Just found "The Fatback Band" - dirty, real FUNK. Lovin' their early 70's stuff, not feelin' their early 80's stuff. Then this Eddie Hazel cd just blew my mind as well, more jazz but funk jazz.

I wish I could get all of the bands that did real funk from the late 60's until about '74 in one place so I could stop discovering amazing funk that I've never heard. Finding most stuff on vinyl just from the date of the record and the height of the fro, there's got to be a better way

I love Zapp and EWF's stuff but it's not RAW enough for me. Good, just too produced to be raw funk.

A few questions for the only group of people I know with the best taste in music.

What's your favorite funk from this time period?

Do you think the gritty, dirty, RAW funk sound transcended this time period?

If so, who were the artists?

Graham Central Station
Ohio Players
Parliament
E,W & F
Sly
The Commordores
just to name a few

blackguitaristz said:

James Brown
Curtis Mayfield
The Isley Bros.
War

Do you think the gritty, dirty, RAW funk sound transcended this time period?

If so, who were the artists?[/b]

The moment you mentioned that era, I immediately thought of Joe Tex. I Gotcha is still one of the funkiest songs from back then. And also definately Kool & The Gang.

Joe Tex made the first Southern soul record that also hit on the pop charts ("Hold What You've Got," in 1965, made number five in Billboard). His raspy-voiced, jackleg preacher style also laid some of the most important parts of rap's foundation. He is, arguably, the most underrated of all the '60s soul performers associated with Atlantic Records, although his records were more likely than those of most soul stars to become crossover hits.

Tex was born Joseph Arrington in Rogers, TX, in 1933, and displayed his vocal talent quickly, first in gospel, then in R&B. By 1954, he'd won a local talent contest and come to New York, where he recorded a variety of derivative (and endlessly repackaged) singles for King, some as a ballad singer, some as a Little Richard-style rocker.

Tex's career didn't take off until he began his association with Nashville song publisher Buddy Killen, after Tex wrote James Brown's 1961 song "Baby You're Right." In 1965, Killen took him to Muscle Shoals, not yet a fashionable recording center, and they came up with "Hold What You've Got," which is about as close to a straight R&B ballad as Tex ever came. It was followed by a herd more, most of which made the R&B charts, a few cracking the pop Top 40.

Tex made his mark by preaching over tough hard soul tracks, clowning at some points, swooping into a croon at others. He was perhaps the most rustic and back-country of the soul stars, a role he played to the hilt by using turns of phrase that might have been heard on any ghetto street corner, "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" the prototype. In 1966, his "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It," an imaginary letter home from Vietnam, became the first big hit directly associated with that war. His biggest hit was "Skinny Legs and All," from a 1967 live album, his rapping pure hokum over deeply funky riffs. "Skinny Legs" might have served as a template for all the raucous, ribald hip-hop hits of pop's future.

After "Skinny Legs," Tex had nothing but minor hits for five years until "I Gotcha" took off, a grittier twist on the funk that was becoming disco. He was too down-home for the slickness of the disco era, or so it would have seemed, yet in 1977, he adapted a dance craze, the Bump, and came up with the hilarious "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," his last Top Ten R&B hit, which also crossed over to number 12 on the pop chart.

In the early '70s, Tex converted to Islam and in 1972 changed his offstage name to Joseph Hazziez. He spent much of the time after "Ain't Gonna Bump" on his Texas farm, although he did join together with Wilson Pickett, Ben E. King, and Don Covay for a reformed version of the Soul Clan in 1980. He died of a heart attack in 1982, only 49 years old. Killen, King, Covay, Pickett, and the great songwriter Percy Mayfield served as pallbearers. ~ Dave Marsh, All Music Guide

Slave2daGroove said:

ok wow... 68-74

ok we got as follows

Hank Ballard
Dyke & the Blazers
Bar-Kays
Funkadelic
Midnighters
james and Bobby Purify
Mandrill
Osibia
Soul Survivors
Cymande
Beginning of the end
Bobby Byrd
Kool & the gang ( before jt taylor)

Slave2daGroove said:

In my opinion, Slave is a group that started getting raw and dirty just as everyone else was starting to get slick ('77 to'82)- Check out the albums Slave, The Concept , Just A Touch Of Love and Stone Jam to see what I mean...

[This message was edited Wed Jul 28 14:12:14 2004 by paligap]

TheRealFiness said:

add the Meters

paligap said:

Look a Py py is tha cut aint it?

TheRealFiness said:

Mos' Definitely!!