approve of that more than the rock tendencies, I think disco needs a tightness and clarity that is sometimes absent here. I did enjoy nearly all of it, but I'm not sure any of it is better than pretty good.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Sly & the Family Stone - live bootleg 1976
Poorish sound quality, and the performance is kind of uneven too. Mostly enjoyable.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Fatback Band - Feel My Soul
A bit too much mellow and laid-back stuff for my taste, when it's funk, but the rest was pretty good. They always felt kind of second division to me, and the albums aren't changing that impression yet.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Listen/I Don't Want To Be Alone
This twofer is Watson partway in his funk reinvention - here he has largely left the blues behind, and we have soul with some funkiness instead. He was better before the reinvention, and he was better when he'd really got it, soon after, but this is still pretty good.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Mandrill - Composite Truth
I liked this one a lot. It starts really well with some storming funk, and kind of wanders off to Latin and calypso rhythms midway, though those two are still fun, but I guess the thing that impressed me especially is how much I liked a long slow number near the end, as I've not cared for too many slow funk tracks so far. I'd barely heard Mandrill before these albums came, and they're really getting into my affections.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Isley Brothers - Brother, Brother, Brother
Fantastic - this is one of those guaranteed many repeat plays down the years. They do three Carole King songs, including a beautiful 13-minute It's Too Late, we get Ernie coming to the fore here and there with his fuzz guitar, and we get a bonus track live version of the peerless Summer Breeze. Wonderful.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:45 (eighteen years ago) link

Funkadelic - The Electric Spanking of War Babies
This is kind of weak, I think. Its reggae track's actually pretty good, which separates it from the other attempts I've heard in the megastack of albums, but none of the rest really stood out - but none of it was dreadful either. Maybe it was time for a change - this was the last album under that name, apparently.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Sly Stone is on Electric Spanking Of War Babies.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:54 (eighteen years ago) link

haha - I find Roger's ridiculous Heard it Through the Grapevine really entertaining... I gotta get me some of that mid-period Isley stuff, def. a gap in my collection there.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 23 February 2006 22:19 (eighteen years ago) link

I think "The Electric Spanking of War Babies" is a bit overrated in some quarters but it's still good. I mean, how can a track called "Electro Cuites" not be good??!?!?

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 24 February 2006 10:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, the trouble with gospel is indeed that the songs are about God. What is wrong with that standpoint?

lolololol u mad

― snakeshit ;] (eman), Friday, 24 February 2006 14:25 (eighteen years ago) link

More from George
Rolling 2006 Metal Thread

And which bands are you talking about here?

Funkadelic's Standing On the Verge of Getting It On, from '75.

For one, Foghat smoked Funkadelic's feeble stabs at hard rock. They
had a way better singer, too. Deep Purple. Anyone with a white Hendrix imitator generally did better than Eddie Hazel, in this case Trower comes to mind. Even Come Taste the Band -- which is Purp's explicity funk record -- is better than Standing. Frank Zappa smoked Funkadelic, and they seemed to be copying from him quite a bit in term of committing weird and zany to vinyl. But if you need some
barrel-scrapers, Tin House, the And part of Johnny Winter And, Stretch, Hustler, REO's first and second album when they were still
barrel-scraping...

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Sunday, 26 February 2006 12:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Collectables put it on a 2-for-1 disc last year with Hardness of the World. The sound quality is quite good.

I love Slave.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Sunday, 26 February 2006 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Last Of (and Shakey etc), what exactly is it that George wrote that you think is so wrong? I'm curious. (I've never had hardly any use for Zappa myself, but in my own case, that's part of what bugs me about some old P-Funk stuff -- Clinton obviously had way more use for Zappa than I did. But I've also been listening to Funkadelic records for most of my life; they're all through the metal book I wrote. My point is that I think I overrated them there; if you can convince me I didn't., I owe you one. But I doubt you can.)

I just noticed this thread, and I like it a lot. May comment more on it later.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 26 February 2006 19:09 (eighteen years ago) link

(And despite never having had much use for him, what George says about Zappa on that thread intrigues me, I have to admit. Anybody who doesn't believe that plenty of '70s hard rock had at least as much funk in it as plenty of P-Funk probably hasn't listened to much '70s hard rock, or they're in denial about how Clinton's own artsy-fartsy tendencies often sabotaged his own funkiness, I'm not sure which. Or maybe we just have different ears.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 26 February 2006 19:52 (eighteen years ago) link

do you want those cornflakes with or w/o hamhocks? taste is subjective. thank god we've all got different ears and definitions.

of course lots of 70s hard rock has funk in it. Especially the Tommy Bolin album w/"Post Toasties" on it. But saying Deep Purple are funkier than an album containing the likes of "Red Hot Mama" and "Sexy Ways' just seems provocative. Wahtever. And hey, I like the first few REO albums. It's easy to imagine Geo Clinton never having heard Zappa but then again when I interviewed him ca. 1984 he cited Vanilla Fudge and Sgt Pepper as major influences so who knows? But accusing him of copying Zappa seems a stretch. For my money, There's A Riot Going On is more "artsy-fartsy" than any P-Funk but it's still funky as a mosquito's tweeter. Like the man said, different strokes...

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 26 February 2006 20:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Frank Zappa smoked Funkadelic

actually I think he smoked Winstons. And we all know George inhaled anything/everything he could get his hands on.

this is not to say there's a huge similarity/interesting parallel between their bodies of work. comparison VS competetion

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 26 February 2006 20:53 (eighteen years ago) link

not to say there isn't...fuck a double negative

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 26 February 2006 20:55 (eighteen years ago) link

"George Clinton once said: "Every black musician sould listen to Frank Zappa".

Also, on Funkadelic's 'Alice In My Fantasies' from 1974, there are the lyrics "Mama said, never eat the yellow snow".

In 2002, George Clinton used the intro horn vamp from 'I'm the Slime' during a show at the Electronic Music Fest in Detroit."

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 February 2006 20:58 (eighteen years ago) link

!!! wrong again. when you assume...wonder if the influence went the other way? "No Head No Backstage Pass" or "Jimmy's Got A Little Bit of Bitch in Him" might've worked as covers for Zappa.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 26 February 2006 21:02 (eighteen years ago) link

come to think of it Overnite Sensation is plenty fonky.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 26 February 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago) link

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