It's time to put two of the biggest funk groups of the 1970s up against each other and let them fight it out, The Isley Brothers and Parliament/Funkadelic. Now, some of you may say...."The Isley Brothers...aren't they a slow jam group"...The answer is hell naw! In the 1970s and early 1980s, they were throwing down hard funk as well as slow jams.

Anyway, what's it gonna be, The Isley Brothers or Parliament/Funkadelic?

My choice would be The Isley Brothers by far. The Isley Brothers had done moved on, sped the tempo up more, added more rock, got rid of the horns, got more away from the primitive days of early 70s funk, and moved more into a changing late 70s and early 80s sound. Jams like "People Of Today", "Fight The Power", "Livin' In The Life/Go For Your Guns", "Live It Up", "Rockin' With Fire", "Mind Over Matter", "Go All The Way", Don't Let Up", "Who Said", etc. were just faster, harder, and all around more danceable than the majority of Parliament/Funkadelic's work.

Then there were the funk jams like "Climbin' Up The Ladder", "Showdown", "Be With You", "Tell Me When You Need It Again", "The Pride", etc. that weren't as fast as the other jams but they were still funky as hell.

Parliament/Funkadelic was great but in a battle against a group like The Isley Brothers, Parliament/Funkadelic was still using a lot of horns and jazz elements and sounded like they were still bleeding off the early 70s James Brown era of funk (as I said before in comparison to The Isley Brothers who had moved on to the next phase of funk).

I guess the only way to explain it would be, The Isley Brothers sounded like my generation's funk where Parliament/Funkadelic sounds more like an older generation's funk. It's just all in what you prefer. Kinda like Stax Barkays vs. Mercury Barkays.
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[Edited 8/6/09 10:32am]

P-funk by a 1,000 miles.....

Isleys

this isnt even fair man....

Two great bands... I love P-Funk, but I have to go with the Isley Brothers on this one. I love both, but I definitely listen to the Isleys more.

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It's true that this is subjective, and people like what they like...

But I don't get it- how do One Nation Under A Groove, Flashlight, Aqua Boogie, Knee Deep, Bop Gun, Party People, Atomic Dog, Bootzilla, and Electric Spanking Of War Babies sound older generation than The Isley's Music?

I do dig Isley's funk, and True, most of the Isley's funk was faster, but that ain't necessarily better in funk---

--And I think that the talent like Bernie , Bootsy , Fred Wesley. Junie and Rodney Skeet Curtis, Maceo, etc, in P-Funk actually gave their Funk more depth and range ...
The Isley's Funk was certainly synth heavy, but the beat kinda had the same turnarounds...(Ernie's Isley's one of my favorite Guitarists, but he's not exactly the world's greatest drummer...)

Even older Funkadelic...Red Hot Momma, Standing On The Verge, Good to Your Earhole, Cosmic Slop....was certainly hittin' pretty hard...

As far as the next wave of Funk --for me, that was probably when Prince, early 80's Cameo and Slave started hitting their stride...

Anyhow, in this particular instance, while I'm a Huge Isley Fan, for Pure Funk, I'm goin' with the P-Funk!


If ya like Isley Brothers better, That's Kool, I Just don't think P-Funk is more dated...






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[Edited 8/6/09 11:56am]

The Isley's don't dare dabble in the P.....

Damn vain I love BOTH bands but totally like apples and oranges. The only thing in my mind that I link the two are because Funkadelic and The Isleys both had two of my favorite guitarists, Eddie Hazel and Ernie Isley. Other than that brah, two entirely different types of sounds and concepts. Yeah, Fight The Power and Live It Up and Flashlight and Mothership Connection are both HELLA funky but.....I ADORE both "Fantasy Is Reality" and "Voyage To Atlantis" but nah dawg, wild horses couldn't make me pick between that shit! I love both bands immensely and for different reasons. In the grand scheme of things, Parliament Funkadelic, I hold up on a silver platter in the galaxy but that doesn't diminish in my mind the importance of The Isleys either.

Graycap23 said:

They didn't need to. Like BGZ said, they're apples and oranges.

Timmy84 said:

Then why compare?
The next thing u know.....they will be comparing Michael Jackson 2 Prince.
[Edited 8/6/09 12:29pm]

I guess Parliament/Funkadelic sounds more primitive to me because the next phase after early 70s funk was disco in the mid to late 70s. I remember being in the skating rink back during the mid to late 70s and when a Parliament/Funkadelic song came on, it just felt totally out of place with the other songs that were being played which was mostly disco. However, when a jam like The Isley Brothers' "Living In The Life" was played, it felt totally in place. I guess it's because, even though it wasn't disco by no means, it had that faster tempo like disco had and the rock presence in the song fit in with the other songs played in the skating rink back then. Because, despite what the rockers were saying back then, rock was still around while disco was going on and was being played side by side with it....so naturally "Living In The Life" fit right in also. I guess the way people view things is according to their own life experiences because when I would hear a Parliament/Funkadelic song in the middle of all that disco and rock, it sounded to me like some early 70s type stuff before the disco era took over.

The first time I remember hearing Parliament/Funkadelic in the skating rink and it didn't sound out of place, was "Knee Deep". Now that one felt totally in place.

There was something mysterious, edgy, trippy and downright disgusting about the Funk of ParliamentFunkadelic. I have to go there. Even though sometimes their funk wasnt catchy and alot of times very hard to memorize all the things going on.

Isley Brothers; I have some, but not alot....I can say that their funk was great..but there wasnt alot of depth to the sound..as in overall storytelling and a theme that fit the album too.

Graycap23 said:

Aaaaah, but that comparison gets made ALL the time! You know that, player.

vainandy said:

I get what you're saying and that's largely because P-Funk was TOTALLY on another plain. Litterally, sonically and spiritually, their shit was and IS that DEEP. But at the same time, I can't imagine tracks like Tear The Roof Off, Flashlight and Aqua Boogie and WHY they couldn't have been played at the roller rink that u went to. I would think that with those grooves, people would have had to change their wheels because they would have been jamming so hard. I remember out here at Venice Beach during the 70's where the whole world seemed to come to rollerskate. I would see grown ass folks...blacks, whites, everybody, with boom boxes blasting Tear The Roof Off and ESPECIALLY Flashlight and be doing the splits and jumping over shit while they were Roller Booging!
[Edited 8/6/09 13:19pm]

No comparisons. Love both.

vainandy said:

P-Funk.

But much credit to The Isley Brothers (3+3 version) for putting up a far better battle than Earth Wind & Fire.

vainandy said:

But what about the P-Funk's classics like Flashlight, Aqua Boogie, Electric Spanking of War Babies, & Not Just Knee Deep. There were synths involve in these tracks (and you know I love The Funk with synths!).
[Edited 8/6/09 13:32pm]

mm i never knew isley brothers did funk, i only know them for slowjams ( hey blame my mom for not listening to funk but cheesy 80s pop ) ill check these songs later

motownlover said:

Oh yeah and the Isleys go back even further. They're the guys behind "Shout" (1959), the first hit version of "Twist & Shout" (1962; two years before the Beatles covered it), they even had some Motown hits ("This Old Heart of Mine", "I Guess I'll Always Love You", "Put Yourself in My Place", "Behind a Painted Smile", "Take Some Time Out for Love") and then they started to do some proto-funk by 1969 with "It's Your Thing", "I Turned You On" and "Black Berries", they began experimenting with guitar-driven rock with their covers of "Love the One You're With", "Spill the Wine" and "Ohio"/"Machine Gun" and then they did "Lay Away" and "Work to Do". All this BEFORE "That Lady" in 1973. They had numerous funk cuts throughout the 1970s and 1980s. They were as multi-dimensional as Parliament-Funkadelic were musical style-wise.
[Edited 8/6/09 14:01pm]

Best funk from The Isleys














And P-Funk's best(even tho' there's far too many)














all are

I love both, if I really had to choose NOW, I'd take The Isley, but it changes depending on my mood
[Edited 8/6/09 15:17pm]

vainandy said:

vainandy said:

But this is exactly where P-Funk has already won your thread, right?

Or, on a sidenote: "Disco" was that stupid thing where good old funk became weaker and weaker, or did I miss something??


Nothing personal dude, but I think this comparison is so far-fetched and odd, ain't no Isley Brothers ever challenging the P. Neither EWF nor Cameo nor the Commodores at their heights nor anybody else after JB can't, the Isleys sure aren't even on that list. Sorry mate..

Love me some Isley Brothers but when I think of funk, I think of P-Funk first.

blackguitaristz said:

Now surely.....u knew that was a joke.

IAintTheOne said:

No it's not, WFT! You can't put The Funk on both sides of me and then ask me to choose.

TD3 said:

That IS true.

Let's call them EVEN.

P-Funk.