Funk Discoveries
Various Artists
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- The Basics
Funk raged across the '70s like an uncontained brush fire, laying down the rhythm we were powerless to resist. We've pulled some of its greatest tracks hidden deep in the albums' grooves for our Funk Discoveries Essentials. James Brown tears a page from the Blaxploitation handbook with "The Payback" from the movie Slaughter's Big Rip-Off, featuring some of the Godfather's all-time rawest, grittiest vocals. The Ohio Players lock into a distinctly primal rhythm in their "Funky Worm," with Drifters-style comedy vocals rubbing up hard against the song's double entendres. And in the Commodores' "Slippery When Wet," a yaaaooowwwing Lionel Richie moves around the bass-bumping beat like an alley cat on the prowl.
Booty shaking yet? Just wait until you step into our Next Steps, where bands from the Crescent City, Memphis, and Scotland(!) lay their boogie in your ear buds.$26.25 The Basics
Parental AdvisoryName Artist Time Price 1 The Payback James Brown 7:38 $0.99 View In iTunes 2 Funky Worm Ohio Players 2:41 $0.99 View In iTunes 3 Slippery When Wet The Commodores 3:21 $1.29 View In iTunes 4 Standing On the Verge of Getting It On Funkadelic 5:07 $0.99 View In iTunes 5 Mighty Mighty Earth, Wind & Fire 3:02 $1.29 View In iTunes 6 You Can Make It If You Try Sly & the Family Stone 3:37 $0.99 View In iTunes 7 ExplicitFight the Power, Pts. 1 & 2 The Isley Brothers 5:18 $0.99 View In iTunes 8 Holy Ghost The Bar-Kays 8:30 $0.99 View In iTunes 9 Freak-A-Zoid (Radio Edit) Midnight Star 4:00 $0.99 View In iTunes 10 You Haven't Done Nothin' Stevie Wonder 3:22 $1.29 View In iTunes 11 Papa Was Too Joe Tex 2:56 $0.99 View In iTunes 12 Mothership Connection (Star Child) Parliament 6:12 $1.29 View In iTunes 13 Funky Broadway Part 1 Dyke & The Blazers 2:41 $0.99 View In iTunes 14 (Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go Curtis Mayfield 7:52 $0.99 View In iTunes 15 Bra Cymande 5:06 $0.99 View In iTunes 16 Do Your Thing Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band 3:33 $1.29 View In iTunes 17 Sexy Ida, Pt. 1 Ike & Tina Turner 2:26 $0.99 View In iTunes 18 Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic Isaac Hayes 9:36 $0.99 View In iTunes 19 Fire on the Bayou The Neville Brothers 5:15 $0.99 View In iTunes 20 I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You Leon Haywood 5:52 $1.29 View In iTunes 21 Give It Up or Turnit a Loose (Single) James Brown 2:50 $0.99 View In iTunes 22 Water Graham Central Station 4:26 $0.99 View In iTunes 23 Reach for it (Album Version) George Duke 4:54 $0.99 View In iTunes 24 What a Man Linda Lyndell 2:41 $0.69 View In iTunes 25 Kissing My Love Bill Withers 3:49 $0.99 View In iTunes Total: 25 Songs - Next Steps
Funk boasted such an irresistible groove that it seemingly sprang up everywhere at once, from places you'd expect it — Philly, Memphis, Detroit — to places you'd have imagined were totally funk-proof, like Scotland. Seductive isn't a word often associated with Scotland, but Dundee's Average White Band smolders with sensuality in their hip-grinding slow jam "School Boy Crush." The Crescent City's loose-limbed second-line rhythms snake through the Meters' "Funkify Your Life," steamy as a New Orleans August night. And Stax Studios' renowned house band, the Bar-Kays, wind a screaming wah-wah guitar line around a steel-jaw-trap-tight horn section in the instrumental "Humpin,'" later sampled by Cypress Hill on "Real Estate."
Now it's time to open up some Deep Cuts, where brothers from Brecker to Johnson to Troutman serve up a plateful of stanky, pulse-pounding tracks.$26.76 Next Steps
Parental AdvisoryName Artist Time Price 1 School Boy Crush Average White Band 4:58 $0.99 View In iTunes 2 Funkify Your Life The Meters 5:40 $0.99 View In iTunes 3 You and I Rick James 8:04 $1.29 View In iTunes 4 Blow Your Head (LP Version) Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s 4:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 5 Soul Vaccination Tower of Power 5:12 $0.99 View In iTunes 6 Humpin' The Bar-Kays 2:44 $0.99 View In iTunes 7 Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) The Gap Band 4:11 $1.29 View In iTunes 8 Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop) Parliament 6:42 $1.29 View In iTunes 9 A Funky Space Reincarnation Marvin Gaye 8:18 $1.29 View In iTunes 10 Mango Meat Mandrill 4:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 11 Get Up and Get Down The Dramatics 3:11 $0.99 View In iTunes 12 Pain Ohio Players 6:14 $0.99 View In iTunes 13 Apache Incredible Bongo Band 4:53 $1.29 View In iTunes 14 Super Stupid Funkadelic 4:01 $0.99 View In iTunes 15 Communication Bobby Womack 4:43 $1.29 View In iTunes 16 Anti Love Song Betty Davis 4:32 $0.99 View In iTunes 17 Movin Brass Construction 4:39 $0.99 View In iTunes 18 Funky Stuff Kool & the Gang 3:03 $1.29 View In iTunes 19 Chase Me Con Funk Shun 5:38 $1.29 View In iTunes 20 Lover and a Friend Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham 2:30 $0.99 View In iTunes 21 ExplicitBooty Body Ready for the Plush Funk George Clinton 6:45 $1.29 View In iTunes 22 You Got the Love Rufus 4:39 $1.29 View In iTunes 23 When Bernie Speaks Bernie Worrell & Bootsy Collins 6:48 $0.99 View In iTunes 24 Loose Booty Sly & the Family Stone 3:46 $0.99 View In iTunes Total: 24 Songs - Deep Cuts
Certain bands played with such rocket-science precision, you'd swear they shared DNA. Well, here are a few funkmeisters who actually did. George and Louis Johnson, a.k.a. the Brothers Johnson, crafted their own Los Angeles-based brand of "sophisti-funk," with Louis slapping and popping bass riffs with herky-jerk precision. Their "Ain't We Funkin' Now," produced by the legendary Quincy Jones, features yet another funk soul brother, Michael Brecker on sax. The Philly-born Brecker Brothers (the aforementioned Michael on sax and Randy on horns) straddled jazz, funk, and fusion with their slinky, sax-honking dance groove "Sneakin' Up Behind You." And the Troutman clan — brothers Roger, Larry, Tony, and Lester — anchored Zapp, whose cosmic-slop classic "Funky Bounce" showcased Roger's space-alien vocals, processed by the keyboard-based vocoder, which gave him his trademark Mr. Roboto-esque machine sound.
$24.96 Deep Cuts
Name Artist Time Price 1 I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl) [7" Version] Instant Funk 3:21 $0.99 View In iTunes 2 Girl You Need a Change of Mind Eddie Kendricks 7:33 $1.29 View In iTunes 3 Dusic Brick 5:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 4 Pull Up to the Bumper Grace Jones 4:42 $1.29 View In iTunes 5 Uptown Up Maceo Parker 4:16 $0.99 View In iTunes 6 Dr. Funkenstein Parliament 5:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 7 Dirty Mind Prince 3:49 $0.99 View In iTunes 8 Swoop (I'm Yours) [Single] Dazz Band 3:36 $1.29 View In iTunes 9 Ain't We Funkin' Now The Brothers Johnson 5:38 $0.99 View In iTunes 10 Keep On Doin' It The New Birth 4:18 $0.99 View In iTunes 11 Sneakin' Up Behind You The Brecker Brothers 4:52 $0.99 View In iTunes 12 Lovely Jane Dag 5:39 $0.99 View In iTunes 13 Freedom Jazz Dance Stephen Ferrone 7:48 $0.99 View In iTunes 14 Let's Start the Dance Bohannon 5:57 $1.29 View In iTunes 15 Just Kissed My Baby (Remastered) The Meters 4:44 $0.99 View In iTunes 16 Do It, Fluid The Blackbyrds 5:23 $0.99 View In iTunes 17 Funk Funk Cameo 4:48 $0.99 View In iTunes 18 I Got Love Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band 3:39 $0.99 View In iTunes 19 Get Out of My Life Woman Lee Dorsey 2:28 $0.99 View In iTunes 20 Funky Bounce Zapp 6:50 $0.99 View In iTunes 21 Space Race Billy Preston 3:29 $0.99 View In iTunes 22 Solid Funk Sugarman Three 3:29 $0.99 View In iTunes 23 Sunshine Day Osibisa 4:56 $0.99 View In iTunes 24 Voodoo Soul Stew The Daktaris 4:27 $0.99 View In iTunes Total: 24 Songs - Complete Set
Even before the dashikis had begun to lose their sheen, before the tube tops got a little tight to wear in public, funk had planted its flag, claimed its territory, and strutted into our dance steps and onto our radios. We'd marched to the beat of James Brown's "Funky Drummer," rocketed into the clouds on the Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster," and raised a ruckus with Parliament's "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)." But beyond the hits, hidden in those albums, like mangroves (or crocodiles) in a swamp, were some of the nastiest, greasiest funk tracks ever slathered onto wax. We've dug through the crates for the bass thumpin'-est, booty bumpin'-est grooves ever committed to wax by master funkateers and assembled them in one funk-filled feast — all just a mouse-click away.
$77.97 Complete Set
Parental AdvisoryName Artist Time Price 1 The Payback James Brown 7:38 $0.99 View In iTunes 2 Funky Worm Ohio Players 2:41 $0.99 View In iTunes 3 Slippery When Wet The Commodores 3:21 $1.29 View In iTunes 4 Standing On the Verge of Getting It On Funkadelic 5:07 $0.99 View In iTunes 5 Mighty Mighty Earth, Wind & Fire 3:02 $1.29 View In iTunes 6 You Can Make It If You Try Sly & the Family Stone 3:37 $0.99 View In iTunes 7 ExplicitFight the Power, Pts. 1 & 2 The Isley Brothers 5:18 $0.99 View In iTunes 8 Holy Ghost The Bar-Kays 8:30 $0.99 View In iTunes 9 Freak-A-Zoid (Radio Edit) Midnight Star 4:00 $0.99 View In iTunes 10 You Haven't Done Nothin' Stevie Wonder 3:22 $1.29 View In iTunes 11 Papa Was Too Joe Tex 2:56 $0.99 View In iTunes 12 Mothership Connection (Star Child) Parliament 6:12 $1.29 View In iTunes 13 Funky Broadway Part 1 Dyke & The Blazers 2:41 $0.99 View In iTunes 14 (Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go Curtis Mayfield 7:52 $0.99 View In iTunes 15 Bra Cymande 5:06 $0.99 View In iTunes 16 Do Your Thing Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band 3:33 $1.29 View In iTunes 17 Sexy Ida, Pt. 1 Ike & Tina Turner 2:26 $0.99 View In iTunes 18 Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic Isaac Hayes 9:36 $0.99 View In iTunes 19 Fire on the Bayou The Neville Brothers 5:15 $0.99 View In iTunes 20 I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You Leon Haywood 5:52 $1.29 View In iTunes 21 Give It Up or Turnit a Loose (Single) James Brown 2:50 $0.99 View In iTunes 22 Water Graham Central Station 4:26 $0.99 View In iTunes 23 Reach for it (Album Version) George Duke 4:54 $0.99 View In iTunes 24 What a Man Linda Lyndell 2:41 $0.69 View In iTunes 25 Kissing My Love Bill Withers 3:49 $0.99 View In iTunes 26 School Boy Crush Average White Band 4:58 $0.99 View In iTunes 27 Funkify Your Life The Meters 5:40 $0.99 View In iTunes 28 You and I Rick James 8:04 $1.29 View In iTunes 29 Blow Your Head (LP Version) Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s 4:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 30 Soul Vaccination Tower of Power 5:12 $0.99 View In iTunes 31 Humpin' The Bar-Kays 2:44 $0.99 View In iTunes 32 Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) The Gap Band 4:11 $1.29 View In iTunes 33 Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop) Parliament 6:42 $1.29 View In iTunes 34 A Funky Space Reincarnation Marvin Gaye 8:18 $1.29 View In iTunes 35 Mango Meat Mandrill 4:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 36 Get Up and Get Down The Dramatics 3:11 $0.99 View In iTunes 37 Pain Ohio Players 6:14 $0.99 View In iTunes 38 Apache Incredible Bongo Band 4:53 $1.29 View In iTunes 39 Super Stupid Funkadelic 4:01 $0.99 View In iTunes 40 Communication Bobby Womack 4:43 $1.29 View In iTunes 41 Anti Love Song Betty Davis 4:32 $0.99 View In iTunes 42 Movin Brass Construction 4:39 $0.99 View In iTunes 43 Funky Stuff Kool & the Gang 3:03 $1.29 View In iTunes 44 Chase Me Con Funk Shun 5:38 $1.29 View In iTunes 45 Lover and a Friend Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham 2:30 $0.99 View In iTunes 46 ExplicitBooty Body Ready for the Plush Funk George Clinton 6:45 $1.29 View In iTunes 47 You Got the Love Rufus 4:39 $1.29 View In iTunes 48 When Bernie Speaks Bernie Worrell & Bootsy Collins 6:48 $0.99 View In iTunes 49 Loose Booty Sly & the Family Stone 3:46 $0.99 View In iTunes 50 I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl) [7" Version] Instant Funk 3:21 $0.99 View In iTunes 51 Girl You Need a Change of Mind Eddie Kendricks 7:33 $1.29 View In iTunes 52 Dusic Brick 5:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 53 Pull Up to the Bumper Grace Jones 4:42 $1.29 View In iTunes 54 Uptown Up Maceo Parker 4:16 $0.99 View In iTunes 55 Dr. Funkenstein Parliament 5:43 $0.99 View In iTunes 56 Dirty Mind Prince 3:49 $0.99 View In iTunes 57 Swoop (I'm Yours) [Single] Dazz Band 3:36 $1.29 View In iTunes 58 Ain't We Funkin' Now The Brothers Johnson 5:38 $0.99 View In iTunes 59 Keep On Doin' It The New Birth 4:18 $0.99 View In iTunes 60 Sneakin' Up Behind You The Brecker Brothers 4:52 $0.99 View In iTunes 61 Lovely Jane Dag 5:39 $0.99 View In iTunes 62 Freedom Jazz Dance Stephen Ferrone 7:48 $0.99 View In iTunes 63 Let's Start the Dance Bohannon 5:57 $1.29 View In iTunes 64 Just Kissed My Baby (Remastered) The Meters 4:44 $0.99 View In iTunes 65 Do It, Fluid The Blackbyrds 5:23 $0.99 View In iTunes 66 Funk Funk Cameo 4:48 $0.99 View In iTunes 67 I Got Love Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band 3:39 $0.99 View In iTunes 68 Get Out of My Life Woman Lee Dorsey 2:28 $0.99 View In iTunes 69 Funky Bounce Zapp 6:50 $0.99 View In iTunes 70 Space Race Billy Preston 3:29 $0.99 View In iTunes 71 Solid Funk Sugarman Three 3:29 $0.99 View In iTunes 72 Sunshine Day Osibisa 4:56 $0.99 View In iTunes 73 Voodoo Soul Stew The Daktaris 4:27 $0.99 View In iTunes Total: 73 Songs
Customer Reviews
no Meters here
You can't have a funk mix without the Meters. It's just a fact. I'm just a dude living in rural Kansas, but I know that much.
Some cold jams on here
Some of the Funk out there is a bit extreme but, there where some nicely balanced jams on this compilation that made me want to move; )
davidUrock, over and out; )
Da Funk is Pure!
Nuff said Ye All!
