Customer Reviews

Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wrote a paper in university on the social relevance of funk lyrics (focused on James Brown, George Clinton, and Sly Stone). When treading through the ethnomusicology section of our library, I was dismayed that there was not one funk treatise to be found. Thankfully, someone as versed in the funk as Mr. Vincent has taken a great first step down that path.

The great thing about the book to me is that Vincent manages to display both an academic's need for historical reason, and a funk-lover's passion for the music. It kills me every time he spends a page in the academic's voice, delineating the foundations of the music -- such as James Brown's emphasis on rhythm over melody -- only to wrap things up with a down-home phrase like "...fonk that created a breathless, animated, nasty hype-dog feel." It's a fine mix of reason and passion, in that one sentence. And notice the spelling of "fonk". He also throws in fonque, fonkey, FUNK, FONK (capitalization is his). It makes for a great conversational feel (you can just hear the guttural tone in his voice when he calls Stevie Wonder "fonkey").

He does a fine job displaying funk's lineage, although it is understandably ragged and all over the map. It can get confusing when a discussion of Parliament segues into a discussion of Rick James and Prince, back to James Brown and then onto Funkadelic. But that's the nature of any music's evolution: it bobs and weaves all over the place, taking notes from soul, jazz, gospel, blues, etc. Vincent does yeomen's work keeping the line as simple as possible, showing how we got from funk's beginnings to the various incarnations of the funk today (Dr. Dre and Red Hot Chili Peppers to list two examples Vincent positions under the contemporary funk umbrella).

I guess my original intention when I bought this book was to expand my funk palette. Vincent's range of knowledge is so vast, that anyone with the teeniest of funk leanings will learn of something new to pick up, and most likely, JAM to. The appendix listing his essential funk albums is worth the price of admission in and of itself.

This book is all of that. It is more than just a walk dowm memory lane, it breaks down just where it all started from and connects it to what's going on today. I come from a funk background, two parents who were musicaians in the Dayton, Ohio area funk scene and they have confirmed that this author did his homework. You may be into funk, but this book will make you understand funk. Your appreciation for funk will grow beyond belief. This is not a book that I have read and it stays on my bookshelf, I find myself going to it often. There are so many facts about this music in this book that a one time reading isn't enough. Bottom line get this book.

First, I propose a small title change for this book. It should be called "THE Funk". The word "funk" only refers to a musical genre. But THE Funk entails the whole lifestyle, attitude, and philosophy that go with the music. And that's what this book is about.

Rickey Vincent provides all the info you could possibly dig on the origins, artists, and influence behind the funk bomb that has been shaking the Earth since the 60's. You get the deep, ancient funk origins in jazz, soul, R&B, and even rockers like Hendrix and Santana. As should be expected, there's a ton of props for the musicians who invented funk, especially the Godfather, my main man James Brown; not to mention the old-school master, Sly Stone. Once the funk really took off in the 70's, Vincent provides top coverage of the entire phenomenon, with props for big men like the Isley Brothers, Ohio Players, Kool & the Gang, and Earth Wind & Fire; and unearths long-lost funkateeers like Slave and Zapp, who are ripe for rediscovery. But where would we be without P-Funk? No problem, as Vincent gives us an entire section on the most important and influential funk mob of all time, George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic thang. The story continues into the present with coverage of funk that survived underground in the 80's, and then rocked the world again in the 90's. Most interesting is Vincent's coverage of funk's humungous influence on the hip-hop nation, as well as a whole branch of rock-n-roll (populated by bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Primus).

When funk history gets ragged in the late 70's and early 80's, Vincent gets carried away in his endless condemnation of disco (you don't really need to say how much disco reeked), as well as the other new forms of dance music that temporarily buried the funk. But not to worry, because in the 90's the funk re-emerged triumphantly and in top booty-shakin' form. And get a load of the appendix, "Essential Funk Recordings," in which Vincent provides a gargantuan list of classic funk albums that will keep you on a buying spree for the rest of your life.

I recieved this book as a gift from my Fiancee, who is a FUNK musician. Many times he explained to me what FUNK is and how it began. My interest in FUNK music began to peak and I wanted to know more. I read the entire book in a 6 hour flight from the east coast to the west coast. The book was so informative I couldn't put it down. Prior to my reading this book I had no idea of the indepth history FUNK and the magnitude of its impact on the music industry. If anyone wants to know and understand the history of FUNK; I refer to this book as the "BIBLE OF FUNK". I am now a well educated lover of FUNK!!!

First off, let me say that this book has some wonderful background on the bands that created what is, in my opinion, perhaps the last great live instrumental genre of music, and definitely one of the best of all time.

However, this book is seriously flawed. The two flaws stem from the author's bigotry - openly against white people, and the undercurrent of homophobia.

In his rabid tirades of anything that reeks of Disco, both Funk bands that produced disco records and Black listeners who actually liked disco are basically accused of selling out to whitey. My intuition, early in the book, that the fear of disco was based on homophobia, clearly comes out in the dismissal of discos as "clubs typically managed by gays and white ethnics" (p206) as a BAD thing - what is wrong with whites or gays??? For someone who is constantly lamenting the bigotry of white people against black people in the book, this is a terribly ignorant statement.

He gives props to the Average White Band, then says, "unfortunately, any time white musicians get into a black thang, things can get messy" (p189)... racism is not cool no matter who it is directed at. music is universal, as should be obvious from his praise of multi-ethnic groups such as Sly & The Family Stone or Santana. on the same page, he contrasts AWB with KC & The Sunshine Band, which "by contrast, was an organic, soulful band of Sly Stone clones with Florida black church roots that could be heard on every cut."... on pages 216-217 he ruthlessly disses this same "soulful" band with the words "hysterical", "gimmick", "simplified", "oblivion", no-meaning" in a single paragraph. On p216 BT Express' "Do It (til you're satisfied)" is an example of a "gimmick hook" - two pages later the album (with "do it" as a shining example)is "an all-time classic dance funk disc".

the hypocrisy is pretty thick up in here.

additionally, a lament that is CONSTANTLY repeated throughout the book is that a single producer makes a disco record with "machines" and a vocalist - however, Hip Hop (which is also produced generally by a single "producer", with, you guessed it, MACHINES providing the backdrop for vocalists) is lauded as the future funk. It's pretty clear that race has more to do with his bitterness than the use of machines or solitary artists.

I love funk. I love hip hop. and I even love disco, before it was co-opted from an underground audience that included many black and latino gays among it's ranks - by record companies and the pop music market. it has nothing to do with race, it's about MONEY. some of the garbage that passes for mainstream hip hop today, produced by multimillionaire black folks, is lowest common denominator music. it just goes to show that greed is color-blind, not that there is anything inherently wrong with whites, gays, or even disco.

I can't with a good concsience recommend this book to someone who is ignorant of the genre, because it contains so much bigotry. however, for someone who would like some background on many of these groups, it is worth reading. I just wish I had bought it used, because until the author realizes that he is being what he rails against (a bigot and a hypocrite) and revises the book to reflect it, I would rather that I didn't give him my money, as I don't support discrimination of ANYONE.

I'm sure there's more in here that will bother me - I haven't finished the book - but I felt the need to share this caveat with others, and I doubt that there's an afterword in which he takes back what he's been saying throughout the entire book thus far.

If you feel The Funk, or just want to know about it, this is a nice history lesson. It's somewhat opinionated, but mostly provides good information. This book will take you back to the beginnings of Funk right up until the end of the 20th century. Time well spent, enjoy.

One major things about this book is I wish it was a hardback (my edition is falling apart).When I was first getting into the funky music this book was a bible.It's got expert discourse on Parliament-Funkadelic,AWB,Earth,Wind & Fire,Chaka Khan and all the rest.But as with many books this one has it's flaws.The most important setback being that this takes the typical negative point of view on disco-actually going as far as saying 'disco,in fact sucked' and dismissing classic albums by Rufus,Chaka Khan and The Brothers Johnson in the late 70's/early 80's as 'reeking of disco/dance folly'.Strange for a music who's best moments were laregly derived from JAMES BROWN HIMSELF!
Another is that as you learn more about the music this book doesn't tend to grow with you.It leans heavily towards classic funk and it's innovators.Chapter after chapter about JB,Sly and even a whole chapter on the metaphysicl implications of P-Funk.But at the same time it leaves out important funk contributions by Lenny White,Passport,Level 42 and Bernard Wright-generally dismissing the funk-jazz genre and going too heavy into detail on hip-hop projects with very little actual funk credibility.'Funk:The Music,The People And The Rhythm Of The One' is a primer explaining the music's importance and it does that job well.
Also of note is that as of this writing classic funk CD's were being reissued ad infinitum and advertised as 'containing the song __________ that was sampled by Dr.Dre,Puff Daddy,etc' and it's pages continually emphasize how various funk hits are 'sampled' by hip-hop performers,again selling funk in a manner linking it only to hip-hop,without standing on it's own two feet.
This book does point out vividly through it's classism that funk fans were in danger of falling into the same snobby
class of people that some exclusive be-bop jazz fans fell into.There are some (subtle) hints that synthesizers and electronics 'ruined' funk music (DEFINATELY an echo of jazz snobbery)and seems to put both James Brown and George Clinton up to the level of overlords.And they are but this could have afforded to be more well rounded.And only for those reasons do I deduct a star-this book is not designed for the hardcore funkateer.But for those who want a summery understanding of the 'one' this works very well indeed.

All I can say is get this book...if you need to know more about funk, if you already think you know all there is to know, or if you heard that funky voice in yo' behind calling out, this is the one for you!!

I really enjoyed this book. My only complaint is that he(Rickey Vincent) should have asked some fans who were there doing the real Funk years of the early to mid 70's what it was like. I am a funkateer and an avid fan of Funkadelick and I am also from DC. The song Choclate City was a homage to Washington DC and other cities where the majority population was African American. DC was always a great city to George Clinton and the Funkadelics...They came here quite often to Howard University, Unive of Maryland, College Park, DC Armory, RFK Stadium, The Carter Baron Amptheater (in Rock Creek Park) and several other venues. I was in college in Boston and saw them at the Sugar Shack back in 1972-1973. By the way, Maggot Brain and Cosmic Slop were two of my favorites, (not to the exclusion of others of course) My interest in this book is simple. I as thinking about writing my dissertation on Funk music and it Afrocentric themes using a content/textual analysis of the artists, period and the lyrics. James Brown and George Clinton were the primary artists.

Rickey "The Uhuru Maggot" Vincent is a true cloned P-Funker, and his passion for The Funk in all its glorious forms is what powers this incredible book. FUNK is a breathless exploration of the roots of a musical form that has never been given its due respect, is often mis-classified, and has been written off as a gimmicky side-show to "serious" music for too long. What Rickey portrays here is a vision of The Funk as a spiritual force in itself, tapping in to ancient musical and spiritual impulses stemming straight from African tradition; and as a political one, too - a defiant, in-your-face musical outburst that erupted alonside the emergence of the Black Power movement and inspired artists from James Brown, Curtis Mayfield and Gill-Scott Heron to the outspoken and controversial stars of modern hip-hop.

Rickey matches his vision with a treasure of historical detail and back-story to the musical giants central to his story, which surges along powered by his obvious passion for The Funk and his fluid, conversational prose. What emerges as you read on is an alternative history of Twentieth Century music, one that rescues Sly Stone from historical limbo, Hendrix from the rock scene, and the many innovators in black popular music as a whole from the shadow of their imitators.

The Funk is many things, often seemingly irreconcilable, but somehow all part of a greater whole - which is why even Rickey Vincent concedes that he cannot define it as such. But this fantastic book - with its breathless beatnik blend of history, annecdote, politics, music theory, hero-worship and philosophy - is certainly in ITSELF funky, a juggling act, high-minded and quasi-spiritual but down-home and real at the same time.

It is a study that stinks of its subject, and a must for all who have been funked. Funk on!