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Documentary, BBC - The Story of Funk- One Nation under a Groove
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MusicTranscript
00:00I know what you can do! Let us lay some funk on you!
00:07Funk. Funk is a sensation.
00:11A universal feeling from another dimension.
00:15Funk's that thump in your chest that just makes you want to get on up and dance.
00:20Funk is all about rhythm.
00:22It affects your movements. It affects your speech.
00:26It affects the way that you dress.
00:28Funk, in its essence, makes you dance, makes you move.
00:33Some kind of tribal feeling or tribal message just makes people want to dance from the core of their heart.
00:38Definition of funk, warm, damp, place to give life.
00:50Funk's a state of mind. It's the sound of rebellion. A celebration of being black.
00:57What's interesting about funk is that it was ours. It actually brought us together.
01:02You know what funk music is? It's unapologetic blackness.
01:11Funk spread the groove around the world.
01:14Without it, much of the music we love today would never have happened.
01:18There probably would not be any hip-hop without funk music.
01:21That's all a funk attitude. You know, I'm a player. I'm a hustler.
01:25That's all the stuff that George Clinton and those folks were doing in the 1970s.
01:28It's just called hip-hop today.
01:30So, as we're standing on the verge of getting it on,
01:33let's take it to the stage and discover the story of how, in the 1970s,
01:36America was one nation under a groove.
01:40One nation under a groove
01:43Getting down just for the public
01:49By the mid-1970s, black America had gone totally funky.
01:54The groove was in full effect.
02:04But just a decade earlier, it was another story.
02:11In the 1960s, it was hard just to be black.
02:14There was prejudice, discrimination and segregation.
02:18The only music made by African-Americans that filtered through to the charts
02:22was the vanilla pop of labels like Motown Records.
02:33So, in the early 1960s, the funk was a mere glint in Mother Nature's eye.
02:39But one soul artist worked out a way to start the evolution.
02:53James Brown began his career back in the 1950s as an R&B singer.
03:07By the mid-60s, he'd become so influential and famous in black music,
03:12he was nicknamed the godfather of soul.
03:16But in 1967, James Brown left soul music behind.
03:21With one song called Cold Sweat,
03:47Cold Sweat was the song that just blew me away.
03:50That groove, it was different from earlier James Brown.
03:56Something happened.
04:01I think the thing that happens with Cold Sweat
04:03is that that's where he really turned the whole band into a drum.
04:08You know, so every element in there is just kicking.
04:26That was it, when they put that break in that record.
04:29Yeah, and the horns, everything.
04:31The bass, Bootsy, the whole thing.
04:32Yeah, that whole line was, I don't care.
04:53There was more emphasis on the bass and drum locking.
04:58it became harder it was more intense with less James Brown surrounded himself
05:08with the best musicians money could buy but it was him alone who decided what
05:12was funky he'd get the band members to jam together and then one by one he'd
05:17get each of them to play what he was hearing in his head you had to really
05:23try to understand what he was talking about you know he would he would say
05:28anything like and it wouldn't really be anything you know but a bass player could
05:36try to think something like what he do and he said no that's not it then they do
05:40something else then it is it that's it that's it and when he said that's it
05:45you just kept what you were doing
05:53previously with rhythm and blues rock and roll and soul music the emphasis had
05:58been on the second and fourth beats of the bar what James Brown did was to
06:02stress the first beat this became the bedrock of funk music the rhythm of the
06:07one
06:15there was that emphasis on boom
06:17god
06:19boom
06:22you know his his his drum beats
06:33james really conceived of the entire band as as as bringing these strong rhythmic accents emphasizing that first beat again
06:43and again and again and again I mean you know every beat is there but there's always an accent on
06:47the one which is very African you know from way back in Africa that was a that was the
06:54that that rhythm that would just you know stir the soul as it were
07:02all of a sudden groove was more important whereas in years past the middle part was very important and and
07:10the vocal because remember James wasn't doing a lot of lyrical melodic vocals he was high good god yeah because
07:18he was just basically riding and dancing on top of that groove
07:27it not only kind of changed the way listeners thought about you know what dance music was what funky music
07:36was but a lot of songwriters and musicians a lot of his peers
07:40all that we know all that we do James is the father you know they didn't call him god fuck
07:47for nothing he was the man that taught us all how to be funky
07:56James Brown was funk's original pioneer his cold sweat showing the path of the revolution but the funk was not
08:04yet fully formed over on the west coast of America from the heart of San Francisco's peace and love generation
08:10emerged a new funk phenomenon
08:12amongst the psychedelic rock scenes of bands like Jefferson aeroplane and the grateful dead this pioneering group was about to
08:20change the groove again
08:24hey here's sly and the family stone
08:47where James Brown was strictly controlled by the soul brother number one himself in sly and the family stone everyone
08:54got involved with creating the vibe
08:56although they were a multiracial mixed gender group they had a sense of togetherness that really shone through in their
09:02music
09:02a lot of bands back during that time they would have the singing group out front and the band would
09:08be the backing band but we were self-contained and that we were the band and we were the singers
09:15as well and we would all contribute to the lead lines sly would sing a line I would sing a
09:21line usually always the low
09:23I'm gonna add some bottom
09:31we all had our own musical background and experiences that we were allowed to contribute to the band so everybody
09:38brought something to the table
09:47although sly was the writer musically he would allow us to express ourselves and I think that that really helped
09:55the band to be kind of like a melting pot of music so to speak
10:03it was this openness to new ideas that allowed Larry Graham to go wild with his bass
10:08he invented a new style of playing that would become one of the sounds most associated with funk
10:30it was a technique he developed playing with his mom as a kid
10:42my mom decided
10:44that we weren't gonna have drums anymore
10:46now I don't know if that was for economic reasons or what
10:49maybe two people could make more
10:52than divided it up among three she never told me the reason but
10:55we're not gonna have drums anymore so
10:58that's when I started thumping the strings with my thumb to make up for not having that bass drum
11:04and plucking the strings with my finger to make up for not having that back beat on the snare drum
11:09so it's kind of playing the drums on the bass
11:25after thank you for letting me hear that's that
11:28that became a huge template for every bass player to start using the thumb slap
11:34you talk about a song being written around a bass riff that was it
11:38later on other bands if you were gonna play
11:42some serious funk
11:43you kinda had to have the bass player play
11:47my style of playing the bass
11:53thank you was a number one record that became a cornerstone of the funk
11:56the way the bass riff left space for the rest of the band to fill in the groove
12:01showed the next generation of funkateers how to construct a hit song out of a jam
12:14the more space sometimes that you leave between the two and the four
12:19and if you just play that continuously and let it just brew on the same groove
12:25over and over and over and over again until it gets so powerful
12:31that is ridiculous that's like the kind of funk that I like
12:35and then you make the ugly face
12:40that's funky
12:42sing a simple song
12:48everybody helped create the sound of the band
12:51but Sly was very much the head of the family
12:54he wrote the songs the lyrics and even told them what to wear
12:57their freaky clothes and afros would define the funk look of the 1970s
13:12they came as a unit
13:14they were dressed as a unit
13:16they wore the funkiest clothes
13:18oh my god
13:20bell bottoms
13:21platform shoes hats
13:22jackets with fur on the side
13:26it was almost like being in a dressed up gang
13:31he didn't like what I wore when I came to his house one day
13:36so uh
13:37he looked down on the ground
13:39and he had a cow skin rug down there
13:42he goes
13:43give me a razor
13:45and the guy raised me
13:46he went
13:46cut a slit
13:47in the cow skin
13:49I put it on as a poncho
13:52and that was my outfit
13:53I didn't choose that
13:54that was hot and sweaty
13:55but after that I paid attention
14:00it wasn't just the band's clothes that made them stand out
14:02back in the late 1960s
14:05a mixed race group with a black lead singer was rare
14:08just performing on live television was making a statement to the whole of America
14:13an integrated society could work
14:15but for Sly and the Family Stone
14:18it was just about talented musicians making incredibly funky music
14:22we just felt like a family
14:24you know
14:25I didn't really look at Greg or Rico or Jerry Martini as you know the white members of the band
14:31I'm sure they weren't looking at us as the black members of the band
14:35and so the crowds that we played for
14:38they looked at us like that
14:40and we looked at them like that
14:45but not everybody shared the same views
14:48for black Americans the 1960s was a daily fight for racial equality
14:52there was widespread rioting and violent clashes with authorities
14:56it was rough you know
14:59we had gotten used to being looked upon as second class you know
15:04and not deserving first class treatment
15:09and that's a bad thing
15:10when people get used to being downtrodden and stepped on
15:14that's a real bad thing
15:20James Brown believed he could help make a change
15:23thanks to some big funky hits in the second half of the 60s
15:26he was a national superstar
15:28and while he toured America
15:29he used his fame to talk to local black communities
15:33inspiring them to succeed in a white-run world
15:35when you go to get a job
15:36don't go just to get a good job
15:37go with sin
15:39one of these days I'll probably own this company
15:40be the general manager
15:41I'll build one of my own
15:43look at me
15:45brown believed money was the only way for black people to have any real power
15:50he felt that the secret to the success of the black community hinged on being self-supportive
15:57and not just depending on government support
16:03or having to work for the white man
16:09as the 1960s drew to a close
16:11James became part of a growing group of black leaders
16:14forcing America to wake up to the civil rights movement
16:18we're going to walk on this nation
16:20we're going to walk on this racist power structure
16:23and we're going to say to the whole damn government
16:26stick them up motherfucker
16:27this is a hole up
16:29we come for what's ours
16:33but in April of 1968
16:35this political push was stopped dead in its tracks
16:39Dr. Martin Luther King
16:40the movement's figurehead
16:41was murdered
16:44when Martin Luther King
16:45was assassinated
16:47you look and you go
16:49we're all you know
16:50our heroes are being
16:52wiped out
16:53one by one
16:55what can we do
16:57just when we
16:58you know
16:59we're getting some place
17:01we get
17:02knocked back down again
17:07riots raged across America
17:09and as one of the nation's most prominent black figures
17:12pressure was on James Brown to respond
17:14James was pretty much the guy
17:17you know back then in the late 60s
17:18there was pretty much nobody else that was as powerful
17:21and as strong as James was
17:22his voice and his music
17:24and people listened to him
17:28James' answer was to unite African Americans
17:31the best way he knew how
17:32through the funk
17:38in 1968
17:39he released one of pop music's most influential cultural anthems
17:43say it loud
17:44I'm black and I'm proud
17:50the single peaked at number 10 on the national charts
17:53funk music was carrying a message of black empowerment
17:56directly into mainstream America
17:59the lyrics
18:00the lyrics
18:00everything
18:01were right on
18:02it was perfect
18:03you know
18:04it instilled pride in us
18:06you know
18:06it instilled a sense of
18:10purpose
18:11so we can go further in life if we wanted to
18:14and not to be ashamed of the fact that you were black
18:16because at that time
18:17everybody was telling you you were ashamed
18:19you know
18:20to be ashamed of yourself
18:21or you'll never be nothing
18:22say it loud
18:26say it loud
18:28say it loud
18:29say it loud
18:30when he played it live in Jersey City
18:33at Roosevelt Stadium
18:35say it loud
18:36and it said it had about 30 or 40 thousand
18:39and everybody said
18:40I'm black and I'm proud
18:41say it loud
18:42say it loud
18:42say it loud
18:43in fact they had to stop the concert
18:44yeah
18:45because we got excited you know
18:47you want to tear something up now
18:49the first time he played it live was in Houston, Texas
18:52I'll never forget it
18:53and James came on stage
18:54and he said
18:55say it loud
18:56and the whole audience
18:59I tear up when I say this
19:02I'm black and I'm proud
19:04you know
19:05it was amazing
19:08amazing
19:10the whole audience said it
19:12must have been 20,000, 30,000 people today
19:14and they all
19:16all said I'm black and I'm proud
19:20I am
19:22everyday people
19:24yeah
19:27while James
19:28Brown's funky protest anthem
19:30plugged right into the heart of Black America
19:32Sly Stone was writing some anthems of his own
19:35we got to live together
19:40and know better
19:41and neither are you
19:43we are the same
19:48He was the Family Stone's creative genius, and whereas James Brown's lyrics were often about black pride,
19:54Sly's message was about bringing people together.
20:02More important than anything to me, because he was naturally funky,
20:08and everybody in the band was funky, even me,
20:10but his lyrics were the most important things that he ever did.
20:15He's so brilliant.
20:17I mean, even songs like Stand, if you listen to Stand, it was about the times.
20:33There was no talk about violence.
20:37It doesn't talk about get your weapons and, you know, stand up against something.
20:41You know what I'm saying? It's just stand for it.
20:49Sly and the Family Stone's sing-along songs and hippie attitude appeal to both black and white record buyers.
20:56By the time the band played Woodstock Festival, they already had two huge number one singles.
21:02If they could go down well in front of half a million rock fans, the funk would truly have crossed
21:07over.
21:23But arriving on stage at 3 a.m., they had their work cut out.
21:32About three or four songs into our set, they started getting into it and coming out of their tents because
21:38it had been raining, you know.
21:40It was amazing.
21:41But the energy coming from the audience, you know, so it was this whole thing that was driving.
21:47They were driving us, we were driving them, and it was like a snowball effect, you know.
21:52It was pretty powerful.
21:58The roar of half a million people going, yeah!
22:04I mean, that was something that we had never heard before or felt before, that kind of energy.
22:30It was just a turning point for us to be seen by that many people for it to be written
22:38about
22:39by as many writers as wrote about the Woodstock event.
22:43It just changed the lives of a lot of entertainers.
22:52Both Sly Stone and James Brown had engineered the genetic makeup of funk.
22:57By the early 1970s, it became infectious, and soon the funk DNA was spreading all around the world,
23:04spawning a wave of new music.
23:13There's just funk everywhere. It became the music of young people.
23:19Funk had become the new hot music in the black community.
23:22And amongst dance music fans, it was, it was the new shit.
23:34Ohio Players, the Commodores, Cooler and the Gang, Tower of Power, funk was everywhere.
23:39Everyone had a band. Everybody wanted to make music that was funky.
23:51You had Soul Train, you had Soul, you know, which were national TV shows that represented black music, black culture.
23:57So people were actually having it being brought into their living room.
23:59See how I'm walking, see how I'm talking, mama.
24:03Don't deserve a thing in me.
24:06Just put your hand in mine and you love me all the time.
24:09The truth knew we're playing, let's see.
24:12So come on and feel it.
24:15Even if you look at the Jackson 5, at a certain point they broke away from the Motown model they
24:20were given,
24:20and they made Dancing Machine, which was definitely funk influence as well,
24:23because they wanted to make music that was funkier, because that was all around them.
24:36The Jackson 5 weren't the only act from the Motown family to embrace the music.
24:40Although the Detroit record label was initially reluctant to let its stars join the party,
24:45the only ones who would survive into the 1970s were those who could keep up with the funk.
24:52Little Stevie Wonder grew up from a child pop star into a fully grown songwriter
24:56with a run of albums that featured some seriously funky cuts.
25:15And it wasn't long before British bands got their funk on too.
25:22Having begun their careers nicking riffs from African American blues artists,
25:26English rock bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin borrowed a few funk ones too,
25:31working a couple of tracks onto their multi-million selling albums.
25:42But it was a Scottish band who had the funkier sound in 1970s Britain.
25:46Average white bands started out as a covers group obsessed with James Brown's funk records.
25:51They honed their chops on the London live circuit and then put out their own monster slice of funk called
25:57Picking Up The Pieces.
25:58It topped the American charts.
26:06The record sounded so authentic there were a few surprises when the band took to the road.
26:11A lot of audiences assumed we were black because they'd heard the record on the radio and they'd turn up
26:16and it was like...
26:18Come on!
26:20And then as soon as we started to play it was like...
26:23Ah, okay.
26:34They were so funky, even James Brown and his band came to one of their shows to check out white
26:39funk in action.
26:41They said, yeah, you guys, I like you guys' groove.
26:45You know, it was ultimate content.
26:47So of course we went to the bar after that and we got hanging with some of the guys and
26:51they were saying,
26:51Man, when your record came out, when Picking Up The Pieces came out, you know, you guys were really...
26:57Everyone was coming up to us and saying, hey man, we love your new record.
26:59And they're going, hey, you know us.
27:02Hey, you know us, it's some Scottish band from Scotland.
27:06What is that?
27:08Funk was taking over planet Earth, but another funkateer was already orbiting our atmosphere who would take the music into
27:16another dimension.
27:27Armed with laser-guided melodies, atomic grooves and rhythmic devastation, this intergalactic funkanaut came from another planet.
27:36His name was George Clinton.
27:44By the end of the 1970s, Clinton had built a musical empire that turned funk into a way of life.
28:03It all began back in the 1950s when George Clinton led a barbershop singing group called The Parliaments.
28:10I remember them as being a stand-up group wearing powder blue suits, like the Temptations, and they had a
28:17song called I Just Want To Testify.
28:19Don't you know that I just want to testify?
28:24What you love is done for me.
28:27But suits and smart haircuts wasn't George Clinton's thing.
28:31He had the funk inside of him, and it just had to burst out.
28:35From there, things really start to kind of unravel because, as George has said, they really just could not keep
28:44it smooth, keep it together like those Motown acts.
28:47You know, he said, you know, he said, yeah, we just sweated too much.
28:50Guys started ripping off their, you know, their shirts and, you know, choreography got messed up.
28:55Free your mind and your ass will follow.
28:58The kingdom of heaven is within.
29:00George walks in and he got this mohawk hair cut his hair down here and he got a color over
29:07here.
29:08And they said, what's up, George?
29:10Man, I'm taking this thing in another direction.
29:13Free your mind and your ass will follow.
29:18The kingdom of heaven is within.
29:24George's plan was to find a new platform for the funk.
29:27Although rock had developed out of the blues and R&B created by African Americans, apart from Jimi Hendrix, there
29:33were virtually no black rock artists.
29:36So in 1969, George Clinton set out to change that.
29:40He took the funk and married it with psychedelic rock.
29:43He called it funkadelic.
29:45And that's exactly what it was.
29:46Acid rock with a huge dose of funk.
29:49Well, I discovered that this life never was given to me.
29:54It's not really mine.
29:55We're alive.
29:57We're alive.
29:59I can't believe my life is gonna go.
30:01We were late.
30:02So we had to catch up with the psychedelic.
30:05So, of course, we just turned everything up.
30:08Had all the marshals in the world.
30:10Went in the studio and they'd free your mind and your ass will follow all in one day.
30:14Tripping our eyes on one acid.
30:16Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:22You, softer.
30:24You and your foe.
30:24You and my foe.
30:25You and my foe.
30:27You and your foe.
30:28You and your foe.
30:31Forever, ever, ever.
30:32Those first four or five funkadelic records are the most esoteric, bizarre, experimental takes
30:43on what R&B could be imaginable you know I mean because they're full of parody
30:49and they're full of satire but then they're full of like this amazing
30:52musicianship you know so it's it's not just guys kind of you know you know
30:59taking the piss out of the R&B tradition and the discipline of that but guys who
31:04actually know that discipline you know kind of know all the rules and they know
31:07how to you know just completely abstract and and demolished it
31:18although cult hits funkadelic acid-drenched funk rock albums of the
31:22early 70s barely made the top 100 their experimental sound too challenging for
31:27both white and black audiences but George Clinton was already moving on when
31:33everybody thinks they have them pegged really you know as these LSD tripping
31:39half-naked performing you know funk circus they revive Parliament but this time as
31:48just as amazing the spectacular theatrical dance oriented act you know and George
31:58keeps some of the the kind of conceptual headroom a funkadelic in the thing but
32:05it's really masked by the beats
32:23George wanted Parliament to be the group that got his funk into the pop charts he
32:28looked to James Brown's band for help bass player Bootsy Collins his guitarist
32:32brother Catfish and most of the horn section were tired of Brown's control
32:36freakery they jumped ship to join Parliament bringing with them Brown's
32:40theory of keeping it on the one but with George they could go as wild and as
32:46funky as they wanted
32:49James Brown wanted just like this just like that just like he said that everything had
32:55to be just like he said you know but George Clinton would take anything that you did initially but he
33:02would either mix it out or mix it in you know he would choose whether to use it or not
33:06you know I
33:07did some stuff that was so crazy George did you mean that and I said yes I meant that you
33:12know and he would use it
33:14it was freedom freedom you could do whatever you wanted you can you can make
33:18any kind of music that was in your heart and yes in your that was that you could
33:24imagine you can do there were no rules
33:31with George Clinton in charge it was pure creative freedom whether in the studio or on stage from the
33:38mid-1970s onwards Clinton joined Parliament and Funkadelic into one big touring circus
33:44he called the whole thing p-funk and turned the concerts into total theatre
33:54p-funk shows were like going to the circus it had everything it was just like watching images like this
34:06it's like what's going on do y'all want to fly this evening
34:13do you want to run on the mothership
34:18first of all it's this little tiny spaceship coming from the back of the hall all the way to the
34:26front
34:27and then the mothership just comes down
34:36and then George comes up out of the floor
34:44it was incredible
34:54it was one continuous song it never stopped I think they would have to pull the plug to tell
35:00them to get off stage they play for two three four hours at a time and just keep playing until
35:06it's
35:06like okay cut we got to turn the lights off
35:12there could be over 30 musicians on stage but they all knew how to play together keeping it
35:18all on the rhythm of the one the funk had become a spiritual experience it's that tribal thing and
35:25what it is it's like listening to a heartbeat everyone listening to the same heartbeat boom boom boom boom boom
35:34boom boom boom boom boom you start hearing that and you get the
35:36people feeling more tribal and then when you become tribal it brings brings together unity to the music
35:50it was this sense of unity that was bringing thousands of black p-funk fans together at huge concerts all
35:56over america
35:57this was the first time a black act had rivaled the big live shows of the 1970s white rock bands
36:03and for many african-american teenagers this was their stadium rock experience
36:08p-funk always had a humongous black audience so they were playing sold out stadiums full of black people
36:17like if you went to a p-funk concert in DC you know as i did like in the 70s
36:23you never saw any white people there
36:30and it was black america buying the records taking monster p-funk jams like one nation under a groove and
36:37flashlight to the top of the r&b charts
36:44as the money started rolling in george clinton turned p-funk into an empire i figured the best way to
36:51keep the dream alive is get as many deals as you could
36:55in one group you have one chance to make it two groups you got two chances but bootsy made it
37:02three
37:03then i realized everybody around you wants to be a star and we all helped each other we were the
37:09same people on everybody's record
37:10just another person got our front we did it with the brides the parlette bootsy fred what's the name of
37:18the horny horns
37:19eddie hazel bernie warrell we did everything we recorded the roadies because most roadies are musicians too
37:29well all right gotcha
37:32at the height of its success there were nearly 100 musicians in the p-funk gang
37:37it may have seemed like a crazy army of funk but just like james brown and sly stone there was
37:43meaning behind the music
37:45they were very serious about their message their whole vibe was black and about black empowerment you know in different
37:51ways
37:52and so i think that people who uh don't understand that don't really understand funk music don't understand p-funk
37:58our thing was to make you think we say stuff off the wall where you have to ponder it
38:03and figure out what the hell is he talking about might not be talking about nothing but it was a
38:07good way to lead you into thinking
38:10and when you tell somebody no you really turn them on to thinking
38:15so we would do a lot of things that we know people were going to say no don't do that
38:20you know like um if you will suck my soul i will lick your funky emotions
38:35you don't know why but that just don't sound like something you were supposed to say
38:39you know and that makes you think what are they saying
38:41what's happening cc they still call it the white house but that's a temporary condition too can you dig it
38:47cc
38:48the p-funk philosophy inspired black people to believe in themselves
38:52and told them they could achieve the unachievable in 1970s america
38:56we had to get a lot of our black people up off our knees
38:59who were thinking they couldn't do these things
39:02and was ashamed of being black
39:04ashamed of being a negro
39:05ashamed of being everything didn't know what they want to be called
39:08because it was built into you to be ashamed of yourself
39:11you're told your options are limited
39:13you're told not to think about um a life beyond the givens
39:19you know and here these guys come saying
39:22you can be astronauts you can be aliens you can be ancient egyptian mad scientists
39:28when they talk about black folks being in outer space
39:30you know we didn't think black folks were going out of space
39:32unless we were smoking weed or something like that
39:34and so they were saying no you can actually do this
39:36parliament fuckadelic george clinton
39:38i mean they're liberators of the black imagination
39:40you know in 20th century america
39:42that's the revolution they they kind of fought and won
39:45but funk's power to free the black imagination was reaching outside of the music business too
39:50in the 1970s a wave of action films were produced by black people for black people
39:56now known as blaxploitation films
39:59they were often cartoon and sometimes controversial characterizations of african-american life
40:04or spoofs of classic hollywood movies
40:09but they all drew from 1970s black culture
40:12the fashion the language and of course the music
40:15every movie had a funky soundtrack
40:17you were getting these artists who had an opportunity to score movies
40:24ain't i clean bad machine super cool super mean
40:28ain't i clean bad machine super cool super mean
40:29ain't i clean bad machine super cool super mean
40:29feelin good for the man super fly
40:31here i stand secret's dad
40:33music made the film and the film made the music
40:36i'm your pusher man
40:43blaxploitation movies gave african-american actors the opportunity to star in leading roles
40:48something 1970s hollywood was denying them
40:51okay tom use up your men
40:52get out
40:53don't tell me man
40:56with funk music very much in the foreground of the movie soundtracks
41:00the films had an unapologetically black swagger
41:02a feeling that was directly taken from the funk
41:05i can't tell you how it was empowering it was for us to see ourselves on screen that way
41:10and it was literally people that we saw in our community with the big afros
41:13you know with the colorful shirts with the medallions necklaces
41:16they were walking like you walk when you're walking down 63rd street
41:21they didn't just walk they swaggered down
41:23they had style they were wearing clothes the kind of clothes that you were wearing
41:28it was just a wonderful time for a lot of actors that couldn't buy a part to play in a
41:35movie
41:35and i just felt that was fantastic that our people got to work
41:40a lot of our people got it got a chance to get a payday
41:45funk music was at the center of a cultural shift
41:48where for the first time african americans were able to proudly display their blackness
41:53they no longer had to deny their african heritage
41:56and were empowered to explore a history the american education system had willfully ignored
42:01it was necessary for us to recognize our identity because it was taken away from us for so long
42:07and denied us for so long and suppressed it was necessary for us to to have that reinforced
42:20a lot of people became more aware of you know our background where we came from
42:29and i think that they were very proud of where us and a lot of our ancestors came from
42:40and the strength that it took to endure a lot of the things that had to be endured just to
42:45survive
42:45and it started to be expressed musically but also in fashion as well
42:53beautiful people know true beauty is natural
42:55wear their natural is proudly
42:57wear their natural is proudly
42:58as a symbol of pride in blackness
43:01as a symbol of pride in blackness
43:05funk was at the forefront of this new wave of black pride
43:09with many musicians adopting african imagery
43:15when cool and the gang looked back to africa it gave them their first big hit records
43:21they took spiritual and rhythmic themes from african artists like manu dibango
43:24and transformed them into funk
43:28our producer at that time jean brad said you know i want you to record soul macusa
43:32i said uh we don't we're not gonna we don't really need to make a copy you know because we
43:39felt that our music was creative enough to make up our own soul macusa
43:43so we went in the studio we made it up in the morning right at baggies funky stuff hollywood swinging
43:49and jungle boogie
43:50so we stumbled upon our first gold records by not doing soul macusa
43:56so we said oh we make our own jungle music
43:58jungle boogie
44:00jungle boogie
44:01get it up
44:02jungle boogie
44:04get it up
44:07jungle boogie
44:09cool and the gang were just one of many funk groups who were all over the chart in the 1970s
44:14shake it up
44:15but emerging from the scene was one band that would eclipse them all
44:40in the second half of the 1970s
44:43earth wind and fire beamed their precision funk into the homes of millions
44:48started by funky drummer maurice white
44:50this nine piece band brought with them a meticulous level of musicianship
44:54that made funk more popular than ever
44:57you're a shining star
44:59no matter who you are
45:01you're shining bright to see
45:03that you can truly be what you can truly be
45:07they used the same elements
45:10in terms of gospel
45:12funk
45:12jazz
45:14soul
45:14all of that was in their music in the same way it was in George Clinton's music
45:18it's just it was more polished
45:20do you believe in love this evening
45:24do you believe in love this evening
45:26do you believe that love was written in the snow
45:30George Clinton's music was a harder sounding funk
45:33but long jams, psychedelic freak outs and lyrical in-jokes
45:37could sometimes alienate audiences
45:41Earth, Wind & Fire was a lighter style, using the rhythms and grooves to make catchy pop
45:46songs with a universal appear.
45:56There were people for whom Funkadelic was just too weird.
45:59Earth, Wind & Fire, their agenda was definitely more to make a black sound that also kind
46:05of reached into mainstream middle America as well.
46:15Earth, Wind & Fire's Funk Light was not just more appealing to whites, but also to the
46:20black middle classes, whose numbers were significantly rising in the late 1970s.
46:26Moving into white areas, these newly affluent African Americans were keen to portray an image
46:31of black sophistication that Earth, Wind & Fire represented.
46:38The music is in some ways is kind of leading that charge, you know, of black America, certain
46:46segments of black America being able to kind of move out of the hood and into these areas
46:52with nicer homes, nicer schools, nicer lawns. So there's a sociological parallel.
46:59It was a new audience for the funk, and they bought Earth, Wind & Fire's records in their millions.
47:04In the late 1970s, the group scored five top ten albums, selling out huge stadiums all over America.
47:12They were one of the biggest bands on the planet, and the funk was at the height of its powers.
47:38Earth, Wind & Fire's phenomenal record sales allowed them to take P-Funk's live show concepts to the next level.
47:48While they belted out their perfectionist funk, they stunned their audiences with extravagant
47:53costumes, choreographed dances, and elaborate magic tricks.
48:01This may have been the funk at its most commercial, but at the end of the 70s, it was the
48:06greatest show on Earth.
48:08One of Maurice's visions, which was brilliant, was that as well as having a well-honed and toned band musically,
48:18let's give the peoples a feast for their eyes as well as their ears.
48:25We were kind of in the Egyptology thing at the time, and we, you know, the pyramids and the sphinx
48:30and all that,
48:30we were, it was, it was part of our, our persona, part of our show.
48:46People thought we could levitate, people thought we could, you know,
48:49do our hands and do things that were, I mean, they really thought we were magicians after a while.
49:00They were doing tricks, they were disappearing, the drums were moving, they were moving in different
49:07elements on stage. It was crazy, it was like a magic show slash fashion show, a dance-off. I mean,
49:17I was exhausted, I felt like I had performed. I was so busy screaming and yelling, I love that song,
49:23you know. But just as it seemed the funk was fully evolved, a rival groove was working its way into
49:30our atmosphere. Once it broke through, it would take over our entire planet. The funk was under serious
49:36threats.
49:44When disco came in, things started changing, almost overnight. And it was unfortunate for a lot of
49:55those, those funk acts because it just sort of killed them dead in their tracks. Disco was so big,
50:02they was having them in grocery stores at night. Funeral parlors moved the caskets out the way,
50:08turned it into a disco. They was in demand.
50:13Although disco retained elements of the funk, something vital was missing.
50:18Funk's heartbeat, the rhythm of the one, had gone up in smoke.
50:29The beat went to four on the floor. It became boom, boom, boom, boom. There was no syncopation,
50:38so you just had this boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And funk is boom, boom. Yeah, a syncopated beat.
50:59And the club, I guess disco was easier to dance off. It was a straight beat. But one beat,
51:06to do everything with that beat, it's like making love with the same stroke, one stroke.
51:10You get on your nerves so bad, you won't be able to come, it's like not being able to come.
51:16The natural rhythms of funk that made it so human were being replaced by the computerized precision
51:21of electronic instruments. I remember having conversations with many drummers and percussion
51:27players to say, oh my God, you know, what's going to happen? Are we going to have a job anymore?
51:32Are
51:32we going to be able to play? Who's going to hire us? Because now it's all about drum machine technology.
51:41The funk had to adapt to survive. Earth, Wind & Fire tackled disco head on by switching their groove
51:47and punching into the charts with one of their biggest hit records.
52:13of the 70s bands were posed with a dilemma. Get down with the disco beat or stay true to the
52:20funk and lose your record deal the reality is maurice didn't want to do boogie wonderland
52:25and verdine and i said we should do it but when it started shooting up the charge more recently yeah
52:32yeah you know so i mean there's a slippery slope you have to walk between so-called staying current
52:40and staying true to what got you current other funk bands realized it was time to change too
52:53cool and the gang formerly an instrumental group introduced a singer adapted the beat and enjoyed
53:00the most successful hits of their career ladies night wasn't straight up disco ladies night was
53:04that's because you still heard the cool and the gang style with them horns yeah and where the group
53:10was brought it down of course but yeah but our die-hard punk fans they did they were still there
53:15they hated it no they said oh cool again sold out they sold out they crossed over they're doing songs
53:22like joanna we did we sold out of every record we could sell the record company didn't have no problem
53:31with that no no problem but the original pioneers struggled to survive as disco took over james brown
53:41once such an innovator of black music was now playing catch-up his new water down sound failing to sell
53:51by the end of the 1970s sly and the family stone had disbanded with sly practically disappearing from
53:57public life due to a serious drug problem and as the clubs and dance floors of america were getting
54:06down to that four to the floor george clinton's empire was in tatters as he battled record label
54:13disputes and the spiraling costs of running his army of p-funk musicians with a new decade on the horizon
54:21how could the funk continue the answer once again came straight out of the african-american community
54:39just like funk this new music form was a direct reflection of black life
54:44they called it hip-hop and thanks to sampling technology at its heart was funk
54:53there probably would not be any hip-hop without funk music james brown the most sampled artist in music
54:59history pioneer funk music parliament funkadelic george clinton second most sampled artist in pop music
55:07history foundation for hip-hop
55:12while hip-hop raided funk's back catalogue other graduates of the 1970s school of funk were keeping
55:18the groove alive a wave of 1980s bands used digital production to keep funk relevant for the next
55:24generation as did one man from minnesota who spent his childhood worshiping at the church of brown stone and
55:42clinton
55:43prince began his career in funk but by the mid-1980s he'd moved on to rock pop and whatever else
55:50tickled his
55:51purple fancy
56:00he made himself into a superstar in the process but that irresistible groove has always underpinned his music
56:12his recent records a celebration of his funk roots
56:18the last 20 years have seen the beats breaks and bass lines of funk embedded into popular music
56:25as george clinton would say it's in the dna
56:36blurred lines the big hit by robman thick that was produced by pharrell you know in the last year or
56:40so that's multiple rhythms that's funk music man you know what pharrell williams is doing that's all
56:45funk music daft punk definitely a folk album
56:59while the funk continues to mutate and survive in the 21st century
57:03the original funketeers who pioneered this music in the 1970s are still keeping the groove alive today
57:15so
57:24when you look at the black music that's booked and appears all over the world larry graham in china
57:30it's a huge funk market in japan this music has become an international language
57:36it's a huge funk music that's going to be in the 21st century
57:40it's a huge funk music that's going to be in the 21st century
57:42george clinton and parliament funkadelic are still out on the road doing their thing
57:46bootsie's still doing his thing fred wesley maizeo you know all of these veterans are still out
57:52here keeping it alive
58:03right
58:04funk will never die funk will be here forever because as long as there's things like oppression
58:19and discrimination and people feeling marginalized there's always going to be a need for people to
58:23create some sort of multi-rhythm music that's so different than anything that you will ever hear
58:28on the radio that's funk music
58:35oh
58:58you
58:58you
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