MrSoulpower said:

The album format became favored because it allowed the artistic more opportunity for expression and experimentation. That's probably where a schism developed within our generation.

PFunkjazz said:

I totally agree. And it was really Isaac Hayes who made the album format popular in Soul music with "Hot Buttered Soul". I love albums, but I am a heavt 45 collector. I just love them .. and there is so much music on 45 that was never released on albums ..

But seriously...is there any legitimate answer other than James Brown?

James Brown peoples, he was doin' FUNK in 1964, before people y'all are naming were putting out records, Bootsy and Sly. He was even experimenting with FUNK as far back as 1960.


Take a listen to "Think!" from 1960 and "Night Train" and "I've Got Money" from 1962. You then have "Signed, Sealed and Delivered" from 1963. But he finally unleashed FUNK on the word with 1964's "Out of Sight."

I don't think the average funk fan has any idea of the actual accomplishments of Bootsy Collins.

MrSoulpower said:

Very well, lets try this again:

Stand! was the first album from any artist to be classified as a "funk album"!

This album was special because it was full of rock, soul, rhythm & blues, gospel, & jazz. But yet, you couldn't call it a rock, soul, r&b, gospel, OR jazz album. It was so funky that you have to call it something else.

TonyVanDam said:

Sorry, that doesn't make it right. "Stand" was released in 1969, when a lot of other artists have released albums that were classified as Funk. I don't want to belittle Sly's input, I am a huge fan myself. But Sly was not the originator of Funk and he did not release the first Funk album.
[Edited 10/21/07 21:11pm]

Graycap23 said:

It would be interesting to hear from you who you'd consider the "average Funk fan". Maybe anybody who doesn't rank Bootsy as the single most influential artist in Funk?

I am quite aware of his actual accomplishments. But he still cannot touch James Brown, and Bootsy himself would agree with that statement. Bootsy wa barely a teenager when James Brown popped out Funk 45s like a Motherfunker.

Bootsy took James Funk 2 a new level. What was George Clinton before Bootsy showed up? Bootsy is the common thread 4 funk from James19060's until 2007.

TonyVanDam said:

What do you call albums like JB's "I Got the Feeling" "Cold Sweat" "I Can't Stand It" and "Ain't It Funky" all released before "Stand"?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

The best? Too hard, man
The most influental? This cat...

Graycap23 said:

Bootsy will be the first to confirm he was working on directions from "Mr Brown himself". If a seasoned Collins came on the scene and redefined his instrument and the music from the ground up like Jimi did, then you'd have a case. However, as Mr. Soulpower points out Bootsy was a very young impulsive kid. He's definitely a major figure, but he figures more prominently as a leader after his journeyman years.

PFunkjazz said:

Bootsy was just a kid. He learned from the master himself and then moved on and became a funk force to be reckoned with

Would anyone object if I said James Brown is the most influential person in modern music?

He influenced showmanship. Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Prince, MC Hammer and a whole lot more were heavily influenced by JB's showmanship.

He created funk. I don't care what anyone says, JB was the creator. Alot of people try to put credit on Sly Stone's first record or some of Stevie Wonder's early stuff, but it was without JB who created funk.

He influenced hip-hop. Hip-hop was heavily influenced by JB. Not just the music but the dancing to. Talk to any breakdancer, James Brown is their biggest influenced. It can all be traced back to him.

The only act that comes close to having the influence JB has is The Beatles. But Lennon calls Elvis Presley one of his biggest influences, and JB was one of Elvis's biggest influences.

Look at the industry today. A bunch of little Michael Jackson rip-offs running around. Who was MJ influenced by more than anyone? Mr James Brown.

He is the biggest influence on modern music. Any objections?

2Jay said:

CARL CARLTON?????ARE U KIDDING ME?????

PFunkjazz said:

EVEN BEFORE DANCE TO THE MUSIC & LIFE WAS 1967'S A WHOLE NEW THING, WHICH GEORGE CLINTON HIMSELF CALLED "THE HOMO ERECTUS OF FUNK"!!!!!

DarlingDiana said:

NO OBJECTIONS HERE!!!!!

1_JB
2_SLY
after them everybody else is just on the bandwagon !

woogiebear said:

Wasn't homo erectus an evolutionary dead-end?
that album is just not as listenables as DTTM or LIFE.

PFunkjazz said:

Miles had the power to get away with anything.
And the balls to actually go ahead and do it.

Damn Stanley "The Grouch" Crouch!



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

He was willing to take risks no matter what the consequences.....one has to admire an artist with that amount of courage.....

theAudience said:

Miles played a pivotal role as trumpeter with Charlie Parker's bebop band, was a leader or major innovator in changing the direction of contemporary music at least 5 times ("cool" jazz, 50s hardbop/soul-jazz, elaborate orchestrations with Gil Evans, modal jazz from Evans/Coltrane/Adderly to Hancock/Shorter/Williams/Carter, jazz fusion with IASW and BB, jazz-funk with JACK JOHNSON and ON THE CORNER into AGHARTA/PANGAEA plus a major leadership in 80s jazz-funk.

Prince

George Clinton.

James Brown created the basis for Funk, but Funk would not sound like it does today without Dr Funkenstein.

P-Funk is the DNA for so many other forms of music. Its influence is undeniable.

After George (and James obviously) I'd say Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Sly Stone, and in recent years, Prince.

Plantlife are the best 'new' funk group I've heard in awhile. 'Drugs: The Misamericans' are quite possibly the best P-Funk band of the past decade.

OperatingThetan said:

No disrespect to George Clinton. But the author of this thread asked a different question: Who would say the best funk artist is? Who influenced the genre and made the best music for it?

We have already established that James Brown created the basis for Funk. But that's rather an understatement, because he didn't stop there. For a period of about ten years (1965 - 1975), James Brown has released an incredible massive amount of Funk songs and albums, defining the course of African American popular music like no other artist, even shaping the future of popular music per se. Without James Brown, George Clinton and his Parliaments, as they were first called, most likely would have remained a cheesy vocal group promoting greasy hairstyles.

While it can't be denied that Clinton and Bootsy took Funk to a next level in the mid-1970s, the showmanship and musical quality of the various James Brown bands remains untouched. And let's not forget that various influential members of the Clinton camp came from the James Brown school of music (Bootsy, Catfish, Fred, Maceo, Kush, etc). Where would Clinton have gone if it wasn't for these cats?

In regards to Prince, he hardly deserves to be even mentioned in this list of Funk originators. While an outstanding artist himself, Prince was still a teenager when Funk died it's slow and painful death thanks to the arrival of disco. Prince was definetely shaped by Funk and heavily influenced by it, but he could never be defined as a Funk musician. Without a doubt, Prince has influenced popular music like no other in the 1980s (maybe Michael Jackson), but he has not really influenced Funk.

PFunkjazz said:

That's probably why P-Funk appeals to me more than James Brown (a largely singles/live artist).

James may be the king of funk, it's hard to argue otherwise, but P-Funk created my favorite funk albums. Even more than Sly, who was one of the funkiest guys ever, but I can't limit him to funk, and think of him almost more as a pop artist like Prince.

The deepest funk & most comprehensive funk experience was created by Parliament under the leadership of George...in my opinion of course!

DarlingDiana said:

Well Said.

woogiebear said:

I hear ya. Good points.