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Whos got the funk?

  • James Brown

    Votes: 7 70.0%
  • Parliament -Funkadelic?

    Votes: 3 30.0%

Poll: James Brown or Parliament -Funkadelic?

4K views 29 replies 12 participants last post by  regenmusic 
#1 ·
Whos got the funk?
 
#3 ·
I could probably distil what I really like of JB's studio stuff onto about five discs as most of his albums were pretty spotty, plus he had an irritating penchant for recording new studio versions of older material which were usually inferior (God knows how many times he re-made Please, Please, Please). Another dubious habit was tacking audience noise onto studio tracks and passing them off as live ones. Negatives aside, the first three Live at the Apollo albums are essential, so when adding those to the studio tracks of choice at least that bulks things out somewhat.

Parliament and Funkadelic were essentially an albums-oriented collective what with all with all the concepts and in-jokes, and between 1970 and 1979 had an excellent run.
 
#5 ·
JB had the style, the soul, and most importantly, Maceo (at least for a good while).

As Tower of Power said:
You know, the more things change
The more they stay the same
It may be a different age
But I'm on the same page
Cause one thing that I've found
I'll still be diggin' on James Brown.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Parliament-Funkadelic for me - based not only on the inventiveness and innovation of each release but also on the inventiveness and innovation of each band member's nick-names -

William "Bootsy" Collins

Walter "Junie" Morrison

Garry "Diaperman" Shider

Michael "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton

Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey

Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood

"Billy Bass" Nelson

Cordell "Boogie" Mosson

Ray "Stingray" Davis

Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins

"Shady Grady" Thomas

One can only surmise why George Clinton, Bernie Worrell and Eddie Hazel remained "George Clinton", "Bernie Worrell", and "Eddie Hazel"...

JB has the soul but P-F has the funk - it's a crucial difference - and that was the OP's original question.

Purple Musician Hat Microphone Musical instrument


Album after album - "Funkadelic" ('70), "Free Your Mind" ('70), "Maggot Brain" ('71), "America Eats Its Young" ('72), "Cosmic Slop" ('73), "Up for the Down Stroke ('74), "Mothership Connection ('75), "Hardcore Jollies" ('76), "Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome" ('77), and "One Nation Under a Groove" created the template for all that followed - funk, hip-hop, post-disco etc.

It was more than "soul" or "funk" - Forward to the 4:24 mark where Eddie Hazel steps in and takes over the solo from Mike Hampton on "Maggot Brain" and channels Hendrix... and then they join together and you'll hear a guitar duo that ranks with the best of them all.



James Brown is indeed the "Godfather of Soul" and what he did he did better than anyone else but when it comes to pushing the artistic boundaries attempting to create something out of nothing that ever existed before then you have to got with P-F.
 
#8 ·
JB has the soul but P-F has the funk - it's a crucial difference - and that was the OP's original question.
How would you define the difference? Because James Brown started out in soul, but he is usually credited with originating funk. Get on the Good Foot and Sex Machine sound like funk to me. (Especially with Bootsy Collins in his pre-Funkadelic period on bass on Sex Machine.)
 
#14 ·
“Hal Neely, former president of King Records, the most important label in Afro-American music for more than 20 years, told me that Stravinsky, in response to an interviewer’s question concerning his favourite composers, once replied ‘The three Bs.’ ‘The three Bs,’ Stravinsky is said to have explained, are Bach, Beethoven and Brown—James Brown. According to Neely, Stravinsky went on to say that James Brown should be considered one of the greatest composers of all time, that he was writing truly American music and portraying the American heritage" (p.199, African Rhythm and African Sensibility, John Miller Chernoff, University of Chicago Press, 1979)
 
#20 ·
The Stravinsky question comes up in this interesting interview but Brown doesn't address it directly in his answer. If Stravinsky ever did mention admiration for Brown I doubt he phrased it with the extreme hyperbole relayed by this interviewer.
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/new-again-james-brown
 
#21 · (Edited)
The phrase "Stravinsky said..." used in the question is drawn from the quote made by Hal Neely and told to John Miller Chernoff.

The Stravinsky quote in regards to the three B's (Bach, Beethoven, James Brown) cannot conclusively be attributed to Stravinsky by any other verifiable method and thus is to be considered apocryphal.
 
#24 · (Edited)
:tiphat:

Interesting thread - I was wondering what the results would have been if James Brown had squared off against Ray Charles in a career-wide catalog v. catalog contest.

Or James Brown v. Prince in the same format.

Stevie Wonder v. Marvin Gaye?

Temptations v. the Four Tops?

2Pac (Makaveli) v. The Notorious B.I.G.?
 
#25 ·
I never cared for Prince's vocals or lovey dovey sex songs. I don't care how much talent he had. Marvin Gaye is a bit too slick as well. I'll take Stevie Wonder. And I think Michael Franti is a very talented songwriter working today. And he has a great band in Spearhead.
 
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