As Brotherbrown and Bijan (the killer B’s?) have said, funk can take many forms and can appear within any genre. It was never my intention to question that, but for my own personal definition, I’m having a hard time deciding whether to include certain genres. Like jazz, well the line between jazz and funk is blurry at best. You take Chameleon. Which is it? Personally, I’d probably list that as more funk than jazz. Same thing with a lot of work by cats like Lonnie Liston Smith and Bobbi Humphrey, such as one of my favorite songs, Jasper Country Man (sampled by Ice-T for New Jack Hustler) and soforth. Naw, the question I’m asking is about genres that are further removed. Like Gospel. Check out this bassline from Lord You’ve Been Good To Me by the Jackson Southernaires. There is no other word to describe it but funky. But could this song go on a list of funk? I’m not sure. My initial reaction is no, but why not?
(As an aside, when I can think of a better way to do it, I think I’ma start providing links to some of these records. Part of the joy of having good music is sharing. So for the two or three of you who are out there, post up some goodies you’d like and I’ll be making a grab bag soon. If nothing else, I’ll put it on my server and let you download it from there.)
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We can hook this up much better through Last.fm. I highly recommend that folks get an account and scrobble up some tunes.
As to the theory, I’m not sure we’re in much of a postion to say what is Funk so much as we are to say what makes music funky. That was my approach. Because you can have a jazz song that’s funky or a funk song that’s jazzy. You could even turn it over to Patsy Cline and wind up with some cow funk.
But I think the real musicologist would tell us it’s essentially in the beat. As I write this, I can visualize in my mind the melody for Mothership Connection laid on top of a 16beat track. It’s too fast to be funky and the backbeat is gone, even though James said that the backbeat should be de-emphasized (or implied), or as George Clinton said, everything is on the one.
THE ONE!! That should’ve been on your list. That’s where Cold Sweat made the departure from everything that had come before it! I knew I forgot somethin.