Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

BetaFunk

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,778

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by BetaFunk

    Living Colour

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I've always thought that Vernon Reid's best work was outside of Living Colour. His playing when he was with Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society was amazing and the Smash and Scatteration LP with Bill Frisell is a gem. His banjo playing is a bit special too.

    Funk and Groove

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='RoRi' timestamp='1418232325' post='2628274']
    The singer sounds a bit like Bobby Byrd.

    [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb73FC6I_0U[/url][/media]
    [/quote]
    It made me feel bad and to do this..............
    http://youtu.be/i8IbvVTXOIo

    The story of Funk: one nation under a groove And Funk compilation programme BBC4 Dec 5th.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='Bo0tsy' timestamp='1418202754' post='2627836']
    So I finally got round to watching the BBC4 program. It was OK, but some strange omissions & odd choices. I know you can't fit everything into an hour, and the program correctly went for funk founders such as James Brown. Sly & George Clinton, but no mention whatsoever of the Meters, Rick James, Zapp, (early) The Isley Bros, or The Gap Band?. And then only very rudimentary mentions of other primary funk groups such as Ohio Players, Slave, Cameo or Bootsy? No real coverage either of '80's electro funk (so funk suddenly went from its 70's heyday to Tribe Called Quest's I Left My Wallet in El Segundo??? - what about Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock? or George Clinton's Atomic Dog?). The program also covered a bit of Acid Jazz, but no mention of that genre's roots in Jazz Funk (Roy Ayers, Donald Bryd, Blackbyrds, etc). Too much focus also on EW&F who, whilst having elements of funk, to me at least have a much smoother R&B, disco and pop sound (I would not say that they are a raw funk group). If you are going to classify EW&F as Funk then why not mention Chic? Anyway despite my rant, there was some good vintage footage, and I quite enjoyed the Genius of Funk footage (despite the errors in that too - don't get me started again! :) )
    [/quote]
    The whole thing was either poorly researched or they just didn't understand what they were talking about. They seemed to think that Acid Jazz came from Funk when we all know it was from Jazz Funk which was a different genre altogether. That fact that they thought EW&F were a Funk band is just ignorance and they seemed to think that when Disco came Funk was finished which was not the case at all. AWB were again never a Funk band but they didn't seem to understand that just because a band is Funky it doesn't necessarily mean they are a Funk band. it was just a poor show all round.

    The story of Funk: one nation under a groove And Funk compilation programme BBC4 Dec 5th.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='tedmanzie' timestamp='1418136183' post='2627202']
    The BBC4 programme was ridiculous. It had some good footage but I've rarely witnessed such shoddy journalism on BBC4 - it basically started by stating that the only black music in the 60s was the 'vanilla pop' (??) of Motown so James Brown created funk all by himself when he wrote Cold Sweat. That was it all over and done in the first 5 mins. Then we went to Sly & the Family Stone.
    [/quote]
    ......and not forgetting that all time classic 'Picking Up The Pieces'............... :blink:

    Led Zep - adverts and X Factor

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1417984856' post='2625778']
    Any other spottings I've missed?
    [/quote]
    Nothing spotted yet but i live in hope that the South West England Tourist Board will soon have an advert on TV with a nice song containing slightly rearranged lyrics along the lines of 'Stairway To Devon'. :)

    The story of Funk: one nation under a groove And Funk compilation programme BBC4 Dec 5th.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1417974255' post='2625649']
    In fairness, I haven't heard the entire catalog, only tunes here and there and I simply didn't hear anything that made me want to investigate. It's funk, of course, but I wasn't hearing enough of a song or a hook in what I heard to turn me on to it. Recommend some and I'll check it out.
    [/quote]
    I won't recommend anything because like all music it's down to personal taste but if anyone thinks that funk is just a the few commercial snippets that was on the BBC documentary then look a little further and you may well be surprised. That's really how it was in the 60s and 70s when you bought or heard an LP which you liked then heard that another group were like that so you bought that LP and so on and so on. We discovered as we went back then. Now with the internet it's all so much easier but also easy to miss the occasional gem.

    I said i wouldn't recommend any Funk tracks as i can remember back to the 70s when i was into a lot of Jazz as well as Funk plus lots of other varied stuff (i saw The Clash, Earth Wind & Fire and Gil Scott Heron live one week) having to listen to something like Dark Side Of The Moon would have been like torture to me and would have had me climbing the walls within minutes. The same with ELO whose music was a joke to me (and everyone else i knew) back then (still is as it happens) and was bought by teenage girls, grannies and blokes who wore cardigans and leather string backed driving gloves and drove Triumph Spitfires and thought they were really cool. As the Floyd and ELO are favourites on here it just goes to show that it really is all down to personal taste and how far you want to search out music that you might like. Whatever the outcome the journey is always worthwhile. :D

    The story of Funk: one nation under a groove And Funk compilation programme BBC4 Dec 5th.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1417962479' post='2625462']
    FWIW, I'm a big funk lover but P-Funk does nothing for me. It feels particularly aimless.
    [/quote]
    There is so much variety on those P-Funk albums. Great tunes on Parlet and Brides Of Funkenstein to heavier funk on Parliament and those horns on the Fred Wesley LPs to the political lyrics and madness of the Funkadelic ones. I can't see how any funk fan could resist the guitars of Garry Shider, Michael Hampton & Eddie Hazel or the Hammond of Bernie Worrell, the great Junie Morrison (playing everything) and the beautiful vocals of Jessica Cleaves. There's something for every fan o funk somewhere in the P-Funk catalogue but if you don't get it then you don't get it.
    I expect that most peoples impression on P-Funk is the few hits that they've heard but there is a lot more to it than that.

    A new level of Road Worn

    in eBay - Weird and Wonderful

    Posted

    [quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1417685323' post='2622949']
    I'm a recent convert to the roadworn look
    But I have to say, these guitars and basses are a bit OTT for my taste
    [/quote]
    But that isn't a 'roadworn' look. I've never seen a genuinely roadworn bass look like that.

    [quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1417685323' post='2622949']
    Someone is buying these guitars
    so I suppose it's a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.....?
    [/quote]
    I can only imagine that people of a certain age are buying basses like that who are new to buying basses and probably don't know what genuine wear looks like. I really do hope that's the case because if they are older then surely they should know better.

    Such fantastic James Jamerson..

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by BetaFunk

    There are a couple of threads on here about Darling Dear......


    [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/240536-motown-on-tv-tonight/page__st__30__p__2495913__hl__darling%20dear__fromsearch__1#entry2495913"]http://basschat.co.u..._1#entry2495913[/url]

    http://basschat.co.uk/topic/221825-jackson-5/page__p__2270791__hl__darling%20dear__fromsearch__1#entry2270791

    The story of Funk: one nation under a groove And Funk compilation programme BBC4 Dec 5th.

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by BetaFunk

    [quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1417872652' post='2624729']
    I really hope this is not just another inaccurate documentary by people who don't truly know or understand the subject, but I will watch it anyway because you don't get a lot of funk on the tellybox these days.
    [/quote]
    It's not that it's inaccurate it's more that it's a very basic primer. If you know anything about funk it won't tell you anything you don't know already.

    I know that the narrator only says what is in front of him but i'm sure it would have been better to have some voice this who had been there at the time and had some personal experience of what it was like to be there. If i want a potted history i can read that anywhere although there were a few comments from those who were around at the time. There was a lot going on at the time like Vietnam, the chance of a nuclear war and protests in most major cities around the world and this had a massive influence on music. There are lots of good journalists still around who know their stuff when it comes to funk that they could have used in the programme.

    Listening and watching is one thing but one of the (very few) joys of getting old is that you can say, you really had to be there. :D

×
×
  • Create New...