70s FUNK

[ando]

71 db imspired this one. The 70s (even late 60s) were a golden age (of sorts) of great funk music. Got suggestions or recommendations? Share em! There's no shortage of stuff on vinyl that was never tranferred well to CD. Of course there was lots of dross, too, but you can find that in every genre of music, yes?

May The Funk be With You.

[ando]

Bohannon The Stop & Go (1973, Dakar Records)

Prototypical funk record but none of it is phoned in and the flow is varied. Good one.

[ando]

No brainer funk classic. And not that Samuel Jackson remake.

Isaac Hayes Shaft Soundtrack (1971, Enterprise/STAX)

[71 dB]

Been busy with other music, but gonno check these at some point. Bohannon is new name to me.

[71 dB]

[BWV 1080]

The 2 Herbie Hancock Headhunter albums

Also HH's later 70s stuff w Wah Wah Watson

[San Antone]

I think the greatest funk record of the '70s ...  and beyond:

There's a Riot Goin' On (1971) - Sly & the Family Stone

[KevinP]

Curtis Mayfield blows Shaft out of the water. Beyond Hayes' innovative muted-string-wah-wah, I never found the rest of the song all that great. Well honestly, Hayes's music in general never quite grabs me. (Marvin Gaye too. But I'm clearly in the minority here.)

But the Super Fly soundtrack is it, for the synergy between Mayfield and the extremely underrated Johnny Pate (who is still with us and turns 100 in a few weeks). Mayfield's Roots and Curtis as well. Johnny Pate's 1970 Outrageous is one of my favourite fairly obscure albums, all soul instrumentals with a large band.

Others: well, P-Funk, of course. Can't go too wrong with their 70s output. Not just Parliament and Funkadelic but the solo/side projects as well. Bootsy Collins' especially.

War, though they are a band who are probably best served by their hits.

An absolute must is Baby Huey and the Babbysitters. One album, and the singer died before it was released, but it is amazing.

More soul than funk: Doris Duke's I'm a Loser. I love this album so much that (and I know this sounds weird) I try not to listen it too often. That is, I never want it to become overly familiar, so I save it for special occasions when I'm alone and have a strong drink in hand.

That album was produced by Swamp Dogg whose first few albums under his own (stage) name are also well worth exploring. He might be an acquired taste because he's such a maverick, but I acquired it halfway through the first song I heard. Check out Total Destruction to your Mind in particular. (He cuts his first sides in, I think, 1953 and is still recording today.) He is definitely unique.

From the James Brown orbit, Lyn Collins. I love JB, but when he produced other artists, it sounded like his tracks just with a different singer. Collins for the most part is fairly free of this.


And of course, Sly Stone, everything up to Small Talk and High on You. Would recommend listening in order to hear the progression.

[T. D.]

Maybe more blues than funk, but I wouldn't sleep on the real "Gangster of Love", Johnny "Guitar" Watson.
Frank Zappa was a big fan, btw. You can find videos of them playing.

[71 dB]

The 2 Herbie Hancock Headhunter albums

Also HH's later 70s stuff w Wah Wah Watson

Man-Child album is in my opinion THE funk album by HH, but I enjoy a lot from MWANDISHI (experimental jazz rather than funk).

[71 dB]

I think the greatest funk record of the '70s ...  and beyond:

There's a Riot Goin' On (1971) - Sly & the Family Stone

Sly & the Family Stone doesn't seem to work for me. Years ago I tried it, but the feeling I get from the music is it lacks energy and drive. It is "lazy funk." It is possible I just haven't heard the right stuff. Going trough the whole discographies takes time and effort, especially if there aren't any quarantees any of it will interest me in the end.

[71 dB]

Curtis Mayfield blows Shaft out of the water. Beyond Hayes' innovative muted-string-wah-wah, I never found the rest of the song all that great. Well honestly, Hayes's music in general never quite grabs me. (Marvin Gaye too. But I'm clearly in the minority here.)

But the Super Fly soundtrack is it, for the synergy between Mayfield and the extremely underrated Johnny Pate (who is still with us and turns 100 in a few weeks). Mayfield's Roots and Curtis as well. Johnny Pate's 1970 Outrageous is one of my favourite fairly obscure albums, all soul instrumentals with a large band.

I do have the Superfly soundtrack. In fact it was the fisrt "funk" album I ever bought. I consider the music "lazy funk" too, but it is interesting moody music and works better for me than Sly and the family stone.

[BWV 1080]

70s funk by way of Brazil

[BWV 1080]

Man-Child album is in my opinion THE funk album by HH, but I enjoy a lot from MWANDISHI (experimental jazz rather than funk).

Never could get into Mwandishi, but this 1969 disk

and the late 70s disco-inspired

are great

DOMi and JD Beck got Herbie to dust off his vocoder for his guest appearance on their 2022 debut recording

[ando]

Curtis Mayfield blows Shaft out of the water. Beyond Hayes' innovative muted-string-wah-wah, I never found the rest of the song all that great. Well honestly, Hayes's music in general never quite grabs me. (Marvin Gaye too. But I'm clearly in the minority here.)

Minority or no, Isaac Hayes Shaft Soundtrack is one of the tightest, funkiest, most well rounded double albums that ever dropped. Nothing against Curtis Mayfield's Superfly (don't even know why we need to compare them). Hayes' title track is, more or less, a funk novelty tune, more fun than seriously funky. But the rest of the album is simply stellar r&b and funk. I love Mayfield but along with The Isaac Hayes Movement this was Hayes' crown achievement.

[ando]

Most albums by The Meters have two or three undeniable funk classics. Trouble is, they're cut to "radio time" lengths. One of the hallmarks of Isaac Hayes' jams were his long running funk tracks. The Meters seldom had such long running times on their releases. Here's a grab bag of some of their best stuff -

[ando]

At the opposite end of the running track spectrum was Nigerian born Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti and his Africa '70 band. They let loose a run of great Afro funk albums in the early 70s. It's hard to pick one so I'll go with Expensive Shit. But rhythm section in all their outings is skin tight, laced of course, with potent liberation/political messages. Their live albums are even better than the studio stuff.

[ando]

The lp with the then popular Ginger Baker (which some label as a PR grab) is one of the ones I return to again and again.

[BWV 1080]

Ghananian Ebo Taylor was another 70s Afro-funk pioneer

[BWV 1080]

also the great, recently deceased Tony Allen and Africa 70 sans Fela