I'm back my funky brothers and sisters! After not being able to post for five days (new acc), I'm here again and eager to get back to business. Insired by numerous funk-related threads (such as the rhythm guitar thread by Z and my semi-succesful funk ballad thread) I decided to create a thread dedicated to, well, anything funky. Tell us your favorite funk tunes, talk about your favorite funk group, you name it. Anything funky goes. Now, I wanna see all you lovers of funky music participate in this one (andy, pill, tA, Z, David etc etc). Ok, now that things are cleared up, let's get to the point:

I was listening to Release Yourself in the car just a few mins ago as I was driving my brother to town. Larry Graham ain't appreciated around here, but dayum, that cat is funky. What do y'all think about GCS?

As some of you may know, I'm keen on funk ballads. A ballad, that is in my mind a real gem, is rarely...hmm... let's make that never mentioned around here. I'm talking about Wizard Of Finance. Show your love (if you have any).

Speaking of Parliament, I've been listening to some of their stuff lately and I, of course, appreciate the hell out of their masterpieces Mothership Connection and Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome. The thing is that to me Chocolate City and Up For The Down Stroke pale in comparison to these eargasm-inducing works art. What do you guys think of CC and UFTDS?

Up For The Downstroke, the tune itself, was the beginning

of the P.Funk sound.

With the arrival of Mr. William 'Bootsy' Collins...

I would've loved to have been in the studio when they recorded this one..


With Chocolate City, almost there...

That is one profound tune....

Nobody, at that time wasn't making grooves like that, with a deep dialog.

It blows me away each time I listen to that mug....


Mothership Connection, there!!

The exact blueprint of F-U-N-KAAAAY!!!!


Funkentelechy Vs The Placebo Syndrome, brought them

their #1 smash 'Flashlight', without selling out!!


Now for their ballads, damn near all of em'..

I Just Got Back

I Misjudged You

I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body)

(You're A Fish And I'm A ) Water Sign...
A tune that is sheer genius from the Mob..


The first three albums from Graham are my favorite..

Especially 'Ain't No Doubt About It'..

While typing this, 'Hair' was being played on the radio...

Just got an amazing compilation of Betty Davis yesterday. Hella funky! Love the rock vibe of it. Actually, I had to choose between that one and Mothership Connection...but I promised myself not to let it collect dust for to long at that wrecka stow!
Dig GCS too, but my favorite funk group has to be Sly and The Family Stone. Love the dark vibe of his later stuff (or, rather mid-stuff).

funkpill said:

I really dig the title tracks on both Up For The Down Stroke and Chocolate City, but overall they ain't as tight as MC and FvsPC. They were working their way up the P-Funk ladder with these albums and MC and FvsPC are on top of that ladder

my mother-in-law's maiden name is Funk.....

Inuyashafan05 said:

Ooh, I'd kill for that name

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Love them POW is my cut, highly explosive shit! I had it blasting again on my stereo yesterday evening while trying again to get some order into my collection

I love them. My favorite song from that particular album is "Today".

As far as Graham Central Station goes, I love a lot of their songs. "Foxy Lady" is my favorite. I love to play that one in the middle of Curtis Mayfield's "Future Shock" and The Commodores' "Too Hot Ta Trot".




As far as slow jams go, funk ballads are mostly the main ones I listen to. Slow jams by groups like Cameo, Con-Funk-Shun, Rick James, and The Barkays are really great.

My fav funk ballad must be I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body). This song moves me in many ways, the music is beautiful, the vocal deliverance is great, as well as the lyrics. A perfect love song! I like quite a few of Cameo's ballads too.

As concerned P-Funk, I agree MC and FvsPC are the tightest albums, although I love them all. CC is one of my favorite Parliament tracks though, as is Up For The Downstroke. And let´s not forget about Funkadelic, tracks like Standing on the verdge (sp?) funk really hard.

The first funk I knew was Prince's funk though, and I loved it. Through Prince I learned about other acts like James Brown, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix and I loved them all.

I remember when I was 16 and I was babysitting somewhere and I found The Mothership Connection album in that family's CD collection, and I was like "WTF is this?!" when I saw the cover. I put it on and I was jamming immediately, I felt so excited cuz that funk was sooo deep and hardhitting, unlike anything I had ever heard before on the radio. I just couldn't believe my ears! A P-Funk fan was born that day, hehe!

funkaholic1972 said:[quote]My fav funk ballad must be I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body). This song moves me in many ways, the music is beautiful, the vocal deliverance is great, as well as the lyrics. A perfect love song! I like quite a few of Cameo's ballads too.

As concerned P-Funk, I agree MC and FvsPC are the tightest albums, although I love them all. CC is one of my favorite Parliament tracks though, as is Up For The Downstroke. And let´s not forget about Funkadelic, tracks like Standing on the verdge (sp?) funk really hard.

The first funk I knew was Prince's funk though, and I loved it. Through Prince I learned about other acts like James Brown, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix and I loved them all.

I remember when I was 16 and I was babysitting somewhere and I found The Mothership Connection album in that family's CD collection, and I was like "WTF is this?!" when I saw the cover. I put it on and I was jamming immediately, I felt so excited cuz that funk was sooo deep and hardhitting, unlike anything I had ever heard before on the radio. I just couldn't believe my ears! A P-Funk fan was born that day, hehe![/quote]



Ha!!Ha!!


Another P.Funk testimony...

Welcome aboard the Mutha-ship..

Was just listening to Fire It Up, and good gawd, that song is the bomb . If I remember correctly andy saw the Fire It Up tour, yes? What was the gig you attended like, andy? What songs did Rick play?

Since this forum is for the funkateers, I ask all present what are some good Funk websites to visit? With good message boards, history, video archives etc.
NewFunkTimes.com is pretty good for all things P-funk as far as interviews and information.
And I know youtube.com usually has some good old funk footage, sometimes.
Since this post is The Whole Funk...let's get a comprehensive list of sites for all to search out and enjoy.

Bfunkthe1 said:

A very good idea indeed

Found this while I was doing random funk-related searches on google: http://www.scaruffi.com/music/funk.html

This guy seems to have his soul and funk all mixed up... I mean the best funk album of all time, What's Goin' On? . The guy states that he will only pick one album per band, but he has chosen two Cameo albums... and he has listed the Shaft Soundtrack twice . He also has one Funkadelic album and one Parliament album... I mean they are the same band, but I dunno if that counts
[Edited 2/9/06 8:18am]

Larry Graham & Graham Central Station was the shit-Damn the haters!

Answer to your first question; My thought about GCS is that they were a great band. Larry is no doubt, one of the FUNKIEST and truly gifted bassists EVER. I really love GCS's earlier stuff. I ran a thread on here long time ago on GCS's song "Today". That's one of my all -time faves by anyone. Larry's bass line on that is genius. The song is beautiful, actually. It shows he's versatilty in genres in one song. Classical, rock, funk, gospel. Answer to your second question; Although Mothership is Parliament's ONE album that stands above the rest to MANY, I do really dig C.C. and Up For. They were not as polished and their concept hadn't been fully realized, BUT, there are some jams on there. Especially from Bootsy. But, it was like they were still in a Funkadelic state of mind while cutting those two albums and they were trying to get it developed for Parliament. Even Bootsy's Mutron sound wasn't really hashed out yet. The whole thang sounded very experiemental. They needed to go through that to get to Mothership.

vainandy said:

Uh, Vain, who hipped u to "Today"?

Still no comments regarding Wizard Of Finance... am I seriously the only one here who loves this song?

Kryptogen Rundfunk is the coolest funkband as of now, IMHO.

Novabreaker said:

...they sound like the Norwegian arch-nemesis of Superman
[Edited 2/10/06 7:18am]

As far as all the older funk/soul tracks of the early 70's with P-funk/GCS/Sly/Ohio Players whoever I mean it's all good in my book. Sure I like some stuff better than others but man you really can't go wrong with almost any of it. It's hard for me to pick faves cause I have so many.
Now where's are funk sites! let's get a list ya'll.
www.newfunktimes.com
www.youtube.com (type your fave artist and see what happens)

Funkenstein had a few.
Maybe we should start a new thread but this post is The Whole Funk & Nothing but the Funk.

No, I almost got to go. I was in the seventh grade and my grandmother was going to take me until she called the coliseum to get tickets. They heard her voice on the phone and said "m'aam, do you realize what you're buying tickets for?" She told me "hell naw". I was mad as hell. I would have killed to see that show.

vainandy said:

I've been listenin' to some funky stuff today:
Rick James - Street Songs
Zapp - Zapp
Parliament - Motor Booty Affair
The Time - What Time Is It?
Cameo - Ugly Ego

Street Songs is really a work of art. Dayum that Rick sho had it goin' on back then. How many of you own a copy of Street Songs? What do you think about it?

Lately I've been getting into The Ohio Players' Westbound years stuff. Varee Is Love is really an underrated gem from that era. Anyone feelin' this ballad?

one of PFUNK best ballads
along with I'drather be with u
but fantasy is reality is... uplifting

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Street Songs is one of the most influential funk-pop albums that was ever released and/or recorded. This was the album Slick Rick wanted everyone including the folks at MTV to experience because it was what he represented as a man and an entertainer. He not only put a pop sensibility in his sound on this record, but he actually tackled the issues on nearly everything that was happening in the ghettos of America. I personally think it is Rick's masterpiece.

As for funk music in general, I've been listening to Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man soundtrack which has some great funk jams. I'm about to listen to Parliament's Motor Booty Affair joint right now! And I still can't believe I don't own the Funkentelechy Vs The Placebo Syndrome yet! What do ya'll think of that album?
[Edited 2/28/06 15:19pm]

silverchild said:

Funkentelechy is the bomb . You definitely need to get it ASAP. Some of Parliaments best work is on that album... (including the very underrated gem, Wizard Of Finance)
[Edited 2/28/06 22:41pm]