― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 6 February 2006 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link
I've got a copy of the movie. I think I posted about it a while back somewhere on here. It's a dream sequence thing in which one of the guys in Bloodstone takes a spill and imagines that they're porters on a Hollywood-bound train filled with people who impersonate film stars like Bogie, Eddy and McDonald, W.C. Fields, Bela Lugosi, et al. it is also a murder mystery. sorta the really stupid companion to glamour-obsessed proto-disco records like the Miracles' "City of Angels" and "Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band." except it's really stupid. but of course, I love it, especially the "rock and roll" number which is sort of like something Roy Wood might've thrown in his wastebasket except that it's performed by a black harmony group on a train. I gave my DVD copy to a friend who needed it even more than I do--the whole thing is a what-the-fuck; the trailer is better than the movie; when I show it to friends, a certain...silence descendds upon the room, a respectful silence. and did I mention that it's really, really stupid?
great thread. funk didn't really begin with James Brown, tho--you got to go back further to drummers like Hungry Williams and Earl Palmer, New Orleans guys, to get at the roots of it. James Brown codified it, maybe, but if it ain't tightened up in the rhythm section, if you don't feel an alienated jerk, it ain't funk music. in my opinion a fan of perhaps the dumbest movie ever, of course. anyway, Martin, you are the man!!
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 6 February 2006 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 6 February 2006 19:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 6 February 2006 23:05 (eighteen years ago) link
"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.
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 6 February 2006 23:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 6 February 2006 23:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 04:31 (eighteen years ago) link
he used the word FONK a lot. kinda annoying.
― team jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 04:55 (eighteen years ago) link
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
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 08:22 (eighteen years ago) link
(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.)
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 13:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link
Tower Records was good for some vinyl and CD's too.
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 15:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― team jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― $ LYRICALLY I'M LIKE MR PERFECT $, Tuesday, 7 February 2006 18:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 18:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 18:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 19:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 19:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 21:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 21:07 (eighteen years ago) link
Uncut Funk RFI: Quazar
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago) link
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.jpghttp://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f542/f54204h03d1.jpg
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f556/f55606zhy8t.jpghttp://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf600/f600/f60027w60jy.jpghttp://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc400/c479/c47980hrh9o.jpg
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 21:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 21:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 21:23 (eighteen years ago) link
i think i read somewhere that Brailey was actually trying to mock and/or show how easy it was to make music like Clinton.
― team jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― team jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:29 (eighteen years ago) link
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).
― team jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:30 (eighteen years ago) link
I do remember seeing some 90s Mutiny cds in there too, but I never bothered with them.
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― team jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:47 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― team jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:56 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 02:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 03:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 23:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 23:07 (eighteen years ago) link
Nothing????? Oh my.
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 23:10 (eighteen years ago) link
Fuzzy Haskins 2 solo albums are pretty good.
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 23:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 23:36 (eighteen years ago) link