Possessed by Funk

I've been traveling around the United States lately, namely the southern and eastern parts, and have been enjoying some mighty fine music everywhere I turn the radio dial. The funny thing is that I have unintentionally found myself drawn to things I have heard and things I thought I had heard, but they have all taken on new meaning and nuances in my life that are making them more exciting than ever. For example, I thought I knew Sly and the Family Stone, but I was wrong. Now, I knew that he took everyone higher at Woodstock, which was a funkified feat unto itself, but his recorded music is deeper than I imagined. That man and his group of hipsters could funk it up before we knew we needed funking! I found an old Greatest Hits album and Stand! at the local Goodwill and they've been staying in heavy rotation on my basement turntable where I listen to albums in quadraphonic sound while I paint. I like the part in the song "Stand" where he says something like, "There's a midget standing tall, while the giant above him is about to fall." The political incorrectness of the "midget" remark shows how long ago Sly was singing about the rights of little people, and I have to admit that it made me laugh out loud when I first heard it, but I love the sentiment that runs through all of the songs on these records (even if they occasionally digress to goofy pop ballads). Sly was all about bringing people together and having a good vibration for all, regardless of differences. I especially love all of the vocal effects the many singers create with their nonsense words and pulsing rhythms (in stereo). Nobody has done it as well as Sly since (sorry Prince). Where would Michael Jackson or Prince or Bob Marley or Missy Elliott be without Sly's guidance so long ago. And where would Sly be without James Brown.

I read a fantastic article about James Brown in a recent Rolling Stone that takes the reader behind the scenes of a James Brown recording session, The James Brown Show, and the man himself. The story describes a powerful musician who remains the living embodiment of innovation and groove despite his fame and insecurities. The wonderfully written story left me inspired to hear more, so James Brown Live at the Apollo has stayed inside my car's CD player for a week and refuses to get old. After reading the story in RS, I feel like I can see the show before my eyes, with James making cryptic hand signals to the Flames as they race around his plethora of hits. Without peer, Brown is the greatest screamer who ever belted out his soul to everyone within earshot. What a great record and testiment to his genius!

My whole dive into the funk began when I stuck a Meters record (Second Street Strut) on my turntable before heading down to New Orleans for a few days. Although they make chicken clucking sounds on one song, and sing a little on a couple of others, the funk is mostly instrumental, creating some of the grooviest tunes ever heard. The euphoria they bring me makes me feel slightly cheated by a childhood and young adulthood of nothing but "The Home of Rock and Roll" and its ilk playing nothing but whitebread for me until I finally moved away to the West Coast to hear the true colors that real radio can bring. I found that even the south has a more diverse selection of music on its radio stations than here in the northeast. Why was I kept from the beauty of Funkadelic and Parliament on WMMR and WYSP while I was in middle and high school? Eddie Hazel's guitar riffs are just as ripping as those of Hendrix, Page and Clapton, but somehow I think there was a blatant racism and closed-mindedness that kept his genius segregated from my ears. Seek out the funk my friends, and let the seizures begin! (And long live Syd Barrett!)