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Funkadelic - Who Says A Funk Band Can't Play Rock? (1 Viewer)

Bob Magaw

Bob Magaw

Footballguy
or a rock band can't play funk?

Below gives some context to the origins of the band, and their first three albums.

Excerpt - "...contractual difficulties arose between Clinton and his financially shaky label; when Revilot went bust it meant he was no longer able to record under the name ‘The Parliaments’. In a stroke of brilliant lateral thinking, Clinton decided to make the backing band his group, and make his group the backing singers for the band. Christening this new formation Funkadelic, he signed to another local label Westbound label in 1968."

http://diamonddavewonfor.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/who-says-a-funk-a-band-cant-play-rock-funkadelic-and-black-rock/

 
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Bob Magaw said:
or a rock band can't play funk?

Below gives some context to the origins of the band, and their first three albums.

Excerpt - "...contractual difficulties arose between Clinton and his financially shaky label; when Revilot went bust it meant he was no longer able to record under the name ‘The Parliaments’. In a stroke of brilliant lateral thinking, Clinton decided to make the backing band his group, and make his group the backing singers for the band. Christening this new formation Funkadelic, he signed to another local label Westbound label in 1968."

http://diamonddavewonfor.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/who-says-a-funk-a-band-cant-play-rock-funkadelic-and-black-rock/
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That article was worth the read simply because led to me hearing (I Wanna) Testify.

Bob, do you have a list of your favorite funk songs?

 
cstu said:
or a rock band can't play funk?

Below gives some context to the origins of the band, and their first three albums.

Excerpt - "...contractual difficulties arose between Clinton and his financially shaky label; when Revilot went bust it meant he was no longer able to record under the name The Parliaments. In a stroke of brilliant lateral thinking, Clinton decided to make the backing band his group, and make his group the backing singers for the band. Christening this new formation Funkadelic, he signed to another local label Westbound label in 1968."

http://diamonddavewonfor.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/who-says-a-funk-a-band-cant-play-rock-funkadelic-and-black-rock/
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That article was worth the read simply because led to me hearing

 
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SacramentoBob said:
It's a shame Clinton's "Black Vampire" LP never saw the light of day. Curious what that would've sounded like.
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Not familiar with the background on that, Bob, sounds interesting.

Blast from the past, a three part Twilight Zone-like anthology on HBO in the 90s featuring Rod Serling-esque intros by George Clinton, called (naturally) Cosmic Slop. It would be remiss to not mention avant garde, free jazz collective leader Sun Ra was an obvious precursor to Clinton's whole Afronaut mythos (brilliantly illustrated by Pedro Bell on the album art from Cosmic Slop, Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, etc.).

IMDB page

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109487/

Again, to the thread, there could be objectionable, offensive, irreverant content and language, I haven't seen these since they originally aired.

Space Traders (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkDVwTWloDU

First Commandment (Part 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ScZ9ndgHU

Tang (Part 3A - starts about 14:00-22:00 mark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-iSy2GszaQ

(Part 3B, this is chopped up on youtube - continues and concludes at the 19:45 mark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-mKbD0fFO4

 
Bob Magaw said:
SacramentoBob said:
It's a shame Clinton's "Black Vampire" LP never saw the light of day. Curious what that would've sounded like.
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Not familiar with the background on that, Bob, sounds interesting.
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George was working on a solo LP for Holland-Dozier-Holland's post Motown record label Invictus. It must've been very close to release because it was listed in their official catalog for 1972, but it never came out. There are allegedly a handful of test pressings that made it out and are in the hands of very wealthy collectors, but I've never heard any of the material.

 
Back to the topic of "black rock", anyone who has Netflix can watch the documentary "A Band Called Death". Really enjoyed watching it. Short version, siblings from Detroit form a rock/funk band in the early 1970s that eventually becomes an early punk band but never were able to get their LP released.

 
Bootsy (and his brother) played with James Brown briefly before playing for P-Funk. Another case of overlap and intersection between the two bands were the "Horny Horns". Fred Wesley (trombone) and Maceo Parker (sax) were both at various times band leaders for James Brown

Maceo and the Macks - Soul Power 74 (one of the greatest sustained sax solos on a funk record, imo).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V1Pg8JfZs8

From Axiom Funk/Funkcronomicon, another Laswell project, reuniting Bootsy, Bernie, Maceo and I think Wesley - Sax Machine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koLA5l0Evx4

Bootsy's New Rubber Band featuring Fred Wesley - Wide Track (few players can make the instrument sing like this).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK3V8es1RKA

From the same album - Funk Express Card (instrumental version starts about 5:35)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2m44bVEJqw

Also from the Funkronomicon collection, a posthumous Eddie Hazel release in which the musicians collaborated on finishing one of his jams - Orbitron Attack (speaking of black rock, blistering proto-metal, as was Super Stupid from Maggot Brain).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ZrlvFYWTM

 
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More from Axiom Funk/Funkronomicon

Order Within the Universe (great Bernie Worrell intro shows his classical range).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw3V2iT6KXA

Hideous Mutant Freekz (in the vein of Cosmic Slop - I always liked the fact that Clinton didn't take himself too seriously, he claimed the subversive element wasn't about telling people what to think, just letting them know they could think).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K75V0IOnTNg

Pray My Soul (another posthumous Eddie Hazel track completed by Laswell and the P-Funk crew, again at his Hendrix-esque best)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDS-TlviTC0

Article on Miles early to mid-70s forays into rock and funk (covers the later Get Up With It, Dark Magus, Agartha and Pangaea). He was introduced to the music of James Brown, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix by his then-wife Betty Mabry, and quickly moved to incorporate these contemporary elements into his pallette of sounds.

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/miles-davis-on-the-one

Tribute To Jack Johnson - Right Off (rock influence on John McLaughlin's guitar is unmistakeable).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEBKksupBVA

Get Up With It - Maiysha (jump to the last minute of the track, and the funk influence is more pronounced)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXM81jYcGEA

Donald Byrd's Ethiopian Knights - Little Rasti (another jazz trumpet artist from the same era showing some contemporary rock and funk influences)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI39YS3niAc

 
I've said it before and I'll say it again, we elected the wrong Clinton in 1992. I just hope we don't repeat the same mistake in 2016.

 
I certainly would have voted for George Clinton over any Presidential candidate in my lifetime, dead or still living. Though their music is quite different, I would have voted for Barry White or Isaac Hayes as well.

 
Bob Magaw said:
More from Axiom Funk/Funkronomicon

Order Within the Universe (great Bernie Worrell intro shows his classical range).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw3V2iT6KXA

Hideous Mutant Freekz (in the vein of Cosmic Slop - I always liked the fact that Clinton didn't take himself too seriously, he claimed the subversive element wasn't about telling people what to think, just letting them know they could think).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K75V0IOnTNg

Pray My Soul (another posthumous Eddie Hazel track completed by Laswell and the P-Funk crew, again at his Hendrix-esque best)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDS-TlviTC0

Article on Miles early to mid-70s forays into rock and funk (covers the later Get Up With It, Dark Magus, Agartha and Pangaea). He was introduced to the music of James Brown, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix by his then-wife Betty Mabry, and quickly moved to incorporate these contemporary elements into his pallette of sounds.

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/miles-davis-on-the-one

Tribute To Jack Johnson - Right Off (rock influence on John McLaughlin's guitar is unmistakeable).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEBKksupBVA

Get Up With It - Maiysha (jump to the last minute of the track, and the funk influence is more pronounced)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXM81jYcGEA

Donald Byrd's Ethiopian Knights - Little Rasti (another jazz trumpet artist from the same era showing some contemporary rock and funk influences)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI39YS3niAc
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wow!! i totally forgot this existed. I used to listen to this all the time!

 
Fennis said:
Fishbone was a great mix of ska, rock, and funk.
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Somewhere at my parents home is the drum stick from the Fishbone drummer.

For about 200 people, if that, we had Trulio Discracious play at our college. TD was a mish mash of players from P-Funk, Fishbone, Peppers - Flea would sometimes be part of the ensamble.

This lineup had the Fishbone drummer, one of the amazing female singers for P-Funk... and ####, I don't remember. But ######, it was freaking the most amazing jam I've ever seen. And I've seen some good ones.

 
Bob Magaw said:
cstu said:
or a rock band can't play funk?

Below gives some context to the origins of the band, and their first three albums.

Excerpt - "...contractual difficulties arose between Clinton and his financially shaky label; when Revilot went bust it meant he was no longer able to record under the name The Parliaments. In a stroke of brilliant lateral thinking, Clinton decided to make the backing band his group, and make his group the backing singers for the band. Christening this new formation Funkadelic, he signed to another local label Westbound label in 1968."

http://diamonddavewonfor.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/who-says-a-funk-a-band-cant-play-rock-funkadelic-and-black-rock/
Click to expand...
That article was worth the read simply because led to me hearing

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I'd throw in Bootsy himself as a solo act to get a feel for funk

Bootzilla (his biggest hit)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=husf6po76mU

Stretchin Out (1st hit; keyboard sound familiar?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ0XolwVyz8

Munchies For Your Love (Pink Floyd without the ####ed up world view)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVYwZ1hgNiU

Roto Rooter (I don't even know how to describe what happens here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKH-Khz7kQU

Hollywood Squares (one of the all-time great chants)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xn3x6KGNkQ

A lot of Bootsy's stuff sounds like off-kilter nursery rhymes, but then the music locks in and then you realize he's singing about stuff you don't want your little kids doing (much less hearing)

 
This Boot was made for fonkin, Baba.

Bootsy's Pinocchio Theory - If you fake the funk, your nose got to grow. Fred Wesley (who ought to know), called him one of the funkiest people on the planet, "He could hit a stick on the ground and it would be funky." When I listen to Bootsy, not only limbs begin to move involuntarily (you don't move to it, it moves you), fingers and toes move independently, and even different joints begin to move separately. The funk reverberates down to the molecular level.

Jam Fan (Hot), this groove is locked down tighter than NORAD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePejteLIT-g

 
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zamboni said:
Bob Magaw said:
Tribute To Jack Johnson - Right Off (rock influence on John McLaughlin's guitar is unmistakeable).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEBKksupBVA
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Probably my favorite Miles album after #####es Brew.
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Also On the Corner and Big Fun (mostly due to Ife) for me, from his electric period (showing the influence of James Brown, Sly Stone and Hendrix), circa late '60s to mid '70s. Some of his earlier stuff, like Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain, are almost canonical in jazz, in the sense Bach and Mozart are in classical.

Helen Butte/Mr. Freedom X (from On The Corner)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQpPhlBU57Q

Ife (from Big Fun)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkaoWRQgfzQ

Some more P-Funk related...

Bernie Worrell

Flash Light (Parliament, extended version, a lot going on with the synths in the background)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fatP7thewQM

Once In A Lifetime (with the Talking Heads, from Stop Making Sense)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7pVjl4Rrtc

X-Factor (from his Blacktronic Science, with Maceo Parker and Tony Williams)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALm9nrIp3Cw

Speaking of black rock,

Some lesser known, rare instrumentals by Hendrix.

Paligap (originally from the posthumous Rainbow Bridge)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kltfFtsQK-I

Hendrix/Young Jam (from the bootleg Nine To The Universe, with organist Larry Young, who did great jazz for Blue Note in the 60s, such as Unity, played with Miles on BB, and was in one of the first fusion splinter groups from Miles, The Tony Williams Lifetime, one third of the power trio that also included John McLaughlin, before he founded The Mahavishnu Orchestra)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG3pjkDnRZM

The late Hiram Bullock was a gifted and endlessly inventive guitarist who played on everything from the original Letterman Late Night band, David Sanborn, Steely Dan (Gaucho) to the solo on Sting's cover of Little Wing by Hendrix. Below are four instrumental covers.

Pretzel Logic (Steely Dan cover from his solo album Give It What U Got)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ5WxhlVqz0

I Shot The Sheriff (from Jaco Pastorius, Live in New York City Vol. 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvxBh5EwiXU

Dear Prudence (also with Jaco)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mPNPIfEPNk

Purple Rain (from Kenwood Dennard's Just Advance, with bassist Marcus Miller)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXA3pPMkxFU

The best Acid Jazz/Soul from the late 60s to the mid 70s incorporated funk elements without sounding derivative. Below are three of my favorite guitarists in that genre.

Grant Green

Windjammer (from Live At The Lighthouse)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZvQhQbPioY

Lazy Afternoon (as laid back and in the groove as its apt title, from Street of Dreams, with Larry Young, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes and Elvin Jones on drums)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVaHw4jjn7c

Melvin Sparks

Thank You (an instrumental Sly Stone cover from Sparks!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NLPtO-2lP4

Texas Twister (title song from the album)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOvxhwqYMXk

Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones

What It Is (an infectious, hypnotic groove with bass, organ and congas, the title track?)*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PleEvRgGOc

Hoochie Coo Chickie (from Snake Rhythm Rock, his work has a kind of organic propulsive sense)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YivFyoUVD3Q&list=PL08557F27D4ECE084&index=6

Crash Course In Acid Jazz/Soul

Organist Charles "The Mighty Burner" Earland

More Today Than Yesterday (from the classic Black Talk!, also with Melvin Sparks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PjYQndM-JM

Blue Note alto sax great Lou Donaldson

Turtle Walk (from Hot Dog, also with Charles Earland and Melvin Sparks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBUWtnd0g_E

Alligator Boogaloo (title track, with Lonnie Smith on organ and George Benson on guitar)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Uv0pCvvSI

Keyboardist Charles Kynard

Zebra Walk (from the compilation Legends of Acid Jazz, also with Melvin Sparks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmOZRfDP0zQ

Drummer Bernard Purdie

Theme From Shaft (from Shaft)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB9fiA_HXmU

Funk, Inc.

Smokin' At Tiffany's (from Hangin Out)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0heL3sNe4

The Better Half (from Chicken Lickin')

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-1Xdts7Xb0

Message From The Meters (from Superfunk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JnM3Q3kI1Q

I thought Prestige was better at this kind of acid jazz/soul/funk than Blue Note (sounded more forced, in general) in this time frame. Like Motown and Stax, they had a house band, who would rotate as leaders and backing, support roles, including organists Charles Earland, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Leon Spencer, Sonny Phillips, Charles Kynard, guitarists Melvin Sparks and Boogaloo Joe Jones, drummers Bernard Purdie and Idris Muhammad and sax players such as Houston Person, Rusty Bryant, Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. Because they played together a lot, they could both function as a tight rhythm section and comfortably improvise. Many were recorded by ace Blue Note engineer Rudy Van Gelder (a song like On The Up on Akilah! by Melvin Sparks, is like a reference for me in that genre and from that era regarding its being an almost perfect recording, pristine and immaculate in terms of [unusually] being able to hear all the instruments nearly exactly equal in the mix).

* If you only listen to a few tracks here, let it be the Prestige acid jazz/soul by Charles Earland, Boogaloo Joe Jones and Funk, Inc. :)

 
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Fond memories from some 2nd-tier 70s funkateers:

Slave - "Slide". Everyone labeled them as a low-rent P Funk (& maybe they themselves thought they were) but they sound more like an updated Family Stone to me - slinky and tricksy, precious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1tKTjRgJuE

Lakeside - "All The Way Live". They hit bigger with "Fantastic Voyage" a few years later, but this is their best IMO. Sledgehammer bass, great chants, vocal that sounds like a black Paul Rodgers, and a nice guitar solo on the 12" version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RzQlpAM5rU

Bar-Kays - "Holy Ghost". Otis Redding's back up band, most of whom died in the same plane crash he did. Reformed and had a ton of hits in the 70s. This was the unofficial theme to every funk concert I attended at the old Cap Centre in the 70s. The drummer must be using a jackhammer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJlAop6SyLI

Ohio Players - "Fopp". These guys were definitely top-tier but I wanted to throw it in because it fits with Bob's thread title. This mutha rocks harder than damned near everything that was on AOR radio at the time. So why didn't it get airplay? It has horns (horrors!), female/falsetto back up singers (double the horrors!!), and - crap, there must be another reason but I just can't put my finger on it now......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuorMliEtUM

Graham Central Station - "Earthquake" Do NOT listen to this turned all the way up without a condom on your woofers - it'll destroy everything in your lower range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZQCij721jQ

 
Five Special - "Jam". Around 1980, this sucker dropped. I thought the band was poised to be the next great funk group and told everyone I knew just that. As per usual, my prediction was woefully wrong - the bottom fell out of the funk movement at this exact moment and they disappeaerd in about a minute. P Funk disintegrated, Kool streamlined into a more pop-r&b vein, the Players were long gone as were the Bar Kays, and Cameo had to completely rearrange itself for one last gasp mid-decade. The only real survivors were the Gap Band (more on them in a sec) and Lakeside - both latecomers and both of whom used a lot of 80s ideas (New Wave, Rap).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oB1j4l4DuU

Five Special - "Why Leave Us Alone". This isn't "funk" really, more disco-pop I guess. But it's got a killer groove and, as with "Jam", really inventive vocals. I'm just placing this here to try to convince myself I was right and the other 5 billion people who wouldn't buy their records were wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIAPVUF6Dx0

Gap Band - "Burn Rubber". The first time I heard this song, my brother & I were sitting in a car outside of a nursing home grabbing a smoke while visiting a relative. I had speakers in that '74 Nova (it was a hatchback and the entire back was a system of speakers and amps in a wooden frame with switches to turn each on/off - it was a God-awful looking thing but my only engineering marvel) that would make the sound techs for the Dead curl up in the fetal position. So, we're sitting there with the volume maybe a tetch higher than was reasonable and that damned peel-out kicked in. Scared the hell out of us, as we thought it was somewhere in the parking lot. Gap had a nice 3 or so year run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSsXRWhfN3w

LTD - "Jam". This was a great band - incredibly versatile, sorta like a cross between EWF and 80s Kool. I saw them open for the Commodores when (I think ) this album came out and again the next year when Larry Graham opened for them. Both times were fantastic shows. This isn't as gut-bucket deep as a lot of late 70s funk but it hits all of the marks it needs to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13m1Y2CUHo8

Parliament - "Rumpofsteelskin". Happy Friday, y'all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbIXBpUujBQ

 
I was backstage at a P-Funk show ca 79-81. It was the 1st year Sly Stone was supposed to come out of the Mothership. A guy I grew up with had gotten into a spinoff band full of roadies/seconds/etc..that Clinton endorsed (as long as they didn't record any of his songs). I think they were called the Bomb Squad, but I think another band came out later with the same name so hell if I know.

Anyway, backstage at the show.......

I smoked a ton of grass back then (everything else was slipped, your honor - I swear) and I was so friggin stoned I can't get the order of things straight (or I can't recall anymore).

Snapshots:

Sly was too ####ed up to even get on the Ship. He was in a corner, slumped over with a bunch of girls around him. He was trying to talk like he wanted to get them into bed (like he had try - that's what they were there for), but most came out as gibberish.

Somehow, I got to talk to Bootsy (who was my fave of all of them). He's supposedly a tea-totaller, and seemed so to me at the time. Some chick came by with something rolled up like a J and offered it to me. Bootsy told me not to smoke it. Paraphrasing after 35 years: "Dude, you don't need that". My guess is that it was Dust or Killer Weed. I don't think I ever lit it, but have no idea what I did with it.

I saw George many times, but he seemed......distant from the whole thing. My friends said he wasn't normally like that. Looking back, I'm guessing the dope and falling-apart of the Mothership Connection took its toll.

I screwed one of the female back-up singers. Pretty much all I can recall is "I want to #### a white boy who isn't famous" and hot wax.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
I was backstage at a P-Funk show ca 79-81. It was the 1st year Sly Stone was supposed to come out of the Mothership. A guy I grew up with had gotten into a spinoff band full of roadies/seconds/etc..that Clinton endorsed (as long as they didn't record any of his songs). I think they were called the Bomb Squad, but I think another band came out later with the same name so hell if I know.

Anyway, backstage at the show.......

I smoked a ton of grass back then (everything else was slipped, your honor - I swear) and I was so friggin stoned I can't get the order of things straight (or I can't recall anymore).

Snapshots:

Sly was too ####ed up to even get on the Ship. He was in a corner, slumped over with a bunch of girls around him. He was trying to talk like he wanted to get them into bed (like he had try - that's what they were there for), but most came out as gibberish.

Somehow, I got to talk to Bootsy (who was my fave of all of them). He's supposedly a tea-totaller, and seemed so to me at the time. Some chick came by with something rolled up like a J and offered it to me. Bootsy told me not to smoke it. Paraphrasing after 35 years: "Dude, you don't need that". My guess is that it was Dust or Killer Weed. I don't think I ever lit it, but have no idea what I did with it.

I saw George many times, but he seemed......distant from the whole thing. My friends said he wasn't normally like that. Looking back, I'm guessing the dope and falling-apart of the Mothership Connection took its toll.

I screwed one of the female back-up singers. Pretty much all I can recall is "I want to #### a white boy who isn't famous" and hot wax.
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Come on, we all know the truth.

No head, no backstage pass.

 
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DJ Rogers - Bail Out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DevqcatYHo

3 Pieces - Shortnin' Bread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pITBIoGm1hQ

Mandrill - Fencewalk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv1_Vqnjs-0

Dennis Coffey - Scorpio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBn_oUH8Uo0

James Brown - Make It Funky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2D2oUNTbjU

Givin' Up Food For Funk - JBs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW7Qz59PX8w

Let Him Out - JBs (VIDEO: Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker and Bootsy Collins on Letterman)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hbmjltONek

Bootsy - Stretching Out (VIDEO: Night Music with David Sanborn, also featuring a solo by an in-his-prime Hiram Bullock)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHN9UO8A0oQ

Same show (eclectic band with Carla Bley, brilliant solo by Hiram Bullock)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-tTf6vcd9I

Stevie Ray Vaugn - Crossfire (VIDEO: not funk, but more from Sanborn show, with Hiram Bullock)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFWKSYe8lMs

Miles - Tutu (VIDEO: Sanborn show, with Marcus Miller and Foley, putting some faces to the basses)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ombR54hfRZM

Herbie Hancock - Chameleon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbkqE4fpvdI

* Bonus Hiram Bullock Live at Indigo concert (check out Cactus at 30:00 and Never Give Up at 38:00)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPULNYl5wlk

 
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Got me there, UH.

Doing this from memory and my brain is just wandering through some funk associative pathways.

Thanks for your contributions to the thread. If slabs of funk were dynasty prospects, they would be a higher part of the color band and light spectrum than blue chips - ultra violet chips.

Was just listening to some of the Bullock solos, his tone is so sweet, it is like he is playing an electric Willie Wonka bar. :)

Speaking of interesting tones, Roy Ayers playing a muted trumpet tone, dedicated to Miles (at that time) recent passing, for his soul/funk anthem, Everybody Loves The Sunshine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJUHaZ69igA

Another late, black guitarist who tragically died too young, Zachary Breaux.

Impressions (from Groovin' - Live at Ronnie Scott's Club)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI6b_7o2Nkc&list=AL94UKMTqg-9CBP69xwBU4b4VXQ9Jwfv8g

Where is the Love (covering the Donny Hathaway classic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdSa2R5JVgU

Donny Hathaway (The Ghetto, studio version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm78FoOyGpA

Isaac Hayes (Theme from Shaft, he won an Oscar for this score)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFvRvSxsW-I

Performed Live at Montreaux (VIDEO: with original guitarist and creator of the signature sound, Charles "Skip" Pitts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhxMWm1_s3w

Curtis Mayfield (From the score of the classic Blaxploitation flick, Superfly)

Title track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cmo6MRYf5g

Pusherman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCDAfa-NI-M

Freddie's Dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6TKClPFQA

War - (VIDEO: Low Rider, maybe it is the HQ audio, but even though I've heard this a million times, I never realized how positively BANGIN the deceptively simple drum/percussion polyrhythms are without headphones)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xTGrfs5TXM

Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground (the original)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X00XdLhFLSg

RHCP (the cover)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdOLFtk9joI

Ohio Players (VIDEO: Love Rollercoaster)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkVV9xxCHE

Fire (VIDEO: Sugarfoot left Sasquatch-like tracks on the funk landscape)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47G-Wa4qfs

Buckshot Lefonque (interesting melange of jazz/funk/rock/rap, led by Branford Marsalis)

No Pain, No Gain - mature lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR5z6HM17Es

Some Cow Fonque (more instrumental jazz/funk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQfU-TDRqkg

Wonder and Signs (reggae inflected rap)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97gKW4JAk-o

Black Widow Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi09ONi7rdY

Bill Laswell - ROIR Dub Sessions (Cybotron, not exactly funk, but like the loping bass groove, like riding a sub-sonic electric beast through the jungle)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVtdEn2Krmc

Shin Terai - Unison (Dusk, from Laswell project with Bernie Worrell and Buckethead of Praxis - acid/chill/funk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxgfCSpBVrw&list=PL7B51C58591B9BA5F&index=1

Dream Catcher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25S0ZTmXJAY&list=PL7B51C58591B9BA5F&index=2

 
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Bob Magaw said:
Ohio Players (VIDEO: Love Rollercoaster)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkVV9xxCHE
Click to expand...
I'm sure it's well known to listeners of a certain age, but legend has it that the distant scream was from a woman getting stabbed while the Players were recording this record. I was in Jr High - aka pre-internet Gossip Central - when it came out and it was right around the same time the "Eddie Haskell is Alice Cooper" stuff was making the rounds.

I knew the Cooper/Osmund thing was false, but I believed the lady getting stabbed for far more years than I'd like to admit to :bag:

 
Magaw, half the people you've mentioned I don't even know. I'm an idiot when it comes to jazz, unless those guys (George Duke, etc..) happened to cross over to mainstream FM radio play.

Tom Browne - "Funkin' For Jamaica". Cross between "The Breaks", "Bustin Loose", and "Tell Me Something Good"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuUy2ShGLyo

Kurtis Blow - "The Breaks"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZDUEilS5M4

Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers - "Bustin Loose"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HeWITJ9eZ8

Rufus - "Tell Me Something Good". Linked the Soul Train video for a few reasons. Don C was as cool as anyone; Chaka was friggin hot, the Duane Allman lookalike on keys. Oh, and Stevie wrote this and gave it away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9uZOCEl7v0

 
Another funk band that could rock, Sly & The Family Stone.

This UNKUT review of the 4 disc career spanning retrospective Higher has an interview with trumpet player Cynthia Robinson.

http://www.uncut.co.uk/sly-the-family-stone-higher-review

A review of the same set by Second Disc.

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/08/29/review-sly-and-the-family-stone-higher/

And by Pitchfork.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18442-sly-and-the-family-stone-higher/

A Wax Poetics interview with Freddy Stone on Sly & The Family Stone and the making of Stand! on its 45th anniversary.

http://www.waxpoetics.com/blog/2014/11/14/sly-family-stones-freddy-stone-discusses-stand-on-45th-anniversary/

* Funkiest song ever?

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), album version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOa5UOHdwnc

Re-mix with Johnny Winter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM1eYCGBNls

 
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James Brown (rightly) gets a lot of credit for laying the groundwork of 70s funk, but Sly doesn't get enough. Hell, "Thank You" itself is the raison d'etre for a about a million bands.

The REAL stealth influence, though, (at least for Clinton, hence for everyone else whether they knew it or not) is Frank Zappa. Certainly Funkadelic as we know it wouldn't have existed without Zappa and the Mothers. James & Sly (along with all of the big acid rockers) may have given George the basis for his sound, but Zappa gave him his vision (well, Frank and a #### ton of acid). Freak out indeed.

 
If speed had been Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention (great name drop immortalized in the middle of Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water) substance of choice in the sixties instead of psychedelics, maybe the title would have been Tweak Out?

Everybody knows JB was the Godfather of Soul, but also funk. Bootsy (and his brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins - that would be ironic if an internet catfishing job emanated from somebody actually named Catfish! :) ) passed the torch of Brown's "the one" (as one would from a zen master lineage) to Funkadelic and Parliament. Below is the only official, full live James Brown album with Bootsy I know of Brown was planning a three album set (would have been his first?) of a concert at the Olympia venue in Paris, which was shelved for a long time, until a 1 disc CD eventually was released. Alas, it is missing volcanic, force of nature tenor player Maceo Parker, but does have trombone player extraordinaire and periodic music director (as was Parker), Fred Wesley - both later joined Bootsy in P-Funk, as the Horny Horns. The Collins bros. play out of their minds on this one (Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose is a highlight). Bootsy was literally still a teenager at this time, somewhat of a bass prodigy (as was fellow P-Funk member Bernie Worrell on keys, as well as Herbie Hancock, and Tony Williams on drums, from Miles band in the sixties).

Love Power Peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwt4yj5z9dQ&list=PLoSoYZTkLMZfqMvMOl9PI7u9kx9Kbx2LN

There are a few great compilations from that era, like the 2 disc Big Payback and J.B.s retrospectives, as well as two single disc volumes titled Funky People. Here are two other great single disc compilations from this era, including some re-mixes/edits and featuring the playing of the Collins bros. Not sure if it is from the song Funky Drummer (version here), but the break by Clyde Stubblefield reportedly may be the most sampled break in history

In The Jungle Groove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggbfEqLtqDw&list=PLoSoYZTkLMZf_8q6doO-m8CNea1hluTiX

Motherlode (though the Collins bros. are only credited with playing on the track Untitled Instrumental here).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrorak-FlCw&list=PLoSoYZTkLMZc6RsCAmiSGvsxDGnzkFf3M

The Meters (Aaron Neville and company) were another seriously funky outfit, I preferred them to more mainstream funk bands like the Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang and soul/funk Earth, WInd and Fire. Funkify Your Life is probably the best anthology (2 discs), Cissy Strut shows kind of a Stax soul house band, Booker T & The MGs influence, but with their funky, syncopated New Orleans twist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD9lsUjVdUo&list=PLUSRfoOcUe4a3wK6pp57v-MSZC4IfG7Bl

 
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Great stuff in here, guys.

Im a DC kid who was into go go (Uruk knows what Im talking about) and DC hardcore in the 80's then moved to New Orleans for 10 years. Hard to get funkier than the Funky Meters--Bob linked some good ones. Their bassist George Porter Jr. is a lot of fun solo with his krewe also. Special kind of old old school funk in New Orleans.

 
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