I don't like funk.

[Oscar South]

Heh ok, no problem.

[Bass_In_Yer_Face]

[quote name='Golchen' post='197564' date='May 12 2008, 10:11 PM']Funk is fine by me, and I'm a rocker at heart.

Never, never will I be playing Reggae. Never.[/quote]

Second that on Reggae...every Bob marley song to me sounds like a Persil Advert.

FWIW I don't mind a bit of funk..I'm not heavily into it. I listen pretty much to anything that's good as long as it's not C&W, Reggae or R n B.

[Bass_In_Yer_Face]

[quote name='the_house123' post='198436' date='May 14 2008, 03:47 AM']Im sorry, how can you not like funk!?
Ok it may be jazz's deformed cousin but you cannot dislike it. Its almost not agressive enough to be taken seriously. Go and listen to some Parliment songs and if they don't bring a smile to your eye then your just cold. Oo[/quote]

How can you dictate what people like? A lot of people think Dylan is a genius, personally I've heard better busking on the tube. I also think a lot of Jazz is garbage but if someone loves it good for them.

You can't say what people 'must' like or they have no soul.

Edited May 15, 2008 by Bass_In_Yer_Face

[Sean]

The Funk is a journey not a destination.

[molan]

[quote name='the_house123' post='198436' date='May 14 2008, 03:47 AM']I'm sorry, how can you not like funk!?

Go and listen to some Parliament songs and if they don't bring a smile to your eye then you're just cold. Oo[/quote]

As a little example of this - I recently bought one of those Auto wah Q effect pedals.

Every time I stomp on it and play even the simplest stuff it makes me (and my other band members) smile.

A bit clichéd but it the "funk in a box" bass toy makes me happy.


Of course the first thing I played when I got it was Dr Funkenstein

[nobodysprefect]

Back after a longish self-imposed hiatus.

Some years ago I chanced on 'Come in out of the rain' and promptly got the important P-Funk records, read up on funk and yadda yadda yadda. Being a little bit of a scholar I delved deep. Too deep... Roll for SAN loss!*

Apparently, James Brown DID intend funk to have little variety, harmonically. Remember, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in 1968. Funk came about because James Brown decided he didn't want to make music that adhered to the white man's standards. So he dropped superfluous chord changes (for ex Mashed Potatoes or Make it Funky) and africanized his music as much as possible. Later on he would return to 'white man's standards,' but, for a time, funk really was about race and the fight for equal rights. I'll dig up references if someone posts 'support or retract' but am too lazy to type them out now.

As regards playing funk: I and my mates were quite heavily into groovy music (well, we DID study jazz) about the time I got funked up and we started a funk band which I thought should have been called 'Meat Mallet Men' but I think it was 'Henri Marjamäki Unit' (that's the guitarist idiot savant's name - can't do anything else if his life depends on it, but lawd does the man know how to play!) or something equally sanitized. blech.

In the fullness of time I got bored to tears of playing funk and still can't listen to it, much less what local bands pass off as funk.

So mark me up for one who doesn't like funk. I'm much more drawn to lyrics, their meaning and 'how to sing in a way that tugs heartstrings' interpretation(?) these days. Elvis, Johnny Cash, you know. Now [i]there's[/i] something that is hard to analyze and formalize! Perhaps we need a thread about playing the bass and singing simultaneously - how do you avoid selling the lyrics short when you do that? McCartney, Bruce, Sting, Prince... Who else even did that?

[Oscar South]

Geddy, the guy from The Stranglers (Jet Black?) sung didn't he, Claypool.

Edited May 19, 2008 by Oscar South

[Lo.]

Don't like funk? Nah, you just need a better definition of it or something. Jamerson was the original funkster and everybody copied the spirit of his lines, they still do....it's not infallible, but the funk reaches the parts other genres can't reach.


Hope you get back on board, in the meantime I have to prescribe:


[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC-sbplJZ9E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC-sbplJZ9E[/url] - Sweet Charles Sherrell

or:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njU3TYBuGHQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njU3TYBuGHQ[/url] - Bootsy Collins

or:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fllTMtl6dxs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fllTMtl6dxs[/url] - Will Lee

or:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbRXyeRr_I&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbRXyeRr_I...feature=related[/url] - Verdine White

[KennysFord]

thats me funkifized for the day

[lowdown]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='196725' date='May 11 2008, 09:41 PM']Many types of music can be funky.
I find it slightly surprising that the depth of feeling in funky music is not appreciated by all bass players.[/quote]

+1....

Just to dismiss any style out right , I kinda find Musically Immature.
I Really like Nashville Country Style..
But to some Redneck's on this site...
That is just root and Five , two to the bar...

But there aint nothing wrong with that..
Played the right way , that can be Funky.

Garry

Edited May 20, 2008 by lowdown

[MB1]

[quote name='Bass_In_Yer_Face' post='199269' date='May 15 2008, 08:14 AM']Second that on Reggae...every Bob marley song to me sounds like a Persil Advert.

FWIW I don't mind a bit of funk..I'm not heavily into it. I listen pretty much to anything that's good as long as it's not C&W, Reggae or R n B.[/quote]

MB1.
Aston Familyman Barrett in Persil Advert Shocker!

[lowdown]

[quote name='MB1' post='202832' date='May 20 2008, 01:43 PM']MB1.
Aston Familyman Barrett in Persil Advert Shocker! [/quote]

Need a Big washing machine for his skids!


Garry

[Oscar South]

[quote name='Lo.' post='202524' date='May 19 2008, 11:44 PM']Don't like funk? Nah, you just need a better definition of it or something. Jamerson was the original funkster and everybody copied the spirit of his lines, they still do....it's not infallible, but the funk reaches the parts other genres can't reach.


Hope you get back on board, in the meantime I have to prescribe:


[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC-sbplJZ9E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC-sbplJZ9E[/url] - Sweet Charles Sherrell

or:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njU3TYBuGHQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njU3TYBuGHQ[/url] - Bootsy Collins

or:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fllTMtl6dxs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fllTMtl6dxs[/url] - Will Lee

or:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbRXyeRr_I&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbRXyeRr_I...feature=related[/url] - Verdine White[/quote]

Same attitude I was talking about in my original post.

[Lo.]

[quote name='Oscar South' post='202934' date='May 20 2008, 03:33 PM']Same attitude I was talking about in my original post.[/quote]

??

[nobodysprefect]

[quote name='Oscar South' post='202220' date='May 19 2008, 06:03 PM']Geddy, the guy from The Stranglers (Jet Black?) sung didn't he, Claypool.[/quote]

Ah yes... Well... I was trying to think of bassists who I'd pay to listen to at a gig even if they didn't hold an instrument. The short list gets even shorter!

Or perhaps your post was a subtle jab at Rush and Primus lyrics? Some people would say selling the lyrics those bands slap on their compositions is outside mortal capabilities - i.e. they suck. (a view to which, incidentally, I'm not in adamant opposition.)

Me'shell (d'oh! mentioned earlier in the thread!) would probably get on the short list, no? I kind of dig Lenny Kravitz's singing, too, though he doesn't play the bass on gigs, does he?

And yes, the funk imperialism gets old. I know the posturing is part of being err hip, funky, pimp, whatever.
Me? I'm going to go listen to something with a bass line that was written out, note for note, before the bassist [s]even knew about the composer.[/s] was born.

[bass_ferret]

Jet Black played keyboards :wub:

I think the OP's point is spot on, even though the compehension was not. He did funk to death and got sick of it, something that can happen to all of us with any genre.

The problem as I see it is that funk is everywhere, not just labelled "funk". Led Zeppelin were funky as f***, thats what made them rise above the other metal (or heavy rock, whatever label you want to hang on it) of their time and still makes them great today. Same with Floyd (Pink not Keith).

[molan]

Check this guy out

One of my favourite funk/disco songs

Totally effortless - watch it through to the 5 min mark when he starts really digging in:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abCW1trDwmQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abCW1trDwmQ[/url]

[Dubs]

[quote name='paul, the' post='197463' date='May 12 2008, 08:18 PM'][url="http://youtube.com/watch?v=fDWGC8P9Kro"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=fDWGC8P9Kro[/url][/quote]

Good evening.
Do not attempt to adjust your radio, there is nothing wrong.
We have taken control as to bring you this special show.
We will return it to you as soon as you are grooving.

Welcome to station W.E.F.U.N.K, better known as We-Funk,
Or deeper still, the Mothership Connection.
Home of the extraterrestrial brothers,
Dealers of funky music.
P.Funk, uncut funk, The Bomb.

Coming to you directly from the Mothership
Top of the Chocolate Milky Way, 500,000 kilowatts of P.Funk-power.
So kick back, dig, while we do it to you in your eardrums.
And me? I'm known as Lollipop Man, alias the Long-Haired Sucker.
My motto is…

[Deep Mind]

Funk is like Jazz in the sense that the tip of the iceberg is glorified by the rest of music culture, but the rest of it is a sea of boringness. Jazz and Funk both have this aesthetic of seeming more sophisticated and intellectual than genres like Rock and Blues - with the compliment of "That's funky, dude!" meaning that the groove or melody is especially creative and/or has a lot of character. In reality, if you dive into Funk itself (just look up funk playlists on YouTube or Spotify), a lot of it is simplistic and sounds the same, with the same cliche riffs played to a peppy rhythm. The melodies don't move much, the chord structures are often generic, and the whole playlist sounds like homogeneous elevator music over time. That's why I'm really not passionate about Funk the genre, per se, but I'm passionate about the element of funkiness embellishing my tracks. Same goes for Jazz.

[Burns-bass]

1 hour ago, Deep Mind said:

Funk is like Jazz in the sense that the tip of the iceberg is glorified by the rest of music culture, but the rest of it is a sea of boringness. Jazz and Funk both have this aesthetic of seeming more sophisticated and intellectual than genres like Rock and Blues - with the compliment of "That's funky, dude!" meaning that the groove or melody is especially creative and/or has a lot of character. In reality, if you dive into Funk itself (just look up funk playlists on YouTube or Spotify), a lot of it is simplistic and sounds the same, with the same cliche riffs played to a peppy rhythm. The melodies don't move much, the chord structures are often generic, and the whole playlist sounds like homogeneous elevator music over time. That's why I'm really not passionate about Funk the genre, per se, but I'm passionate about the element of funkiness embellishing my tracks. Same goes for Jazz.

I love the 16 year gap and I completely agree with your analysis. Stuff like Vulfpeck typifies this. It’s as bland and derivative as can be.

[OliverBlackman]

2 hours ago, Deep Mind said:

Funk is like Jazz in the sense that the tip of the iceberg is glorified by the rest of music culture, but the rest of it is a sea of boringness. Jazz and Funk both have this aesthetic of seeming more sophisticated and intellectual than genres like Rock and Blues - with the compliment of "That's funky, dude!" meaning that the groove or melody is especially creative and/or has a lot of character. In reality, if you dive into Funk itself (just look up funk playlists on YouTube or Spotify), a lot of it is simplistic and sounds the same, with the same cliche riffs played to a peppy rhythm. The melodies don't move much, the chord structures are often generic, and the whole playlist sounds like homogeneous elevator music over time. That's why I'm really not passionate about Funk the genre, per se, but I'm passionate about the element of funkiness embellishing my tracks. Same goes for Jazz.

Listening to music you’re not familiar with is a bit like watching a film in another language. If you cant interpret what’s going on, you’re less likely to enjoy it.

[Burns-bass]

7 hours ago, OliverBlackman said:

Listening to music you’re not familiar with is a bit like watching a film in another language. If you cant interpret what’s going on, you’re less likely to enjoy it.

Then you get into the intellectual appreciation of music being somehow more valid that an emotional connection to it.
 

I understand how jazz and funk work and neither of them is hugely exciting to me anymore, in the main because I understand it. Once you’ve cracked the code (so to speak) a lot of what’s done isn’t as impressive as it once seemed.

[smithy]

To me it's a weird thing with Funk music. I can't listen to it for a longer time but some of the bass parts are really impressing and challenging.  It' s the same with some kind of pop  music(disco??? ) like for example ABBA. I don't really like their music, but their songs are perfectly arranged, produced, performed- you name it. And there are bass lines in 'em I really love to play.  So I think it's all about having fun  - doesn't depend on a certain style.

[OliverBlackman]

33 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

Then you get into the intellectual appreciation of music being somehow more valid that an emotional connection to it.
 

I understand how jazz and funk work and neither of them is hugely exciting to me anymore, in the main because I understand it. Once you’ve cracked the code (so to speak) a lot of what’s done isn’t as impressive as it once seemed.

How are you defining a song or solo as emotion? Is it that it provokes emotion in you? That doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t written or played without emotion. Theory (intellect) is just a tool to help you get to ideas quicker or understand the ideas of others (including their emotion at point of writing/ playing).

[SteveXFR]

Most funk I could take or leave but I can't stand Vulfpeck and the other bands of that style. It's music for musicians.

I don't like slap either. I don't mind it as an accent tone (Billy Gould style) but constant slap just sounds awful to me. YouTube slap is the absolute worst, a million notes a minute resulting in something sounding like a filing cabinet falling down a staircase.