I want to ask you guys a question. In a thread recently, someone pointed out that there was a difference between Parliment, Funkadelic, Bootsy, Bernie, etc. I never really noticed the differences until you guys pointed it out.

That got me to thinking. Is there a difference between the Roger sound and the Zapp sound? Personally, I can't see that many differences between their projects. The only real difference that I can tell is that Roger tends to like guitar solos in some of his work (and point out how good he is..."Do It Roger", etc.).

ROGER - mainly because of instruments and the multi-layered vocoder vocals, though he does that in ZAPP too.

But actually they're in tie though, I never notice a difference, well maybe Zapp's early sound was more bluesy, I guess ("Brand New Player").

Timmy84 said:

Well, didn't Roger have "Play some Blues" on one of his albums? I just can't seem to tell the difference between the 2. I know they released separate projects, but there didn't seem to be a difference to me.

daPrettyman said:

Yeah he did. It doesn't seem much of a difference now that you mention that.

daPrettyman said:

You don't notice the difference between Parliament and Funkadelic?

FuNkeNsteiN said:

No more than the stories of the albums. Funkadelic was never big where I grew up. I didn't get their albums until a few years ago.

daPrettyman said:

I always thought it was the same since the same band members played on all the albums...

One in the same

funkpill said:

The only difference that I can tell (after listening to The Many Facets of Roger and Zapp II today) is that Zapp lead his songs and Roger sang lead on his via talkbox and had let the backgrounds hype him up.

daPrettyman said:

Actually, Zapp is the band name after brother Terry "Zapp" Troutman, who plays bass.

As a far as I know, he leaded on one tune....not sure which one it is


I think it's Itchin For A Twitchin ...i think

daPrettyman said:

I honestly don't see a difference.

funkpill said:

I know that much, but I can't tell a difference in the songwriting, production, band or anything.

I don't know who sang lead on all of the songs, but Roger sang lead on his albums.

daPrettyman said:

For the most part Roger did sing lead on his songs with the talk box in the Zapp recordings. I'm thinking in some of the songs that he's not featured on as vocalist but only as a musician, it's likely Bobby Glover is on the first album (Zapp) and some female singers on there. Then Dale DeGroat showed up on some songs. Maybe Zapp Troutman and Lester Troutman also sung on the songs.

Tough call between the two because I always considered them interchangeable.

I like the first Roger album better than Zapp, but Zapp II is way better than Saga Continues in my opinion.

Roger's solo career extended a bit longer than Zapp's but the group recordings had better vocals.

FunkyGraf said:

Love 'em both, but that about sums it up.

Neither!!!!

FunkyGraf said:

Good point.

There's nothing radically different about the two.

Well, until you get to Roger's "Bridging The Gap' which had a slight hip-hop vibe to it that was never present on a "Zapp" album.....until Zapp VI, but that was done way after Roger passed.

For the most part, the two are interchangeable. Hell, it's not like they wouldn't play tracks from stuff released under Roger's name when they were touring as Zapp.

*starts playing 'The Many Facets of Roger' on iTunes*
[Edited 1/19/09 7:12am]

TonyVanDam said:

What do you mean by mechanical? Listening the Roger and Zapp albums in the sequence in which they were released, to me, there is no difference.

daPrettyman said:

A little more synths in Zapp. But I think you could be right nonetheless.

TonyVanDam said:

OK, gotcha.

Now that you mention it, I can hear that. Roger has songs that are synth driven, but also focuses on his guitar skills also (A Chunk of Sugar).

daPrettyman said:

Naw, that's from Zapp III

funkpill said:

Yeah, when the Troutman brothers were kids, they used to have a schoolteacher-lady or a lady in the hood (i forgot the exact details,lol), called Miss Milsap, or Milsapp/Millsapp, .
And Terry used to pronounce the "sapp" part of her second name in a particular way, or somethang like that .. that's what's documented about how they got their bandname.

I would say there's a difference, although it's not very noticeable. Roger was abit more experimental on his solo records in terms of the production techniques and instruments you hear on the albums (for example In The Mix and Maxx Axe) and they had a more 'commercial' sound with songs like 'I Want To Be Your Man', whilst early Zapp was more about the Funk/Blues type sound.

thetimefan said:

Hmmm....I'll have to pay attention to that.

Q: Roger OR Zapp?
A: Yes.

I'm with Blaque on this. YES.

I'll never forget when (on one of the 2 times I saw em live), Rog said "Do you wanna come dance with ME??? Get up HERE!!!" and we all did....crowd rushed the stage & we got to dance with the man & the band to "More Bounce".

Bass was so fuckin hard I thought I'd stop breathing.

Zapp or Rog? I just miss em both (all)...one of my liftime highlights "in the fonk"

BlaqueKnight said:

Great answer!

JamFanHot said:

he played it as if it was brand new...