60 Fun Facts About Funk

Before it named a music genre, what did the word 'funk' originally refer to?

A strong odor: 'funk' meant a bad smell in the 1620s and 'funky' a musty cheese by 1784, until jazz players around 1900 turned the insult into praise, probably for music that felt earthy and strong.

James Brown's band built funk by moving the heaviest accent from the backbeat to where?

The first beat of every measure, 'the one': his young bassist Bootsy Collins recalled being called in after shows to be told, 'I didn't hear the one. You didn't give me the one.'

Which 1964 James Brown single did he later call the real beginning of his move toward funk?

Out of Sight was 'another beginning', Brown wrote; he cut it for a rival label in the middle of a contract fight, and his old company went to court to stop him releasing anything more there.

Which Dyke and the Blazers single topped the R&B chart when Wilson Pickett covered it in 1967?

Funky Broadway began on a tiny Phoenix label and was picked up by a Los Angeles company once it caught on locally; months later Pickett's remake carried it into the pop top ten.

What is the title of Tower of Power's 1970 debut album?

East Bay Grease named the Oakland side of the bay the band came from: promoter Bill Graham signed them to his own label after an audition night at the Fillmore and had the album out within the year.

Which New Orleans band scored late-1960s hits with 'Sophisticated Cissy' and 'Cissy Strut'?

The Meters lost keyboardist Art Neville in 1977, when he left to form the Neville Brothers with his three brothers; until then they had also backed Dr. John and Lee Dorsey in the studio.

Which 1969 funk anthem took the Isley Brothers to No. 1 on the R&B chart?

It's Your Thing was the brothers' declaration of independence: they wrote and produced it themselves for their own T-Neck label, right after walking out on a bigger one, and it won them a Grammy.

Which producer gave the Temptations psychedelic soul hits such as 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone'?

Norman Whitfield cut 'War' first with the group, but their label would not risk their image on a protest single, so he re-recorded it with Edwin Starr, who took it to No. 1.

Which dance-funk single, released in 1976, gave Rose Royce a US No. 1?

Car Wash was written for the 1976 film of the same name; its writer got the idea while watching a basketball game and scribbled the lyrics on fried-chicken packaging.

Which Nigerian bandleader fused funk and jazz with Yoruba music to launch Afrobeat?

Fela Kuti came home from a 1969 stay in the United States fired up by the Black Panthers, turned his songs against Nigeria's military rulers and declared his commune an independent republic.

Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 single 'Planet Rock' is credited with launching which style?

Electro-funk: 'Planet Rock' set its raps over a Roland TR-808 drum machine and borrowed its melody from 'Trans-Europe Express' by the German group Kraftwerk.

Which singer, who fronted the band Rufus, is nicknamed the Queen of Funk?

Chaka Khan was born Yvette Stevens: a Yoruba priest gave her the name Chaka in her early teens, when she was drawn to the Black Panthers, and Khan came from the bandmate she married in 1970.

Which Digital Underground hit is built on samples of Parliament's 'Let's Play House'?

The Humpty Dance was rapped by the group's leader as Humpty Hump, an alter ego in a huge fake nose that they explained with an invented kitchen accident.

Which producer's 1992 solo debut brought the G-funk sound into the mainstream?

Dr. Dre's The Chronic slowed the tempo and laid synthesizers over samples of 1970s Parliament-Funkadelic records, and its multi-platinum sales helped make that sound dominant in mainstream hip-hop in the mid-1990s.

Morris Day fronted which Minneapolis funk band, the rival act in the film Purple Rain?

The Time lost Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in 1983: snowed in while producing another act in Atlanta, they missed a show and were fired, then became hit producers for Janet Jackson.

Which percussive keyboard drives Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' and Bill Withers' 'Use Me'?

Clavinet: its German inventor, a Bach lover, meant it as an electric clavichord for playing baroque music at home, before Stevie Wonder made its spiky attack a funk trademark.

Bernie Worrell played the bass line of Parliament's 'Flash Light' on which synthesizer?

Minimoog: he stacked several of them into one fat tone, and the swaggering line he played on this R&B No. 1 became a model for synth bass in the funk that followed.

Which guitar effect drives the opening riff of Isaac Hayes's 'Theme from Shaft'?

Wah-wah: Isaac Hayes wanted urgency for the film's opening shots of Shaft striding through New York, and guitarist Charles 'Skip' Pitts supplied it with his pedal.

Which guitar hero lived in the Isley Brothers' family home while playing in their backing band?

Jimi Hendrix was their guitarist in the mid-1960s, and Ernie Isley, a child in the house back then, took up the guitar himself only after their lodger had left.

Which longtime James Brown guitarist developed the scratchy 'chicken scratch' rhythm style?

Jimmy Nolen paid his dues as a blues guitarist before joining Brown in 1965, and his muted, scratching strum became the blueprint for the funk guitarists who followed.

Which James Brown drummer played the 'Funky Drummer' break, one of the most sampled beats in hip-hop?

Clyde Stubblefield said he made up the pattern himself, but with no songwriting credit he earned no royalties from the rap records that sampled it.

Parliament's 1975 song 'Chocolate City' takes its title from a nickname for which US city?

Washington, D.C. had a Black majority by the 1970s, and its radio DJs were already using the nickname when George Clinton's narration turned it into an anthem of civic pride.

Which 1978 anthem gave Funkadelic its first No. 1 on the R&B chart?

One Nation Under a Groove traded the band's usual guitar-heavy rock for a dance groove; Clinton said he made it 'more commercial and more straightforward' because he wanted them to have a hit.

Which Ohio Players hit contains a scream that listeners wrongly took for a murder caught on tape?

Love Rollercoaster's scream came from keyboardist Billy Beck, but after a DJ joked that it was a killing in the studio, the band stayed silent because the rumour sold records.

Which New York funk-metal band won a Grammy for its hit 'Cult of Personality'?

Living Colour spells its name the British way, a choice bandmates put down to its founder, guitarist Vernon Reid, who was born in England.

Which New Orleans drummer, heard on Fats Domino's hits, is said to have first told musicians to play 'funky'?

Earl Palmer credited his feel for rhythm to a childhood spent tap-dancing on the vaudeville circuit; he moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and became one of the most recorded drummers in history.

Which P-Funk spinoff was built around two former Sly Stone backing singers?

Brides of Funkenstein: Dawn Silva and Lynn Mabry were touring behind Sly Stone when George Clinton recruited them, and he then spun the duo off as an act of their own, with a debut album in 1978.

Which famous label hired George Clinton as a staff songwriter in the 1960s?

Motown had auditioned his doo-wop group, the Parliaments, and turned them down, but took Clinton on to write and produce, so the New Jersey barber began working in Detroit.

Which George Clinton solo single, an R&B No. 1 in 1983, became one of hip-hop's most sampled records?

Atomic Dog was half an accident: the backing track was running backwards when Clinton stepped up to sing, and he ad-libbed the words around a loose idea about a dog.

Which funk group gained a writing credit on 'Uptown Funk' because it resembled their hit 'Oops Up Side Your Head'?

The Gap Band was named for Greenwood, Archer and Pine, three streets in the Tulsa district once known as Black Wall Street; its writers joined the song's credits in 2015.

Which band from Scotland topped the US chart in 1975 with the funk instrumental 'Pick Up the Pieces'?

Average White Band meant the tune as a tribute to James Brown's backing group, the J.B.'s, who replied with a record of their own under the name Above Average Black Band.

Parliament's 1974 album Up for the Down Stroke was its first for which label, home to Kiss?

Casablanca Records was taken over by PolyGram in 1980, and the legal trouble that followed was one reason George Clinton dissolved Parliament and Funkadelic.

The Smithsonian acquired a replica of which Parliament-Funkadelic stage prop in 2011?

The Mothership came down onto the stage in smoke and flashing lights; the original was lost in the 1980s after the band fell into debt, so the museum took a copy built for 1990s tours.

Which star inducted Parliament-Funkadelic into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997?

Prince had thrown Clinton a lifeline in the 1980s by signing him to his Paisley Park label, and in 1997 he welcomed all 16 members into the Hall at once.

Which ten-minute guitar solo opens, and gives its name to, Funkadelic's 1971 album?

Maggot Brain was cut in one take after George Clinton told Eddie Hazel to play as if he had just heard his mother had died; Clinton then faded the other players out of the mix.

Bootsy Collins was born in which city, home of King Records?

Cincinnati: Bootsy was a teenager in a local band, the Pacemakers, when James Brown's musicians quit over pay in 1970 and Brown flew the band in to replace them.

Bootsy Collins's older brother Phelps, also a P-Funk guitarist, went by which nickname?

Catfish got the name from Bootsy, who thought his big brother looked like the fish; Bootsy's own first bass was an old guitar refitted with bass strings.

Which 1978 single by the Rubber Band replaced Parliament's 'Flash Light' at No. 1 on the R&B chart?

Bootzilla introduced Bootsy's wind-up toy alter ego, 'the world's only rhinestone rock-star doll', and meant two acts from George Clinton's camp topped the chart back to back.

Which P-Funk character was a stage alter ego of Bootsy Collins?

Casper the Funky Ghost even took a credit: the bass on his 1977 album is listed under Casper's name, while the other three characters come from George Clinton's Parliament stories.

Bootsy Collins added guest vocals and appeared in the video for which 1990 Deee-Lite hit?

Groove Is in the Heart shows him playing bass in its video, but he only sang on the record: the bass line is a sample from a 1966 Herbie Hancock film soundtrack.

What does Bootsy Collins call his star-shaped signature instrument?

The Space Bass was built by a Michigan guitar maker, who says Bootsy handed him a sketch of a star-shaped bass and that the original was later stolen and turned up in a pawn shop.

Sly and the Family Stone came together in the 1960s in which California city?

San Francisco: Sly, by then a local radio DJ and record producer, merged his band with his brother Freddie's, making one of the first hit groups to mix Black and white, male and female players.

Sly Stone was born under what name?

Sylvester Stewart became 'Sly' after a fifth-grade classmate misspelled his name on the chalkboard; 'Stone' arrived later, as his radio DJ name.

Which Sly and the Family Stone bassist pioneered the thumb-slapping style at the heart of funk bass?

Larry Graham began thumping the strings with his thumb while playing in a duo with his organist mother, to make up for the drummer they didn't have.

Which Sly and the Family Stone hit features the line 'different strokes for different folks'?

Everyday People was the band's first No. 1, on top for four weeks in early 1969, and it charted again in 1992 when Arrested Development reworked it as 'People Everyday'.

Which 1971 Sly and the Family Stone album produced the No. 1 single 'Family Affair'?

There's a Riot Goin' On took its title as an answer to Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On', and traded the band's sunny optimism for murky grooves built on an early drum machine.

Earth, Wind & Fire began as the Salty Peppers in which city?

Chicago was where founder Maurice White worked as a session drummer for Chess Records; after one regional hit as the Salty Peppers, he moved to Los Angeles and relaunched the band under its famous name.

Maurice White, who named Earth, Wind & Fire after the elements in his astrological chart, was born under which sign?

Sagittarius was his sign, and his chart held earth, air and fire but no water, so when he renamed the band he left water out and turned air into wind.

Before Earth, Wind & Fire, Maurice White drummed in which jazz pianist's trio?

Ramsey Lewis hired him when his original bassist and drummer left to form a group of their own; the two reunited in 1974 for Sun Goddess, which topped the jazz and soul album charts.

Which 1975 single gave Earth, Wind & Fire their first No. 1 on the pop chart?

Shining Star came to Maurice White on a night walk under the stars at the Colorado ranch studio where the band was recording an album that doubled as a film soundtrack.

Earth, Wind & Fire's own horn section went by what name?

Phenix Horns found a second career in 1981, when Phil Collins borrowed them for his first solo album and then brought them into Genesis for the single 'No Reply at All'.

Which African instrument, plucked by bandleader Maurice White, became a signature sound of Earth, Wind & Fire?

Kalimba: White made the African thumb piano part of the band's sound and image, naming both a hit song, 'Kalimba Story', and his production company after it.

James Brown's televised concert the night after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination is credited with keeping which city calm?

Boston's mayor nearly cancelled the show, then had public television carry it live so that people would stay home and watch; the city stayed quiet while others burned.

Whose vocal group did James Brown join after his release from youth detention?

Bobby Byrd first met Brown on a baseball field, playing against the detention centre's team; he went on to sing beside him for some 20 years and shouts 'Get on up!' on 'Sex Machine'.

James Brown is said to have built 'Please, Please, Please' from words which star scribbled on a napkin?

Little Richard is the star in singer Etta James's telling, and he also steered the unknown Brown to his own manager; another account traces the song to an older blues the group used to sing.

Who paid for the recording of James Brown's Live at the Apollo after his label boss refused to fund it?

The singer himself put up the money because his label boss thought a live album with no new songs would never sell; it reached No. 2 and stayed on the album chart for 66 weeks.

Which 1965 single gave James Brown his first top-ten pop hit and his first Grammy?

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag was trimmed and sped up before release: the take Brown recorded was longer and slower, and the faster edit was meant to get it onto pop radio.

Which film gave James Brown his last big pop hit, 'Living in America'?

Rocky IV has him perform it in the ring before Apollo Creed's last fight; the single was in the charts in 1986 as he became one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

James Brown was in hospital with which illness when he died on Christmas Day 2006?

Pneumonia came to light when he turned up unwell for a dental appointment in Atlanta; he was still booked to play New York on New Year's Eve, but his heart failed early on Christmas morning.

Which 1968 James Brown hit has a children's chorus?

Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud used about 30 young people from Watts and Compton for its responses; Brown said he wanted children on it so that children who heard it would grow up proud.