A Funk Excursion

A few weeks ago I fell into a funk.

Not the depression thing, but the musical kind.

It all started when I pulled out Disc 2 of James Brown's 4-CD box set Star Time from 1991. I still believe it is the best single artist 4 CD box set. And if you want the funk, here comes Papa's Got A Brand New Bag, I Got You (I Feel Good), Ain't That A Groove, Cold Sweat, I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me), Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose, I Got The Feelin', and I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door I'll Get It Myself).

After that I had to find more. So I went to the LP stacks looking for P-Funk. And I found, and listened to in their entirety, Funkadelic's One Nation Under A Groove, Uncle Jam Wants You, and Parliament's Mothership Connection. All three of those are first rate, and not just for the famous tracks. That led me to Parliament Gold, a 2 CD compilation that hits the high spots in the Parliament oeuvre. Two CDs is a lot of Parliament, even for the devoted. Despite the two bands essentially being the same musicians, I tend to like the Funkadelic records more overall.

Since I had gone down this funky rabbit hole and wanted even more, I pulled out The Funk Box, another 4 CD box from 2000 that is almost flawless. Of course if you are a certified funketeer, it might seem like an introduction, but it includes a lot of great funk from across a wide spectrum of artists. From James Brown's Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine and Aretha Franklin's Rock Steady to Rick James' You And I and Zapp's More Bounce To The Ounce, the hits are here alongside some less well-known fare. One thing that is especially nice about this box set is that they consistently use the original 12" dance singles or the extended album versions and not the edited for radio singles that shorten the jams. Over the course of a few days, I listened to the whole thing. 

I'm not sure how I got into funk like I did. I always liked soul music, but I was defiantly anti-disco, and there are some clear links between disco and funk. I wasn't really into funk when it was happening in the seventies and eighties. Instead I came late to the party. It was probably that James Brown box set that got the whole thing started, just like it started this recent trip down funky memory lane. Tear the roof off the sucker!