Long before the Bee Gees got all feverish over Saturday night, you'd have been hard-pressed to tell the difference between funk and disco in a police...erm 'musical genre' line-up.
James Brown invented funk, so legend has it, with the mighty 'Cold Sweat' in 1967. In the thirty odd years since 'da phunk' has given us many legendary artists, classic Blaxploitation soundtracks, prompted the birth of hip hop and still fuels much of today's sampladelic dance music.
Ahh Funk!...that heady combination of blues, R&B and soul with a strong, phat backbeat and heavyweight bass guitar, celebrated here in this two CD, 36 track strong compilation.
The Godfather is of course here, repesented by timeless classic '(Get Up I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine' and 'Make It Funky'. The colourful cartoon character of George Clinton is also well covered with the hilarious 'Atomic Dog' and his P-Funk alter egos Parliament -'P Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)'- and Funkadelic - the uplifting 'One Nation Under A Groove' and 'Freak Of The Week'.
Other highlights here include Maceo & The Macks' 'Cross The Tracks', Marvin Gaye's 'Got To Give It Up', Sly Stone's 'If You Want Me To Stay', War's 'Me And Baby Brother', The Gap Band's stonking 'Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)' and Billy Cobham's 'Stratus (Pt 1)' (as ripped off by Massive Attack on 'Safe From Harm').
So, put your sunglasses on, hop aboard the Mothership and as the Lollipop Man aka The Longhaired Sucker says on 'P Funk' "kick back and dig, while we do it to you in your ear drums." Funk is da bomb. And you know it...
by Gary Crossing