Everybody on this thread appreciates funk music (I assume) because you're all fans of Prince. So jog your minds a little bit and see if you can list for me your 20 fave funk albums of all time. My list would go like this:
1. Rick James-Street Songs
2. Prince-1999
3. Parliament-Mothership Connection
4. The Isley Brothers-The Heat Is On
5. Cameo-Word Up
6. Roger-The Many Facets Of Roger
7. The Gap Band-4
8. The Time-What Time Is It?
9. Zapp-2
10. Rick James-Come Get It
11. The Gap Band-3
12. Cameo-Cameosis
13. The Isley Brothers-Go For Your Guns
14. Sly Stone-There's A Riot Goin' On
15. The Ohio Players-Honey
16. Prince-Dirty Mind
17. Parliament-Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome
18. The Time-The Time
19. Jesse Johnson-Jesse Johnson's Revue
20. Kool & The Gang-Emergency
[Edited 10/5/07 21:36pm]

Godfather of Funk is missing, it's a sin to have a Funk thread without him.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I haven't forgot the Godfather. Don't get me wrong by saying this but other than the Black Caeser soundtrack and Live At The Apollo, most of James's albums are not good as a whole. Great singles! That's why through James's career his singles sold way better than his albums. If you don't beleive me look it up. Sorry again.

Least you could've put The Payback in there...

You only got albums by six different artists or somethin'

James had albums that were consistent from start to finish. Try 'Hell' and 'The Payback', for example.

As it would be too hard to rank my favorite funk albums, I'll just post some that I consider masterpieces

Slave - Stone Jam
Slave - Show Time
Slave - Hardness Of The World
Cameo - Cameosis
Cameo - Cardiac Arrest
Quazar - Quazar
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Parliament - Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome
Rick James - Street Songs
Lakeside - Shot Of Love
The Gap Band - The Gap Band (Mercury)
Bootsy's Rubber Band - Ahh.. The Name Is Bootsy, Baby!
Bootsy's Rubber Band - Bootsy? Player Of The Year
Average White Band - AWB
Bar-Kays - Too Hot To Stop
Bar-Kays - Flying High On Your Love
The Brothers Johnson - Look Out For #1
The Brothers Johnson - Right On Time
The Brothers Johnson - Blam!!
The Brothers Johnson - Light Up The Night
The Ohio Players - Skin Tight
The Ohio Players - Fire
The Ohio Players - Honey
Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Express Yourself
The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - In The Jungle, Babe
The Commodores - Machine Gun
The Commodores - Hot On The Tracks
Con Funk Shun - Secrets
Graham Central Station - Ain't No Bout-A-Doubt It
Heatwave - Too Hot To Handle
Instant Funk - Instant Funk
Instant Funk - Witch Doctor
James Brown - Hell
James Brown - The Payback
Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Ain't That A Bitch
Kool & The Gang - Spirit Of The Boogie
The Meters - Cabbage Alley
The Meters - Look A Py-Py
The Meters - Fire On The Bayou
The Meters - New Directions
The Meters - Rejuvenation
The Meters - Struttin'
The Meters - The Meters
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Mutiny - Mutiny On The Mamaship
Mystic Merlin - Full Moon
Pleasure - Dust Yourself Off
Roger - The Many Facets Of Roger
Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On
Sly & The Family Stone - Fresh

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Thats the best funk list i've ever seen
You schooled em!
dont you think off the wall is more disco than funk?
[Edited 10/6/07 0:38am]

Don't forget JB's late 60's albums. I Can't Stand It and I Got the Feelin (both 1968) are both great.

EmbattledWarrior said:

Well, it's disco/funk, but funk nonetheless. Louis Johnson brings the funk with some maaad basslines

Where's Band of Gypsies??? The Funk... Jimi Hendrix Style!

is it cool to mention larry G. around here??

r/f

Graham Central Station-Ain't No Doubt About It

royfolker said:

Of course. You are in Music: Non-Prince, not Prince: Music & More. We are not purple kool-aid drinking blind followers over here

Each to their own, but I am baffled as to why James Brown's 'Love/Power/Peace' album isn't that respected around here. For me, that has some of the meanest, hardest funk jams known to man. That rhythm section is locked in. , and James and Bobby never better imo. Nastay indeed.

Yeah, the horns sound a little out of it at times, but nobody can argue with 'Soul Power', 'Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved' and Sex Machine on there.

And the live footage from the gig is awesome too.

While there have been many great funk albums, I'd say that funk was essentially a singles music. And if we were talking '20 Greatest Funk Singles', then for me, the top ten at least would consist of nothing but JB.

Certainly among any top 20 funk albums I would compile, I would include 'Love/Power/Peace' the 'Sex Machine' album (canned applause and all ), 'Live at the Apollo II' (if only for 'Cold Sweat' on disc 2), Sly's 'Stand!' and 'Fresh' ... I find almost all of the P-Funk albums I've heard to be patchy, with some great jams mixed in with tedious, self-conscious ballads ('I'll Stay' aside ) and organ noodling.

The only must include P-Funk album for me would be Bootsys's Rubber Band - Live at Louisville' - slammin', stingin' live funk if there ever was any.


I would likely include Curtis' 'Superfly', as it sounds pretty funky to me and is one of the truly great albums of the '70s imo.

As I'm not really savy with the likes of Slave, Brothers Johnson and the later synth funk (not really to my taste, with the odd exception), I'm not really qualified to include these .

And respect to Funkenstein for including a Johnny Guitar Watson album. I love his '70s blues/ funk records.

Miles said:

Johnny G brings the funk on his seventies records, no doubt

Hell, I could list a top 20 with Prince, Rick James, and The Barkays alone. Then there's Cameo, Lakeside, The Gap Band, The Dazz Band, Midnight Star, Slave, etc.

A top 20 list of funk albums is too hard to make because I wouldn't want to put too many of the same artists in the list because most of the artists made several great funk albums.
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[Edited 10/6/07 15:01pm]