Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:02,377 --> 00:00:07,423
A fella stopped around the corner of 7th Avenue and 125th Street.
2
00:00:07,465 --> 00:00:11,052
and he asked the fella,
saying, black fella was standin' there,
3
00:00:11,052 --> 00:00:11,844
He said, em
4
00:00:13,596 --> 00:00:15,848
"ah, I need to go ah downtown, eh"
5
00:00:16,140 --> 00:00:17,016
"I wanna go to Brooklyn."
6
00:00:17,558 --> 00:00:18,559
He said, "How do I go?"
7
00:00:19,435 --> 00:00:19,727
"I don't know."
8
00:00:20,144 --> 00:00:21,979
He said, "What's north?"
9
00:00:22,146 --> 00:00:23,147
"Which way is north?"
10
00:00:25,066 --> 00:00:26,317
He said, "I don't think I know."
11
00:00:26,442 --> 00:00:28,569
He said, "Which way's south?"
12
00:00:29,153 --> 00:00:30,446
Can't find no streets,
13
00:00:30,571 --> 00:00:32,323
Tryin' ta eat from day to
day and tryin' ta find a way.
14
00:00:32,490 --> 00:00:33,574
He said, "I don't know."
15
00:00:34,575 --> 00:00:35,451
He said, "Which way is west?"
16
00:00:35,868 --> 00:00:36,911
He said, "Man, I don't know."
17
00:00:37,286 --> 00:00:38,454
He said, "What do you know?"
18
00:00:38,454 --> 00:00:39,747
He said, "I'm not lost."
19
00:00:42,083 --> 00:00:45,586
(laughing softly)
20
00:00:45,628 --> 00:00:47,296
That was deep.
21
00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:54,303
(funk music playing)
22
00:00:54,470 --> 00:00:55,888
- [Questlove] What is funk music?
23
00:00:57,014 --> 00:00:59,892
Musically, it's the
bridge between 60s soul
24
00:01:00,309 --> 00:01:01,436
and 80s hip hop.
25
00:01:02,895 --> 00:01:05,815
It is an essential and
underappreciated musical movement.
26
00:01:06,649 --> 00:01:08,359
Funk was born in the middle of America,
27
00:01:08,901 --> 00:01:10,778
and spread east and west like a fever.
28
00:01:12,613 --> 00:01:15,491
Funk is discipline, funk is freaky.
29
00:01:16,117 --> 00:01:18,744
Funk is spacesuits and
Egyptian iconography.
30
00:01:19,912 --> 00:01:22,039
It is huge Afros and crazy colors.
31
00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,794
It is Afrofuturistic,
and it's always fun.
32
00:01:27,628 --> 00:01:29,547
At its core funk is the expression
33
00:01:29,964 --> 00:01:33,050
of an idiosyncratic, creative
and visionary community
34
00:01:33,259 --> 00:01:34,260
of music makers.
35
00:01:34,260 --> 00:01:35,636
(funk music continues)
36
00:01:35,803 --> 00:01:37,388
My name is Ahmir Questlove Thompson.
37
00:01:37,388 --> 00:01:38,639
Drummer and leader of The Roots.
38
00:01:39,348 --> 00:01:40,766
And we're gonna go on a journey,
39
00:01:40,766 --> 00:01:42,518
back into time throughout history
40
00:01:42,935 --> 00:01:46,355
through your funky emotions,
as we go finding the funk.
41
00:01:57,158 --> 00:02:10,505
(funk music continues)
42
00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:12,298
- Funk for me is
43
00:02:13,132 --> 00:02:14,008
our life.
44
00:02:14,175 --> 00:02:17,303
Funk for me is the word that was spoke
45
00:02:17,386 --> 00:02:19,847
and this is what funk is.
46
00:02:19,847 --> 00:02:21,974
- I'd probably say it's rhythm and blues
47
00:02:21,974 --> 00:02:28,981
with uh, uh, with people that couldn't cuss but,
48
00:02:29,398 --> 00:02:31,984
they wanted to, they sounded like they wanted to cuss.
49
00:02:32,026 --> 00:02:33,277
- It's black rock and roll.
50
00:02:33,277 --> 00:02:35,029
It's, it's, when when George said,
51
00:02:35,029 --> 00:02:37,281
"we have returned to
reclaim the pyramids,"
52
00:02:37,281 --> 00:02:39,283
that's what that represents to me.
53
00:02:39,408 --> 00:02:40,868
- Funk has a lot to do with
54
00:02:41,702 --> 00:02:45,039
the booty of music.
55
00:02:45,331 --> 00:02:46,749
Which is like the backbeat,
56
00:02:46,874 --> 00:02:48,751
the dark keys,
57
00:02:48,834 --> 00:02:53,297
the, the pulse, and the thump of , of rhythm.
58
00:02:53,589 --> 00:02:55,299
- But if you have to try to tell somebody
59
00:02:55,341 --> 00:02:56,884
you have to start using words
60
00:02:56,926 --> 00:02:59,554
like syncopation and stuff like that
61
00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:02,014
makes you dance and it
doesn't do it justice.
62
00:03:02,181 --> 00:03:04,016
- We know it come from
the Congo, the fooky,
63
00:03:04,016 --> 00:03:05,601
which means bad body odor.
64
00:03:05,768 --> 00:03:07,937
So what I love about some
of these Black musical terms
65
00:03:07,937 --> 00:03:09,897
like jazz, they're all these curse words
66
00:03:09,897 --> 00:03:11,315
or these obscenities that are derived
67
00:03:11,315 --> 00:03:13,901
from other languages,
applied to Black culture.
68
00:03:13,901 --> 00:03:16,737
And what we do, you know
funk is like Sonic chitlins.
69
00:03:16,946 --> 00:03:19,615
We work out all the nastiness, and the grease,
70
00:03:19,657 --> 00:03:21,617
and we take it and process it
71
00:03:21,659 --> 00:03:22,618
and make something out of it.
72
00:03:22,618 --> 00:03:25,162
Something bad body odor
into something beautiful.
73
00:03:25,204 --> 00:03:28,457
So you saw Africa writ large in funk music
74
00:03:28,457 --> 00:03:31,335
as a sound collage of the
best of Black identity.
75
00:03:31,460 --> 00:03:34,630
- Funk is the ability
to make anything yours.
76
00:03:35,047 --> 00:03:38,384
- The root all of the music,
comes out of New Orleans.
77
00:03:38,467 --> 00:03:41,470
But because, you know we have
78
00:03:41,470 --> 00:03:44,348
the serious sounds
79
00:03:44,348 --> 00:03:45,224
from jazz
80
00:03:45,224 --> 00:03:47,935
and early rock and roll
coming out of New Orleans,
81
00:03:47,935 --> 00:03:51,772
and the tradition of dance in New Orleans.
82
00:03:51,772 --> 00:03:53,983
There's nowhere else to go but the funk,
83
00:03:53,983 --> 00:03:56,485
especially with the second lines
84
00:03:56,485 --> 00:03:58,946
and the rhythms of New Orleans.
85
00:04:00,823 --> 00:04:03,284
You mix that with the jazz sound
86
00:04:03,284 --> 00:04:05,494
and rhythm and blues
and you have the funk.
87
00:04:05,786 --> 00:04:09,832
(funk music continues)
88
00:04:10,374 --> 00:04:12,209
- Being in those marching bands
89
00:04:12,251 --> 00:04:14,253
from New Orleans where we grew up,
90
00:04:14,795 --> 00:04:19,800
funk is such a integral
part of the drum section.
91
00:04:19,967 --> 00:04:21,135
We have to constantly
92
00:04:22,094 --> 00:04:22,428
clah!
93
00:04:23,220 --> 00:04:23,554
Blah!
94
00:04:23,638 --> 00:04:25,514
Be on a beat with that funk, you know,
95
00:04:25,681 --> 00:04:26,432
Clah!
Gloom!
96
00:04:26,641 --> 00:04:27,391
Clah!
Gloom!
97
00:04:27,516 --> 00:04:29,435
That's where really it
started, you know that,
98
00:04:29,518 --> 00:04:30,853
(stamping feet and hand slap sounds)
99
00:04:30,853 --> 00:04:32,688
Just that funk rhythm.
100
00:04:32,938 --> 00:04:34,273
- Mainly when people talk about funk,
101
00:04:34,315 --> 00:04:37,735
they talk about a form
of rhythm and blues music
102
00:04:37,735 --> 00:04:41,155
that became very popular in
the late 60s and early 70s.
103
00:04:41,155 --> 00:04:44,450
They emphasized explosive
rhythm from the drums,
104
00:04:44,450 --> 00:04:47,286
from the bass, from guitar.
105
00:04:47,286 --> 00:04:49,997
A lot of arranged horn lines,
106
00:04:49,997 --> 00:04:54,543
and there are many sources for
where the rhythms came from.
107
00:04:54,543 --> 00:04:56,712
We can look at say the beginnings of funk,
108
00:04:56,712 --> 00:04:59,006
you go back to say Louis Jordan
109
00:04:59,006 --> 00:05:00,591
from the 1940s' to jump bands
110
00:05:00,883 --> 00:05:02,968
that were the post Big Band era.
111
00:05:02,968 --> 00:05:04,303
- My background is in jazz
112
00:05:04,303 --> 00:05:06,430
or I should say my front ground.
113
00:05:06,430 --> 00:05:08,307
I first heard the word funk
114
00:05:08,307 --> 00:05:10,768
when I was listening to
Horace Silver records.
115
00:05:10,768 --> 00:05:13,437
Horace Silver was using the word funky like
116
00:05:13,437 --> 00:05:15,731
Filthy McNasty some of his songs,
117
00:05:15,731 --> 00:05:19,318
and also Cannonball Adderley,
would talk about funk.
118
00:05:19,318 --> 00:05:21,696
And these guys would talk
about that on their records,
119
00:05:21,696 --> 00:05:23,072
when they did live recordings.
120
00:05:23,072 --> 00:05:25,282
So it wasn't James Brown
121
00:05:25,282 --> 00:05:26,492
that I got exposed to the word funk,
122
00:05:26,492 --> 00:05:29,036
it was like actually jazz.
123
00:05:29,036 --> 00:05:30,871
- I mean, funky was
something that we called
124
00:05:30,871 --> 00:05:32,707
Horace Silver and Art Blakey,
125
00:05:32,707 --> 00:05:35,084
and even some Miles stuff.
126
00:05:35,084 --> 00:05:39,046
But there was funk jazz in the early 60s.
127
00:05:39,046 --> 00:05:40,881
And if you go back to
old issues of DownBeat,
128
00:05:40,881 --> 00:05:43,384
you'll see stuff described as funky jazz.
129
00:05:43,467 --> 00:05:47,012
- Well, with jazz we go back,
a generation and a half.
130
00:05:47,012 --> 00:05:50,808
With jazz, it become really
sophisticated as well.
131
00:05:50,808 --> 00:05:53,602
I mean, the jazz that
was happening in the 60s,
132
00:05:53,894 --> 00:05:57,773
because of just the natural
development of music,
133
00:05:57,773 --> 00:05:58,941
jazz had started in the 20s.
134
00:05:58,941 --> 00:06:01,402
So by the time you get to
the 60s, 40 years later,
135
00:06:01,402 --> 00:06:04,196
jazz had become very, very complex.
136
00:06:04,196 --> 00:06:06,615
And then add to that, the social aspect
137
00:06:06,615 --> 00:06:08,743
with the civil rights movement.
138
00:06:08,743 --> 00:06:09,076
You know what I mean?
139
00:06:09,076 --> 00:06:10,953
And the hippie movement, the
challenging of everything
140
00:06:10,953 --> 00:06:11,829
in the 60s,
141
00:06:11,829 --> 00:06:14,039
jazz had becomes something that
142
00:06:14,039 --> 00:06:16,083
was really out there,
you know what I mean?
143
00:06:16,542 --> 00:06:18,043
And funk was a reaction to that.
144
00:06:18,043 --> 00:06:20,379
- A lot of people don't
know that James Brown,
145
00:06:20,379 --> 00:06:21,505
is an organ player.
146
00:06:21,505 --> 00:06:24,091
And one of his best friends, I mean,
147
00:06:24,091 --> 00:06:26,093
a lot of his best friends
were jazz musicians.
148
00:06:26,093 --> 00:06:28,763
Oliver Nelson and him
were like, very close.
149
00:06:28,763 --> 00:06:30,264
So you get this thing.
150
00:06:30,264 --> 00:06:31,390
And I've always said,
151
00:06:32,391 --> 00:06:35,561
there's a wonderful mixture,
152
00:06:36,812 --> 00:06:40,524
and coming together of jazz and R&B
153
00:06:40,524 --> 00:06:43,152
that when you examine a
lot of the early jazz,
154
00:06:43,152 --> 00:06:45,780
or funk guys, you'll see that they have
155
00:06:45,780 --> 00:06:47,364
a deep jazz connection.
156
00:06:48,574 --> 00:06:51,410
- James Brown, soul brother number one.
157
00:06:51,410 --> 00:06:53,704
Was a fan of funky jazz
and would have his band
158
00:06:53,704 --> 00:06:55,790
open his shows with instrumentals
159
00:06:55,790 --> 00:06:58,375
that would inspire a revolution.
160
00:06:58,375 --> 00:07:00,294
- Soul music was really singing music.
161
00:07:00,294 --> 00:07:03,088
It was about the vocalists
and supporting the vocalists.
162
00:07:03,088 --> 00:07:04,089
What happened with funk
163
00:07:04,089 --> 00:07:05,674
is that funk became more instrumental.
164
00:07:05,674 --> 00:07:08,552
It became more about the
rhythm section particularly,
165
00:07:08,552 --> 00:07:10,846
and the relationship between
rhythm section and horns.
166
00:07:10,846 --> 00:07:13,891
And to some degree singers
that didn't come secondary,
167
00:07:13,891 --> 00:07:16,852
but the band became a
bigger part of the show.
168
00:07:16,852 --> 00:07:21,273
- Classic James Brown, of
course, is the funky period,
169
00:07:21,273 --> 00:07:24,276
the soulful period between
170
00:07:24,276 --> 00:07:29,990
1966 and 1974.
171
00:07:30,032 --> 00:07:32,284
So between that period you have,
172
00:07:33,619 --> 00:07:35,746
kind of the evolution of soul.
173
00:07:35,746 --> 00:07:42,002
(drum beating sounds)
174
00:07:42,878 --> 00:07:45,589
And then it's sort of morphs into
175
00:07:46,507 --> 00:07:48,342
the beginning of funk,
176
00:07:48,342 --> 00:07:49,343
which is like you know
177
00:07:49,343 --> 00:07:54,139
(beating drum set sounds)
178
00:07:54,181 --> 00:07:56,892
- The voice itself becomes,
179
00:07:56,892 --> 00:07:58,853
in a beautiful, rhythmic way
180
00:07:58,853 --> 00:08:01,605
open to multiple and polyrhythms.
181
00:08:01,605 --> 00:08:04,733
- Motown the company talkin' about we aint got no lyrics.
182
00:08:04,900 --> 00:08:06,026
But when they started sampling,
183
00:08:06,026 --> 00:08:06,902
what did it sample?
184
00:08:06,902 --> 00:08:09,905
(making sounds)
185
00:08:09,905 --> 00:08:12,741
It must be a lot of dope in that shit.
186
00:08:12,741 --> 00:08:14,451
You can put a 10 on it.
187
00:08:14,451 --> 00:08:15,452
You can sample them,
188
00:08:15,452 --> 00:08:16,745
and then I can sample you,
189
00:08:16,745 --> 00:08:18,330
and somebody can sample me
190
00:08:18,330 --> 00:08:19,957
and it still work.
191
00:08:19,957 --> 00:08:22,793
- On stage he would
perform elongated versions
192
00:08:22,793 --> 00:08:25,671
of them and the vamps
were a device to set up,
193
00:08:26,505 --> 00:08:27,631
really to give them a forum
194
00:08:27,631 --> 00:08:29,758
to do choreography with The Famous Flames.
195
00:08:29,758 --> 00:08:33,512
So it was really just a device
to provide an opportunity
196
00:08:33,512 --> 00:08:34,930
to do dance routines.
197
00:08:34,930 --> 00:08:36,765
It wasn't really a musical thing.
198
00:08:37,808 --> 00:08:40,060
But eventually that became,
199
00:08:40,060 --> 00:08:41,896
that kind of, the script flipped
200
00:08:41,896 --> 00:08:42,980
and all of a sudden it was like,
201
00:08:42,980 --> 00:08:44,982
hey, if we do this with this vamp,
202
00:08:44,982 --> 00:08:47,776
we do, that we build it
up, we break it down,
203
00:08:47,776 --> 00:08:50,362
and all of a sudden, you've
got a new genre of music.
204
00:08:50,362 --> 00:08:53,073
- Brown's band was full
of razor sharp players.
205
00:08:53,365 --> 00:08:56,201
Who go on to have an enduring
impact on pop culture,
206
00:08:56,577 --> 00:08:58,662
especially Clyde Stubblefield
207
00:08:59,496 --> 00:09:01,665
aka the Funky Drummer.
208
00:09:01,916 --> 00:09:04,919
- Coming from Hip Hop being an MC,
209
00:09:04,919 --> 00:09:07,379
when we started digging through records,
210
00:09:07,379 --> 00:09:09,131
the first thing really
we were looking for was
211
00:09:09,131 --> 00:09:11,926
what you call a raw naked beat.
212
00:09:13,218 --> 00:09:16,430
Whoever would guess this little riff
213
00:09:16,430 --> 00:09:17,973
would then kind of become
214
00:09:18,807 --> 00:09:20,976
a soundtrack in the let's see,
215
00:09:20,976 --> 00:09:25,689
when would have been,
that would have been 19, 1989! You know,
216
00:09:26,148 --> 00:09:27,316
That...
217
00:09:27,316 --> 00:09:30,277
another summer sound of the Funky Drummer.
218
00:09:30,277 --> 00:09:33,989
You know, I don't think when Clyde
Stubblefield played that
219
00:09:33,989 --> 00:09:36,533
in 1970...
220
00:09:36,533 --> 00:09:38,160
I guess what, 71,
221
00:09:38,577 --> 00:09:41,121
70, maybe in 69,
222
00:09:41,121 --> 00:09:44,708
who woulda guessed 20
years later that would be,
223
00:09:44,708 --> 00:09:47,294
he'd be the backing band for Chuck D.
224
00:09:47,544 --> 00:09:51,340
- Every MC worth his grain of salt like
225
00:09:51,340 --> 00:09:53,258
this is what they wanted to rhyme with.
226
00:09:54,134 --> 00:09:57,012
Probably the best hip hop act that
227
00:09:57,137 --> 00:09:59,556
really utilized Funky drummer to the hilt
228
00:10:00,724 --> 00:10:02,184
was Public Enemy.
229
00:10:02,184 --> 00:10:05,604
Who pretty much made
this their rhyming bed.
230
00:10:06,563 --> 00:10:10,150
- If James Brown was a
saxophonist he'd be Maceo Parker.
231
00:10:10,609 --> 00:10:13,612
I mean if anybody ever
does a study of their DNA,
232
00:10:13,612 --> 00:10:15,030
it's gotta be the same.
233
00:10:15,030 --> 00:10:17,324
I mean, somewhere somebody's
mama knew somebody
234
00:10:17,324 --> 00:10:20,869
because their that, their musical spot,
235
00:10:21,996 --> 00:10:26,625
their sense of rhythm and time
236
00:10:26,625 --> 00:10:29,044
is so impeccably the same.
237
00:10:29,044 --> 00:10:32,172
- As a college student
I was at a crossroad,
238
00:10:32,172 --> 00:10:34,341
'cause I know everybody wanna
play jazz, traditionally
239
00:10:34,341 --> 00:10:39,054
(singing jazz)
240
00:10:39,513 --> 00:10:43,475
And, so I open this door that 35 guys,
241
00:10:43,475 --> 00:10:45,644
tryin' to do the jazzy stuff
242
00:10:45,644 --> 00:10:48,647
and I open the other doors about four
243
00:10:48,647 --> 00:10:50,399
and they tryin' to play funky.
244
00:10:50,941 --> 00:10:51,942
And I said, "you know what,
245
00:10:51,942 --> 00:10:53,610
if somebody came looking for somebody
246
00:10:53,610 --> 00:10:56,613
that maybe could perhaps play funky,
247
00:10:56,613 --> 00:10:58,073
like me, and maybe
248
00:10:58,073 --> 00:11:02,202
I'd be recognized easier if
I'm in that group of four.
249
00:11:02,536 --> 00:11:08,792
So I came up with a equation,
I guess you call it, formula.
250
00:11:09,209 --> 00:11:13,839
You know, I or we play 2% of jazz,
251
00:11:13,839 --> 00:11:15,549
and 98% funky stuff.
252
00:11:15,549 --> 00:11:18,719
And that's what I'm about.
253
00:11:18,719 --> 00:11:20,679
- [Questlove] A labor dispute
between Brown and his band
254
00:11:20,679 --> 00:11:22,931
led him to recruit a young crew
255
00:11:22,931 --> 00:11:26,226
who had been gigging in
Cincinnati with King Records.
256
00:11:26,226 --> 00:11:27,811
Led by the Collins brothers,
257
00:11:27,811 --> 00:11:31,148
Catfish on guitar, and Bootsy on bass.
258
00:11:31,148 --> 00:11:32,983
They become legends themselves.
259
00:11:34,068 --> 00:11:34,860
- Okay.
260
00:11:34,860 --> 00:11:38,405
So Bobby Byrd call, we
playing at this club,
261
00:11:38,405 --> 00:11:40,157
having no idea
262
00:11:40,157 --> 00:11:43,160
that, we're gonna you know,
263
00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:45,245
James Brown is gonna call us one day.
264
00:11:45,537 --> 00:11:48,415
You know, I get on the phone with him and he says,
265
00:11:49,666 --> 00:11:51,585
"Bootsie, where's you and the boys?
266
00:11:51,585 --> 00:11:53,128
"What are y'all doing?"
267
00:11:53,128 --> 00:11:55,089
We playing a gig.
268
00:11:55,089 --> 00:11:58,550
Well, James Brown, wants
y'all to come play with him.
269
00:11:58,550 --> 00:11:59,968
I said, "damn!"
270
00:11:59,968 --> 00:12:02,846
You know, so I went through
all the excitement thing.
271
00:12:02,846 --> 00:12:04,431
And then it was like,
272
00:12:05,974 --> 00:12:08,185
well, we on a gig right now.
273
00:12:08,185 --> 00:12:10,562
He said, "No, he want y'all to come now."
274
00:12:10,562 --> 00:12:14,566
And so, sho' enough, he showed up.
275
00:12:14,566 --> 00:12:16,610
And he had a limo out there.
276
00:12:16,610 --> 00:12:19,446
And it's like, y'all ready to go?
277
00:12:19,446 --> 00:12:22,116
And we's like, I mean, we
didn't have you know what?
278
00:12:22,116 --> 00:12:23,700
Nobody packed.
279
00:12:23,700 --> 00:12:25,452
We had on what we had on and,
280
00:12:25,452 --> 00:12:27,454
it was like, y'all gotta come on now.
281
00:12:29,498 --> 00:12:32,292
First of all, he treated me like a son.
282
00:12:32,292 --> 00:12:33,710
He always was,
283
00:12:34,211 --> 00:12:37,881
you know, you gotta do this, you
gotta do that you got, you know,
284
00:12:37,881 --> 00:12:40,801
which for me at the time was really good,
285
00:12:40,801 --> 00:12:43,929
because I'm a knucklehead
from out in the street,
286
00:12:43,929 --> 00:12:47,015
so, that didn't grow up
with a father in the home.
287
00:12:47,015 --> 00:12:48,350
So I needed all of that.
288
00:12:48,350 --> 00:12:51,019
And I kinda knew that I needed it,
289
00:12:51,019 --> 00:12:55,023
and if anybody was gon' give
it to me, it had to be James Brown,
290
00:12:55,023 --> 00:12:55,816
(laughing)
291
00:12:55,816 --> 00:12:59,319
'Cause I wasn't goin' for it from nobody else.
292
00:12:59,903 --> 00:13:02,906
So, James Brown, he was perfect.
293
00:13:02,906 --> 00:13:04,783
He was the perfect father figure.
294
00:13:04,783 --> 00:13:07,619
- Bootsy Collins, hard workin' as the Bible,
295
00:13:07,619 --> 00:13:10,205
would verify that.
296
00:13:10,205 --> 00:13:11,790
Bootsy Collins was a star when he came
297
00:13:11,790 --> 00:13:13,625
and I never took that away from him.
298
00:13:14,543 --> 00:13:15,669
He didn't understand the one,
299
00:13:15,669 --> 00:13:17,379
but we taught him that.
300
00:13:17,379 --> 00:13:19,047
Bootsy Collins, he's like a son.
301
00:13:19,047 --> 00:13:21,508
- So when we were in studio,
302
00:13:21,508 --> 00:13:24,178
he would always, it was
like he was on stage.
303
00:13:25,929 --> 00:13:27,264
He would have to show people
304
00:13:27,264 --> 00:13:29,057
that he was still James Brown.
305
00:13:30,058 --> 00:13:32,269
So, in the middle of a song,
306
00:13:32,269 --> 00:13:35,230
he would have to break out
and do the James Brown.
307
00:13:35,230 --> 00:13:38,275
And, which wouldn't have nothing to do
308
00:13:38,275 --> 00:13:39,234
with what we're doing.
309
00:13:39,234 --> 00:13:41,528
(laughing)
310
00:13:42,404 --> 00:13:43,989
I guess that was probably
311
00:13:43,989 --> 00:13:45,866
the most funniest thing
312
00:13:45,866 --> 00:13:47,826
that would happen in a session.
313
00:13:47,826 --> 00:13:50,412
I remember James telling me about the one
314
00:13:51,496 --> 00:13:53,665
and I thought that was just,
315
00:13:53,665 --> 00:13:56,084
at first I thought, it's like,
316
00:13:56,084 --> 00:13:57,544
why are you telling me this?
317
00:13:57,544 --> 00:13:58,962
Because I just wanna play,
318
00:13:58,962 --> 00:14:01,590
hey, aint nobody got no time for the one.
319
00:14:01,590 --> 00:14:03,300
"Son, let me tell you,
320
00:14:03,300 --> 00:14:05,886
you gotta give me the
one, you give me the one,
321
00:14:05,886 --> 00:14:09,723
and you play all that other
stuff, just give me that one."
322
00:14:09,723 --> 00:14:19,107
(making sound rhythms with his mouth)
323
00:14:19,149 --> 00:14:21,109
I said, "oh, you mean like
this, you mean like this."
324
00:14:21,109 --> 00:14:27,824
(making rhythms with the mouth)
325
00:14:28,033 --> 00:14:29,284
"Yes like that, like that.
326
00:14:29,284 --> 00:14:30,577
I'm glad I thought of it right there.
327
00:14:30,577 --> 00:14:31,870
Right there."
328
00:14:31,870 --> 00:14:34,331
But that's where brother James was at.
329
00:14:34,331 --> 00:14:36,833
I mean, you know, and he taught me that.
330
00:14:36,833 --> 00:14:38,627
And when he taught me that,
331
00:14:38,627 --> 00:14:42,130
it was like I used that
in every thing I did.
332
00:14:42,130 --> 00:14:44,549
- Now I gotta find a
way to get these people.
333
00:14:45,592 --> 00:14:47,594
So I gotta play something they can't play.
334
00:14:47,594 --> 00:14:49,304
So it was on two and four
335
00:14:49,304 --> 00:14:51,139
(indistinct)
336
00:14:51,139 --> 00:14:53,016
you can't waltz to Pappa's Got a Brand New Bag.
337
00:14:53,016 --> 00:14:54,142
I put on one and three
338
00:14:55,018 --> 00:14:56,144
and you can't waltz backwards though.
339
00:14:56,561 --> 00:14:58,855
You can't go down
you gotta go up see so,
340
00:14:58,855 --> 00:15:00,732
gotta stop all that waltzin' mess.
341
00:15:00,732 --> 00:15:02,567
But it became the biggest thing.
342
00:15:02,567 --> 00:15:04,319
It went from two and
four, to one and three.
343
00:15:04,903 --> 00:15:06,613
(guitar sounds)
344
00:15:06,613 --> 00:15:10,033
- Bootsy and company's exit
didn't stop Brown's funk flow.
345
00:15:10,033 --> 00:15:13,036
He'd go one to cut funk
classics like, The Big Payback.
346
00:15:14,037 --> 00:15:16,331
But the Age of Aquarius was dawning.
347
00:15:16,331 --> 00:15:19,334
with psychedelic drugs, funky threads,
348
00:15:19,334 --> 00:15:20,669
and wah wah guitars.
349
00:15:22,754 --> 00:15:25,632
Where Brown's funk had been rooted in the struggle,
350
00:15:25,632 --> 00:15:28,760
Sly Stone's vision was truly utopia.
351
00:15:32,180 --> 00:15:33,807
- It was a movement goin' on,
352
00:15:33,807 --> 00:15:34,641
It was a whole lot,
353
00:15:34,641 --> 00:15:37,185
it was a few different movements goin' on.
354
00:15:37,185 --> 00:15:39,938
And it was a movement goin' on in music,
355
00:15:39,938 --> 00:15:43,191
where you just comin' out of
this peace and love thang.
356
00:15:44,651 --> 00:15:47,070
And then we goin' into
357
00:15:47,070 --> 00:15:50,657
this whole other thing.
358
00:15:50,657 --> 00:15:52,492
We didn't know what it was but,
359
00:15:52,784 --> 00:15:55,829
You know, I think we were kinda
at the forefront of it
360
00:15:55,829 --> 00:15:57,205
and a part of it.
361
00:15:57,205 --> 00:15:59,082
And so it's like
362
00:15:59,082 --> 00:16:02,127
bands were moving to
the front of the stage.
363
00:16:02,127 --> 00:16:05,213
Bands were wanting to be the stars
364
00:16:05,213 --> 00:16:07,257
instead of playing behind stars.
365
00:16:07,257 --> 00:16:08,925
Jimi and them had talked about it,
366
00:16:10,093 --> 00:16:11,678
and he was probably
367
00:16:11,678 --> 00:16:14,348
one of maybe the first that actually,
368
00:16:15,265 --> 00:16:17,851
especially being black, that actually,
369
00:16:17,851 --> 00:16:18,852
came to the front.
370
00:16:18,852 --> 00:16:22,647
- Jimi Hendrix had come up
as an R&B backup musician.
371
00:16:22,647 --> 00:16:25,859
So even as a guitar god,
he never forgot the lessons
372
00:16:25,859 --> 00:16:26,818
of the group.
373
00:16:26,818 --> 00:16:29,529
- Jimi was the coolest there is.
374
00:16:29,529 --> 00:16:31,406
- Hendrix was the R&B guitar player.
375
00:16:31,406 --> 00:16:34,159
So Hendrix really was
steeped in rhythm and blues.
376
00:16:34,159 --> 00:16:37,579
He didn't appear out
of just out of nowhere.
377
00:16:37,579 --> 00:16:41,041
And then people focus
on him being psychedelic
378
00:16:41,041 --> 00:16:42,542
and taking LSD.
379
00:16:42,542 --> 00:16:45,670
And they even focus on him
being a blues musician.
380
00:16:45,670 --> 00:16:48,382
But he was actually a
rhythm and blues musician
381
00:16:48,382 --> 00:16:51,134
and he also played, in
rock and roll bands.
382
00:16:51,134 --> 00:16:52,761
Like he was playing with Little Richard,
383
00:16:52,761 --> 00:16:54,304
he played with the Isley Brothers.
384
00:16:54,304 --> 00:16:55,847
He's, I mean, he started
the Band of Gypsys
385
00:16:55,847 --> 00:16:56,890
with the drummer Buddy Miles,
386
00:16:56,890 --> 00:16:58,975
who's already a star
with The Electric Flag
387
00:16:58,975 --> 00:17:05,273
and Buddy Miles is just
in terms of his rhythm,
388
00:17:05,315 --> 00:17:08,151
he's an incredibly funky drummer.
389
00:17:08,151 --> 00:17:11,071
- When he had Buddy Miles playing drums,
390
00:17:11,071 --> 00:17:13,281
he had such a heavy backbeat
391
00:17:14,574 --> 00:17:15,909
behind him.
392
00:17:15,909 --> 00:17:18,620
So it was, he was able to space out like.
393
00:17:18,620 --> 00:17:21,581
To me, all of what Eddie
Hazel and him was doing
394
00:17:21,581 --> 00:17:24,751
with Funkadelic, it's
kinda based on that album,
395
00:17:24,751 --> 00:17:26,420
that one album, Band of Gypsys.
396
00:17:26,420 --> 00:17:28,463
So, yeah, man.
397
00:17:28,463 --> 00:17:29,297
That was it.
398
00:17:29,297 --> 00:17:30,882
Jimi kinda took...
399
00:17:32,592 --> 00:17:34,344
He kinda took all this,
400
00:17:34,344 --> 00:17:37,764
that heavy back beat that
Buddy Miles was doing,
401
00:17:37,764 --> 00:17:40,517
and he took it to outer space.
402
00:17:40,517 --> 00:17:43,311
So it's like outer space
blues or blues on acid.
403
00:17:43,311 --> 00:17:46,606
So to me that's the essence
of what funk is really about.
404
00:17:47,315 --> 00:17:48,942
- The funky new vibe of music was felt
405
00:17:48,942 --> 00:17:51,528
by jazz icon Miles Davis,
406
00:17:51,528 --> 00:17:53,738
who ditched his GQ suits,
407
00:17:53,738 --> 00:17:56,783
plugged in his trumpet and
brought in Latin percussion
408
00:17:56,783 --> 00:17:58,952
to create jazz fusion.
409
00:17:58,952 --> 00:18:02,122
- Thing about Miles Davis
in particular was that,
410
00:18:02,122 --> 00:18:02,956
and the thing that lets me know
411
00:18:02,956 --> 00:18:05,792
that funk is just an extension of,
412
00:18:05,792 --> 00:18:08,211
this whole Black music story, right?
413
00:18:08,211 --> 00:18:11,673
Is that the funk never scared Miles.
414
00:18:11,673 --> 00:18:14,092
When he found himself in an environment
415
00:18:14,092 --> 00:18:15,927
where the musicians
were playing funky style
416
00:18:15,927 --> 00:18:18,138
instead of more of a
traditional jazz style,
417
00:18:19,347 --> 00:18:20,557
it wasn't like he said, "Oh man,
418
00:18:20,557 --> 00:18:21,808
I don't know what to play."
419
00:18:21,808 --> 00:18:23,059
It wasn't like it's a new language
420
00:18:23,059 --> 00:18:24,352
I don't know how to talk
in this new language.
421
00:18:24,352 --> 00:18:26,938
He started plugging his
trumpet into a wah wah pedal,
422
00:18:26,938 --> 00:18:29,524
which is a device that usually
you plug a guitar into.
423
00:18:29,524 --> 00:18:31,151
So it goes Waw! Waw!
424
00:18:31,151 --> 00:18:33,528
Miles plugged his trumpet
into a wah wah pedal.
425
00:18:33,528 --> 00:18:36,364
- We were doing, exploratory funk.
426
00:18:36,364 --> 00:18:37,866
And that's really what it was.
427
00:18:37,866 --> 00:18:38,867
And,
428
00:18:39,951 --> 00:18:40,994
at the time,
429
00:18:40,994 --> 00:18:42,412
there's a lot of people cutting it up.
430
00:18:42,412 --> 00:18:44,664
But truth lasts.
431
00:18:44,664 --> 00:18:47,834
On The Corner was the first time
432
00:18:47,834 --> 00:18:51,796
the critics just actually,
this is horrible.
433
00:18:51,796 --> 00:18:54,549
I remember, I read one
review the guy said,
434
00:18:54,549 --> 00:18:55,967
it was Voodoo music.
435
00:18:55,967 --> 00:18:58,386
Well, he was right for the
wrong reason (laughing)
436
00:18:58,386 --> 00:18:59,721
It was Voodoo music.
437
00:19:01,681 --> 00:19:02,557
But again,
438
00:19:04,184 --> 00:19:07,270
some people say you have
to wait for an audience.
439
00:19:07,270 --> 00:19:08,897
They talk about the music
being ahead of it's time.
440
00:19:08,897 --> 00:19:09,981
I never believe that.
441
00:19:11,107 --> 00:19:13,527
Music is for the time that it exists.
442
00:19:13,527 --> 00:19:16,154
We didn't have to wait for
new audience of listeners.
443
00:19:16,154 --> 00:19:19,574
We had to wait for a
new creation of critics.
444
00:19:19,574 --> 00:19:21,576
Because we would play night after night
445
00:19:21,576 --> 00:19:22,744
and the joint is packed.
446
00:19:24,871 --> 00:19:25,705
- Wow.
447
00:19:25,705 --> 00:19:27,999
See, and there was no album covers in jazz
448
00:19:27,999 --> 00:19:29,584
that look like this.
449
00:19:29,584 --> 00:19:31,419
When Miles did this, man.
450
00:19:31,419 --> 00:19:33,296
This is incredible. This
blew people's minds.
451
00:19:33,296 --> 00:19:35,715
This was truly a record of its time.
452
00:19:35,715 --> 00:19:38,718
And it created a huge
controversy in the jazz world.
453
00:19:38,718 --> 00:19:42,013
Man, because, people like
Miles has lost his mind.
454
00:19:42,013 --> 00:19:43,640
A lot of Miles' fans
455
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:45,225
they just though he lost his mind.
456
00:19:45,225 --> 00:19:48,353
- [N. George] Talk about what
it did for young musicians.
457
00:19:48,353 --> 00:19:51,898
- For young musicians,
it justified the funk.
458
00:19:51,898 --> 00:19:54,943
The fact that Miles was you know going
459
00:19:54,943 --> 00:19:56,194
in this funky direction.
460
00:19:56,194 --> 00:19:57,028
It justified it.
461
00:19:57,028 --> 00:19:58,446
They were feeling the funk already,
462
00:19:58,446 --> 00:20:00,073
and they were oh they will feeling like
463
00:20:00,073 --> 00:20:01,324
they had to make a choice.
464
00:20:01,324 --> 00:20:03,201
Am I going to be a serious jazz musician?
465
00:20:03,201 --> 00:20:04,911
Or am I going to do this
thing that's in my bones,
466
00:20:04,911 --> 00:20:05,912
it's funk music.
467
00:20:05,912 --> 00:20:07,956
And Miles say, "you don't have to choose".
468
00:20:07,956 --> 00:20:10,041
He said, "you should try to figure out
469
00:20:10,041 --> 00:20:11,626
how to combine the two."
470
00:20:11,626 --> 00:20:12,794
That's what Miles was doing.
471
00:20:13,628 --> 00:20:15,046
- [Questlove] The hippie spirit of the age
472
00:20:15,046 --> 00:20:17,924
was transforming the
values of Black folks,
473
00:20:17,924 --> 00:20:19,926
just as it was white America.
474
00:20:19,926 --> 00:20:22,679
And forward thinking
places like the Bay area,
475
00:20:22,679 --> 00:20:24,347
where the freak flag was flying high
476
00:20:24,347 --> 00:20:27,392
on the wings of psychedelic
drugs and free love,
477
00:20:27,392 --> 00:20:28,977
a band would emerge.
478
00:20:28,977 --> 00:20:30,061
That took Brown's funk,
479
00:20:30,061 --> 00:20:32,480
dressed it up in garish new outfits.
480
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:36,359
Funk could be disciplined,
but also hot fun.
481
00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:38,403
- I'd probably say,
it's rhythm in the blues
482
00:20:38,403 --> 00:20:45,076
with people that couldn't cuss,
483
00:20:45,076 --> 00:20:46,661
but they wanted to,
484
00:20:46,661 --> 00:20:48,079
they sounded like they wanted to cuss.
485
00:20:48,079 --> 00:20:50,498
And it was like they
was at that edge of it.
486
00:20:51,499 --> 00:20:52,292
- [N. George] So you say, you said
487
00:20:52,292 --> 00:20:54,377
it felt like rhythm blues,
but they wanted to cuss?
488
00:20:54,377 --> 00:20:55,253
- Yeah.
489
00:20:55,253 --> 00:20:57,088
But you know that
(indistinct) it was kinda
490
00:20:57,088 --> 00:20:58,423
like don't!
491
00:20:58,423 --> 00:20:59,549
Don't!
492
00:20:59,549 --> 00:21:01,009
They wanted to (indistinct)
493
00:21:01,009 --> 00:21:02,677
'cause I know I did.
494
00:21:02,677 --> 00:21:03,928
- [N. George] You wanted to cuss?
495
00:21:03,928 --> 00:21:05,680
- No, I didn't want to but the words were,
496
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,725
I felt like, yeah.
497
00:21:09,976 --> 00:21:11,811
I didn't wanna go to get in trouble.
498
00:21:11,811 --> 00:21:14,648
But, sometimes I did though anyways.
499
00:21:14,648 --> 00:21:16,983
Yeah, I've been in
trouble before (laughing)
500
00:21:17,984 --> 00:21:21,279
- James Brown gave birth to funk,
501
00:21:21,279 --> 00:21:22,530
and then Sly raised it.
502
00:21:24,282 --> 00:21:26,409
He clothed it in another way.
503
00:21:26,409 --> 00:21:30,288
What Sly did was update
it to contemporary sounds.
504
00:21:30,288 --> 00:21:32,707
- He sort of married what was going on.
505
00:21:32,707 --> 00:21:35,543
He was a true, true pop producer in a way,
506
00:21:35,543 --> 00:21:37,462
but then he took the next step further,
507
00:21:37,462 --> 00:21:39,422
and he was able to lock into
508
00:21:40,340 --> 00:21:42,842
the element of the radicalism
509
00:21:42,842 --> 00:21:44,135
of the Vietnam War,
510
00:21:44,135 --> 00:21:46,596
everything that was going
on in the 60s and 70s.
511
00:21:46,596 --> 00:21:48,723
And he was able to sort of,
512
00:21:48,723 --> 00:21:50,975
put that in words and to music
513
00:21:50,975 --> 00:21:52,977
that made sense for everybody.
514
00:21:52,977 --> 00:21:54,562
So it wasn't it was it.
515
00:21:54,562 --> 00:21:56,022
Anyone can relate to Sly.
516
00:21:56,022 --> 00:21:59,025
- You cannot believe
how badass this band is.
517
00:21:59,025 --> 00:22:00,735
And, but they're like this band
518
00:22:00,735 --> 00:22:01,736
where you look at them, you just think
519
00:22:01,736 --> 00:22:03,154
they're not even in a band together.
520
00:22:03,154 --> 00:22:05,782
It's like, but together,
521
00:22:05,782 --> 00:22:08,743
they are the most badass.
522
00:22:09,619 --> 00:22:11,871
Just funky rockiness
523
00:22:13,164 --> 00:22:14,874
killing it band you could ever see.
524
00:22:14,874 --> 00:22:19,003
- Sly was a hippie west coast band,
525
00:22:19,003 --> 00:22:21,464
that had funk undercurrents.
526
00:22:21,464 --> 00:22:22,340
That they played,
527
00:22:22,340 --> 00:22:24,592
that all that stuff was funky.
528
00:22:24,592 --> 00:22:25,760
It was funk oriented,
529
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:27,887
but they also played pop very well.
530
00:22:29,723 --> 00:22:34,060
But they had Larry Graham, and they had
531
00:22:34,060 --> 00:22:36,396
Sly and they had his brother
532
00:22:36,396 --> 00:22:39,065
and only those people played like that.
533
00:22:39,065 --> 00:22:42,193
- That was chemistry of the highest order.
534
00:22:42,193 --> 00:22:44,738
When we saw them we said, "Oh shit!"
535
00:22:44,738 --> 00:22:46,781
- Sly's band The Family Stone.
536
00:22:46,781 --> 00:22:49,075
They were a multiracial band,
537
00:22:49,075 --> 00:22:50,368
men and women were in the band.
538
00:22:50,368 --> 00:22:53,955
- They had women that
were also performing.
539
00:22:54,748 --> 00:22:57,375
Playing trumpet you hadn't
you didn't see that before.
540
00:22:57,375 --> 00:22:59,043
It was another freshness.
541
00:22:59,627 --> 00:23:00,420
- They didn't have trad..
542
00:23:00,420 --> 00:23:02,505
They had traditional
harmonies but they also had
543
00:23:03,506 --> 00:23:05,091
different voices coming in and out.
544
00:23:05,091 --> 00:23:07,218
Almost every funk band
545
00:23:07,218 --> 00:23:08,636
was affected by Sly in that way.
546
00:23:09,387 --> 00:23:11,055
Sly's dress.
547
00:23:11,055 --> 00:23:12,640
The fact that the way he dressed began,
548
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:13,516
rippled out everyone.
549
00:23:13,516 --> 00:23:14,768
Everyone kinda looked like Sly.
550
00:23:14,768 --> 00:23:17,854
Sly was the pimp superstar
daddy at the time
551
00:23:17,854 --> 00:23:20,231
and everyone kinda wanted to emulate him.
552
00:23:20,231 --> 00:23:21,065
And they did.
553
00:23:21,065 --> 00:23:23,651
- The wah wah pedal
distorting the guitar sound,
554
00:23:23,651 --> 00:23:24,944
those frenetic baselines,
555
00:23:24,944 --> 00:23:26,237
those turbulent drum beats
556
00:23:26,237 --> 00:23:27,822
that gave birth to funk modernism.
557
00:23:27,822 --> 00:23:30,241
And funk modernism to me is not simply
558
00:23:30,241 --> 00:23:31,868
an appreciation for how the music
559
00:23:31,868 --> 00:23:35,538
had to be ramped up and
had to be so multiple,
560
00:23:35,538 --> 00:23:37,415
so polyrhythmic and syncopated,
561
00:23:37,415 --> 00:23:39,959
but it was also about the themes.
562
00:23:39,959 --> 00:23:41,544
Talking about urban existence,
563
00:23:41,544 --> 00:23:43,797
talking about stuff that polite R&B music
564
00:23:43,797 --> 00:23:44,672
would never touch.
565
00:23:44,672 --> 00:23:46,591
- Sly's another one that
566
00:23:47,842 --> 00:23:49,260
could think it.
567
00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:50,553
He can write it out.
568
00:23:50,553 --> 00:23:52,263
So, he was able to do
569
00:23:52,263 --> 00:23:55,725
'Hot Fun in the Summertime'
a real clever pop song,
570
00:23:55,725 --> 00:23:57,852
but he could also turn it over
571
00:23:57,852 --> 00:23:59,270
and do 'Simple Song'
572
00:24:00,146 --> 00:24:01,022
and 'Thank You'.
573
00:24:01,022 --> 00:24:04,692
And be funky as James, or us or anybody else
574
00:24:04,692 --> 00:24:08,571
and still have slick ass puns,
575
00:24:08,571 --> 00:24:11,115
or one liners.
576
00:24:11,115 --> 00:24:13,159
- Holy shit (laughing)
577
00:24:13,159 --> 00:24:13,993
- You mind if I look?
578
00:24:13,993 --> 00:24:15,119
- No. Okay yeah.
579
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:17,455
Now this is, to me.
580
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,630
This is the ultimate funk unit ever.
581
00:24:25,630 --> 00:24:27,215
Number one hands down.
582
00:24:29,175 --> 00:24:30,009
If I were,
583
00:24:31,886 --> 00:24:33,471
if we had a chart system,
584
00:24:33,471 --> 00:24:35,640
my number one funk unit of all time,
585
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:36,891
this is them.
586
00:24:36,891 --> 00:24:39,143
With Gregory Cole and Larry Brown.
587
00:24:39,143 --> 00:24:41,187
This unit was just ridiculous.
588
00:24:41,187 --> 00:24:43,940
- This is definitely
the record of all time.
589
00:24:43,940 --> 00:24:46,025
And yeah.
590
00:24:46,025 --> 00:24:47,861
This was the one and let's see.
591
00:24:49,529 --> 00:24:51,906
Yeah 'Stand', 'Don't
call me Nigga Whitey',
592
00:24:51,906 --> 00:24:53,366
'I Wanna Take you Higher',
593
00:24:53,366 --> 00:24:55,493
'Somebody's Watching You',
'Sing a Simple Song',
594
00:24:55,493 --> 00:24:57,328
'Everyday People', 'Sex Machine',
595
00:24:57,328 --> 00:25:00,164
'You Can Make it if You Try', that alone.
596
00:25:00,164 --> 00:25:02,917
This record alone he didn't
have to do anything else, ever.
597
00:25:02,917 --> 00:25:05,378
And this record would've stood up
598
00:25:05,378 --> 00:25:07,255
to everyone else who's ever made music.
599
00:25:07,255 --> 00:25:08,965
So genius record.
600
00:25:09,966 --> 00:25:11,175
- The blueprint man.
601
00:25:12,260 --> 00:25:13,094
Sly.
602
00:25:15,096 --> 00:25:16,222
The blueprint.
603
00:25:16,222 --> 00:25:18,099
I look at this album and I see
604
00:25:20,393 --> 00:25:21,936
why I'm sitting here.
605
00:25:21,936 --> 00:25:23,479
- [N. George] What was the like your goal
606
00:25:23,479 --> 00:25:24,397
when you started it?
607
00:25:24,397 --> 00:25:26,399
- Make people just get along.
608
00:25:27,650 --> 00:25:29,777
That's kinda basically it.
609
00:25:29,777 --> 00:25:32,071
I thought maybe I had like,
610
00:25:34,115 --> 00:25:35,700
the white people and black people,
611
00:25:35,700 --> 00:25:38,536
girls, guys all on stage
612
00:25:38,536 --> 00:25:40,955
and we playing, we were
having a good time.
613
00:25:40,955 --> 00:25:44,375
The audience would just
have to get in that.
614
00:25:44,375 --> 00:25:46,669
There is just no way to get around it.
615
00:25:47,211 --> 00:25:48,379
That's what I thought.
616
00:25:48,379 --> 00:25:49,714
And I thought I was right.
617
00:25:50,673 --> 00:25:51,507
Yeah.
618
00:25:51,507 --> 00:25:53,676
I'm looking for albinos now.
619
00:25:56,304 --> 00:25:58,598
I mean that's the only, really legitimate
620
00:26:00,308 --> 00:26:02,018
minority group going on.
621
00:26:03,436 --> 00:26:05,688
- [Questlove] Though he
wasn't an albino bassist,
622
00:26:05,688 --> 00:26:07,857
Larry Graham made a
unique place for himself
623
00:26:07,857 --> 00:26:11,235
in human history, just by using his thumb.
624
00:26:11,235 --> 00:26:13,404
- Larry Graham was Sly's bass player
625
00:26:13,404 --> 00:26:15,156
when Sly first hit it.
626
00:26:15,156 --> 00:26:17,116
Larry, he was a guitar player,
627
00:26:17,116 --> 00:26:19,744
so he really didn't pay attention to like
628
00:26:19,744 --> 00:26:21,579
traditional bass technique.
629
00:26:21,579 --> 00:26:24,165
And he had a gospel trio with his mom.
630
00:26:25,291 --> 00:26:27,251
His mom played the organ, right?
631
00:26:27,251 --> 00:26:28,294
And he's playing guitar,
632
00:26:28,294 --> 00:26:30,755
and mom was playing the
bass with foot pedals.
633
00:26:30,755 --> 00:26:33,132
Pedals broke, so he bought a bass
634
00:26:33,132 --> 00:26:35,635
just temporarily until
the pedals got fixed.
635
00:26:35,635 --> 00:26:36,552
So, he playing the base,
636
00:26:36,552 --> 00:26:37,720
then the drummer didn't show up.
637
00:26:39,973 --> 00:26:41,432
- He didn't even start
slapping with his thumb.
638
00:26:41,724 --> 00:26:42,892
He actually just started well like,
639
00:26:42,892 --> 00:26:44,435
you now just like (playing guitar)
640
00:26:44,435 --> 00:26:46,187
just hitting, just hitting it.
641
00:26:46,187 --> 00:26:48,982
And then the slap, the
slap came out of that.
642
00:26:48,982 --> 00:26:50,191
And then you know, you can,
643
00:26:50,191 --> 00:26:53,152
you have to do the the
thumb and the forefinger
644
00:26:53,152 --> 00:26:55,071
to get that octave thing happening.
645
00:26:55,071 --> 00:26:57,156
And then, that started into the pluck.
646
00:26:57,156 --> 00:26:59,033
The pull off in the pluck and all that.
647
00:26:59,033 --> 00:27:01,744
- Larry Graham is one of
most significant bass players
648
00:27:01,744 --> 00:27:02,578
of all time.
649
00:27:02,578 --> 00:27:06,666
Because Graham invented,
Dong tat! Dong tat!
650
00:27:06,666 --> 00:27:08,459
Using his thumb to pop
651
00:27:08,459 --> 00:27:12,046
the thump, the strings
and started plucking them.
652
00:27:12,046 --> 00:27:15,633
And it gave a much more
percussive, aggressive sound.
653
00:27:15,633 --> 00:27:18,302
- When we heard it in the 'hood,
654
00:27:18,302 --> 00:27:19,470
all the bass players were like,
655
00:27:19,470 --> 00:27:20,763
okay, what is that?
656
00:27:20,763 --> 00:27:23,599
We didn't know if it was a
bass or guitar or clavinet.
657
00:27:23,599 --> 00:27:24,392
What is that?
658
00:27:24,392 --> 00:27:25,768
My boys said, "hey man can
you play like that?"
659
00:27:25,768 --> 00:27:27,061
I said, "yeah I can play like that."
660
00:27:27,061 --> 00:27:29,647
And I ran home, I was
like, okay, let's see.
661
00:27:29,647 --> 00:27:31,607
(playing the guitar)
662
00:27:31,607 --> 00:27:32,650
I didn't leave the house man,
663
00:27:32,650 --> 00:27:36,195
till I had like a reasonable
facsimile (laughing)
664
00:27:36,362 --> 00:27:38,197
- After massive pop success,
665
00:27:38,197 --> 00:27:40,408
Sly made a faithful
turn away from optimism
666
00:27:40,408 --> 00:27:44,037
towards a dark, murkier
side that like Brown,
667
00:27:44,037 --> 00:27:46,622
stripped funk, down to its essence.
668
00:27:46,622 --> 00:27:49,375
This is the, for those who do not know,
669
00:27:49,375 --> 00:27:52,503
this is the record cover of
Sly and the Family Stone.
670
00:27:52,503 --> 00:27:53,504
'There's a Riot Going On',
671
00:27:53,504 --> 00:27:58,217
which was an incredibly
influential record.
672
00:27:58,217 --> 00:28:01,721
I mean, he had albums
proceeding this, like 'Stand',
673
00:28:01,721 --> 00:28:04,515
that had, 'Dance to the Music' that had
674
00:28:04,515 --> 00:28:08,102
bigger hits maybe in terms of singles.
675
00:28:08,102 --> 00:28:12,065
But this is really where I think you saw
676
00:28:12,065 --> 00:28:13,524
an artist that may be you thought of
677
00:28:13,524 --> 00:28:16,110
was like a funk artists or artists,
678
00:28:16,110 --> 00:28:17,528
singles oriented funk artists
679
00:28:17,528 --> 00:28:20,114
that made one of the most amazing albums
680
00:28:20,114 --> 00:28:22,075
and most important albums of all time.
681
00:28:22,075 --> 00:28:23,284
- In my opinion, 'There's a Riot Going On'
682
00:28:23,284 --> 00:28:27,246
was sort of like a reality show
683
00:28:27,246 --> 00:28:29,707
or an accident that you
couldn't turn away from.
684
00:28:30,958 --> 00:28:32,251
As genius as it was,
685
00:28:32,251 --> 00:28:35,254
it's also very painful to absorb.
686
00:28:35,254 --> 00:28:40,176
Because, I mean, you're
listening to a man's life
687
00:28:40,176 --> 00:28:41,886
come apart at the seams.
688
00:28:41,886 --> 00:28:45,723
Like how does someone
come from (beating drums)
689
00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:49,602
Like that reeks of, you can do it!
690
00:28:49,602 --> 00:28:51,687
You're, it's encouraging.
691
00:28:51,687 --> 00:28:54,690
They were the utopian poster children
692
00:28:54,690 --> 00:28:57,693
of all that was beautiful
in the civil rights era.
693
00:28:57,693 --> 00:28:59,487
How do you go from it to,
694
00:28:59,487 --> 00:29:00,863
I mean, 'Just Like a Baby's' like
695
00:29:00,863 --> 00:29:04,492
one of the most painful
songs to ever listen to.
696
00:29:04,492 --> 00:29:06,202
It's the sound of...
697
00:29:08,621 --> 00:29:11,749
It's just very depressing.
698
00:29:11,749 --> 00:29:12,875
- [N. George] What led you to make
699
00:29:12,875 --> 00:29:14,877
that particular kind of record?
700
00:29:17,296 --> 00:29:20,007
-'Cause there were a lot of riots going on.
701
00:29:20,007 --> 00:29:21,884
That's probably it.
702
00:29:21,884 --> 00:29:23,886
There were a lot of riots going on.
703
00:29:23,886 --> 00:29:25,930
All kinds of riots too.
704
00:29:25,930 --> 00:29:26,764
There were
705
00:29:28,474 --> 00:29:29,600
racial riots
706
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:32,770
and then there were economical riots
707
00:29:32,770 --> 00:29:37,191
and then, just riots.
708
00:29:37,191 --> 00:29:40,611
Riot, riots (laughing)
709
00:29:40,611 --> 00:29:41,779
... wrong riots.
710
00:29:45,032 --> 00:29:46,450
- [N. George] You made the record a lot.
711
00:29:46,450 --> 00:29:48,619
Unlike earlier you made
it almost by yourself,
712
00:29:48,619 --> 00:29:49,495
pretty much.
713
00:29:49,495 --> 00:29:51,247
- Yeah, I had to.
714
00:29:51,247 --> 00:29:52,832
'Cause at the time,
715
00:29:54,500 --> 00:29:58,045
people had other things
to do a lot of times
716
00:29:58,045 --> 00:29:59,505
and I'd just be stuck.
717
00:29:59,505 --> 00:30:01,382
I'd live in the studio.
718
00:30:01,382 --> 00:30:03,342
So when a part come up,
719
00:30:03,342 --> 00:30:06,387
I had to figure that I just do it myself,
720
00:30:06,387 --> 00:30:07,638
but I put their names it.
721
00:30:10,099 --> 00:30:11,642
- [N. George] Why'd you
put the names on it?
722
00:30:11,642 --> 00:30:12,810
- Well, because I never
723
00:30:12,810 --> 00:30:15,521
like if you of to a
movie and you find out,
724
00:30:15,521 --> 00:30:17,648
the guy's the director, the producer,
725
00:30:17,648 --> 00:30:21,986
the star and I don't like that.
726
00:30:21,986 --> 00:30:22,862
It's greedy.
727
00:30:23,821 --> 00:30:26,073
So I just put everybody's
name on it anyways.
728
00:30:26,073 --> 00:30:28,492
- You know the Beatles is full of them.
729
00:30:29,368 --> 00:30:31,245
So, they like
730
00:30:31,245 --> 00:30:35,374
un-godly, Motown had
a whole bunch of them.
731
00:30:35,374 --> 00:30:37,418
But they're all like one artist.
732
00:30:37,418 --> 00:30:39,295
Motown is like an artist with a whole bunch
733
00:30:39,295 --> 00:30:41,589
of different writers, producers.
734
00:30:42,089 --> 00:30:42,882
Sly!
735
00:30:44,383 --> 00:30:46,260
Did that shit by himself.
736
00:30:46,260 --> 00:30:50,806
- And in the solitude of a camper.
737
00:30:50,806 --> 00:30:52,975
He had a studio set up in a camper,
738
00:30:52,975 --> 00:30:55,019
and he would go out there
and lay this stuff down.
739
00:30:55,019 --> 00:30:56,979
- [Questlove] Sly reinvented
the sound of music
740
00:30:56,979 --> 00:30:58,397
on 'Family Affair'.
741
00:30:58,397 --> 00:31:01,234
By his innovative use
of early drum machines.
742
00:31:01,234 --> 00:31:02,568
- Sounded right to me.
743
00:31:02,568 --> 00:31:04,278
And then I'd break one,
744
00:31:04,278 --> 00:31:07,573
so I'd have to have about
four of them different sessions.
745
00:31:07,573 --> 00:31:09,700
And then you're not supposed to push the button,
746
00:31:09,700 --> 00:31:12,161
but one, one button at a time.
747
00:31:12,161 --> 00:31:14,580
And I would have button three or four
748
00:31:14,580 --> 00:31:20,419
and I break rhythm machines,
every time I go to sessions.
749
00:31:22,004 --> 00:31:24,340
And just to get 'em right
to get the right sound.
750
00:31:24,340 --> 00:31:26,133
- [N. George] So at that
particular, you broke
751
00:31:26,133 --> 00:31:28,886
like three or four drum
machines making that record?
752
00:31:28,886 --> 00:31:30,137
- Oh, yeah.
753
00:31:30,137 --> 00:31:30,888
At least.
754
00:31:33,015 --> 00:31:34,558
- [N.George] Talk about I mean,
755
00:31:34,558 --> 00:31:36,310
people have always speculated about
756
00:31:37,561 --> 00:31:39,438
what the lyric is about.
757
00:31:39,438 --> 00:31:41,607
Is that about man himself,
758
00:31:41,607 --> 00:31:43,276
is about a particular family.
759
00:31:43,276 --> 00:31:44,068
- It's kind
760
00:31:45,486 --> 00:31:48,197
yeah, it can be that and then is just
761
00:31:49,073 --> 00:31:52,451
an idea that I thought
everybody could relate to.
762
00:31:53,911 --> 00:31:56,789
And that's kind of basically it.
763
00:31:56,789 --> 00:31:58,916
- Fast forward, I get
a chance to meet him.
764
00:31:59,875 --> 00:32:01,877
And I say, what is 'Family Affair' about?
765
00:32:01,877 --> 00:32:04,588
He said Tumes, "it's about me."
766
00:32:04,588 --> 00:32:07,049
He said the lyrics.
767
00:32:07,049 --> 00:32:10,928
One child grows up to be,
somebody who just loves to learn.
768
00:32:10,928 --> 00:32:13,180
And another child grows up to be somebody
769
00:32:13,180 --> 00:32:14,515
you just want to burn.
770
00:32:14,515 --> 00:32:16,934
Mom loves the both of them.
771
00:32:16,934 --> 00:32:17,768
You see it's in the blood.
772
00:32:17,768 --> 00:32:19,353
Both both kids are good to mom,
773
00:32:19,353 --> 00:32:21,105
'cause blood's thicker than mud.
774
00:32:21,105 --> 00:32:22,231
It's a family affair.
775
00:32:23,232 --> 00:32:27,653
His mother only called
him a Syl, Sylvester.
776
00:32:27,653 --> 00:32:31,198
Sly, they weren't competition, internally.
777
00:32:32,074 --> 00:32:33,409
'Cause he was one of those kids came up
778
00:32:33,409 --> 00:32:35,494
in the Holy Roman church.
779
00:32:35,494 --> 00:32:41,334
And when he went that way, his
mother and father hated him.
780
00:32:41,709 --> 00:32:43,377
So he was always in conflict.
781
00:32:43,377 --> 00:32:45,379
And years later, I find a lot of people
782
00:32:45,379 --> 00:32:46,422
who came out with brothers and sisters
783
00:32:46,422 --> 00:32:48,841
who come out of the gospel thing,
784
00:32:48,841 --> 00:32:50,968
that had that internal conflict.
785
00:32:50,968 --> 00:32:52,720
- Well, there were two girls
786
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,139
in the house.
787
00:32:55,139 --> 00:32:58,809
And, they were
788
00:32:58,809 --> 00:33:00,353
active.
789
00:33:00,353 --> 00:33:03,272
They would argue and
then they would not argue
790
00:33:03,272 --> 00:33:07,109
and so I left and I went
upstairs in the studio.
791
00:33:07,109 --> 00:33:09,236
That probably had a lot to do with it.
792
00:33:09,236 --> 00:33:11,238
- [N. George] Okay, so
there's two arguing...
793
00:33:11,238 --> 00:33:13,407
- There's two, they were sisters.
794
00:33:13,407 --> 00:33:14,241
- [N. George] Ah.
795
00:33:14,241 --> 00:33:15,534
- One turned into my wife.
796
00:33:15,534 --> 00:33:16,410
- [N. George] Okay.
797
00:33:18,704 --> 00:33:20,539
- And then she was.
798
00:33:20,539 --> 00:33:23,709
You know what I did on the
night of my honey moon?
799
00:33:23,709 --> 00:33:24,835
The very night,
800
00:33:25,836 --> 00:33:26,879
went to studio.
801
00:33:28,255 --> 00:33:29,048
- [N. George] On your honeymoon night?
802
00:33:29,048 --> 00:33:30,466
- Yeah.
803
00:33:30,466 --> 00:33:32,593
- [N. George] She probably
wasn't too happy about that.
804
00:33:32,593 --> 00:33:33,969
- Nah, didn't seem like it.
805
00:33:33,969 --> 00:33:35,888
(both giggling)
806
00:33:37,056 --> 00:33:38,391
- [Questlove] While incredible creativity
807
00:33:38,391 --> 00:33:40,476
was coming from San Francisco
808
00:33:40,476 --> 00:33:42,770
and unheralded new home
for funk was growing
809
00:33:42,770 --> 00:33:43,979
in America's Heartland.
810
00:33:45,439 --> 00:33:48,275
In the 80s, a studio band
called Lipps Incorporated
811
00:33:48,275 --> 00:33:52,154
from Minneapolis had a
hit called 'Funky Town'.
812
00:33:52,154 --> 00:33:55,032
Was a cute record, but it wasn't accurate.
813
00:33:55,032 --> 00:33:58,160
Minneapolis would make
its own contribution,
814
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:01,038
but the true funky town was in
another part of the Midwest.
815
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,459
- There was a time where,
816
00:34:07,461 --> 00:34:10,172
it seemed like Ohio was coming up
817
00:34:10,172 --> 00:34:13,300
with a new funk band every other week.
818
00:34:13,300 --> 00:34:14,927
- [Questlove] Dayton, Ohio
was just down the road
819
00:34:14,927 --> 00:34:17,763
from Cincinnati, where
King Records was located.
820
00:34:17,763 --> 00:34:19,348
James Brown recorded.
821
00:34:19,348 --> 00:34:21,767
And Bootsy Collins learned his trade.
822
00:34:21,767 --> 00:34:24,520
But from the late 70s into the early 80s,
823
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,939
a city with a population of 300,000
824
00:34:26,939 --> 00:34:29,233
was truly funky town.
825
00:34:29,233 --> 00:34:31,235
Producing the Ohio players.
826
00:34:32,194 --> 00:34:33,612
Slave.
827
00:34:33,612 --> 00:34:34,613
Lakeside.
828
00:34:36,198 --> 00:34:37,032
Heatwave.
829
00:34:38,075 --> 00:34:39,493
Zapp.
830
00:34:39,493 --> 00:34:40,327
Roger.
831
00:34:42,204 --> 00:34:43,539
Platypus.
832
00:34:43,539 --> 00:34:44,957
Sun.
833
00:34:44,957 --> 00:34:46,500
As well as innovative musicians
834
00:34:46,500 --> 00:34:49,211
like Junie Morrison and Steve Arrington,
835
00:34:49,211 --> 00:34:52,339
which raises the question
why Dayton, Ohio?
836
00:34:53,924 --> 00:34:56,802
(drum beat sound)
837
00:35:01,140 --> 00:35:06,145
- Dayton, Ohio has the highest
per capita number of bands
838
00:35:08,647 --> 00:35:12,276
and musicians connected
to the funk explosion
839
00:35:12,276 --> 00:35:14,987
of the latter 1970s.
840
00:35:14,987 --> 00:35:17,239
A city that has inordinate number of bands
841
00:35:17,239 --> 00:35:20,159
that had record deals on major labels.
842
00:35:20,159 --> 00:35:23,496
But even those bands are also,
843
00:35:23,496 --> 00:35:26,499
supplemented by the number
of bands in that town,
844
00:35:26,499 --> 00:35:30,127
that actually never
really got record deals.
845
00:35:30,127 --> 00:35:32,713
I associate funk and the funk band
846
00:35:32,713 --> 00:35:36,383
as emblematic of a period in which,
847
00:35:36,383 --> 00:35:39,970
relatively high wage working class jobs.
848
00:35:39,970 --> 00:35:43,849
Just before the ravages
of de-industrialization
849
00:35:43,849 --> 00:35:46,977
deplete so many of these towns.
850
00:35:46,977 --> 00:35:49,438
The funk band is really
the product of that
851
00:35:49,438 --> 00:35:52,983
because most of the parents
of these band members,
852
00:35:52,983 --> 00:35:54,318
worked at Delco.
853
00:35:54,318 --> 00:35:56,403
They worked at factories
854
00:35:56,403 --> 00:35:59,990
and they had enough disposable income,
855
00:35:59,990 --> 00:36:04,537
to purchase instruments,
to afford lessons,
856
00:36:04,537 --> 00:36:06,914
private lessons sometimes
for their children.
857
00:36:06,914 --> 00:36:09,583
- The whole scene developed
in like the basement.
858
00:36:09,583 --> 00:36:13,295
It was a very, centralized scene
859
00:36:13,295 --> 00:36:17,132
where the families
between the car companies
860
00:36:17,132 --> 00:36:19,468
and NCR and Inland Steel,
861
00:36:19,468 --> 00:36:23,305
bypassing Air Force Base
were making nice change.
862
00:36:23,305 --> 00:36:25,558
They all lived in houses, weren't
really apartment building,
863
00:36:25,558 --> 00:36:27,434
so they all had tricked up basements.
864
00:36:27,434 --> 00:36:29,311
And they basically keep
the kids off the street
865
00:36:29,311 --> 00:36:30,604
would buy them whatever they want.
866
00:36:30,604 --> 00:36:32,231
And you could just go from
basement to the basement
867
00:36:32,231 --> 00:36:33,649
and just jam.
868
00:36:33,649 --> 00:36:36,360
- So you play in a band,
869
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:38,320
like the Overnight Low Show Band,
870
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:40,739
which was a very popular local band
871
00:36:40,739 --> 00:36:42,157
that constituted members
872
00:36:42,157 --> 00:36:44,618
that would go on to play in other groups.
873
00:36:44,618 --> 00:36:49,039
You were as popular as the
best athlete for the school.
874
00:36:49,039 --> 00:36:50,916
You had a following.
875
00:36:50,916 --> 00:36:55,588
The talent shows and
competitions at these schools,
876
00:36:55,588 --> 00:36:59,216
rivaled major sports events as far as
877
00:36:59,216 --> 00:37:03,053
the attendance and also the seriousness
878
00:37:03,053 --> 00:37:04,638
with which the competition
879
00:37:05,931 --> 00:37:07,349
was put together.
880
00:37:07,349 --> 00:37:09,184
- [Questlove] The breakthrough for Dayton
881
00:37:09,184 --> 00:37:11,937
was a band known for its driving riffs
882
00:37:11,937 --> 00:37:14,607
and erotic LP covers.
883
00:37:14,607 --> 00:37:15,774
- When I first heard
884
00:37:16,775 --> 00:37:18,068
'Skin Tight'.
885
00:37:20,529 --> 00:37:23,198
I remember the girl that
I picked up the night
886
00:37:23,198 --> 00:37:26,118
that I heard the song 'Skin Tight'
887
00:37:26,118 --> 00:37:30,080
and she was wearing skin tight jeans.
888
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:33,709
And the lyrics go, "You're a bad bad Misses
889
00:37:33,709 --> 00:37:36,962
in those skin type britches
running folks into ditches,
890
00:37:36,962 --> 00:37:40,633
they about to bust their stitches", damn!
891
00:37:40,633 --> 00:37:43,010
- After the Ohio Players hit,
892
00:37:43,010 --> 00:37:44,970
everybody even got more serious.
893
00:37:44,970 --> 00:37:48,223
Because not only did the Ohio
Players have hit records,
894
00:37:48,223 --> 00:37:49,642
they were totally unique.
895
00:37:49,642 --> 00:37:51,685
Nobody sounded like those guys.
896
00:37:51,685 --> 00:37:53,646
And it just kept getting deeper
897
00:37:53,646 --> 00:37:55,814
and deeper and deeper.
898
00:37:55,814 --> 00:37:56,940
- We generally wrote about things
899
00:37:56,940 --> 00:37:58,817
that were happening on the road.
900
00:37:58,817 --> 00:38:02,237
And at that period of time,
people were streaking.
901
00:38:02,237 --> 00:38:03,822
In fact, on the 'Skin Tight' album
902
00:38:03,822 --> 00:38:06,283
we have a song called
'Streakin' Cheek to Cheek'.
903
00:38:06,283 --> 00:38:09,536
And that's because people
in these college campuses
904
00:38:09,536 --> 00:38:11,121
where we were playing
905
00:38:11,121 --> 00:38:12,706
a lot of the time,
906
00:38:12,706 --> 00:38:15,250
were running across
these college campuses,
907
00:38:15,250 --> 00:38:16,293
butt naked.
908
00:38:16,293 --> 00:38:18,128
And the streaking thing was out.
909
00:38:18,128 --> 00:38:22,007
So 'Skin Tight' was the whole idea,
910
00:38:22,007 --> 00:38:23,717
based around that concept,
911
00:38:23,717 --> 00:38:25,552
of what was going on in the world.
912
00:38:25,552 --> 00:38:28,055
The cover itself was so suggestive,
913
00:38:28,055 --> 00:38:31,016
was erotic was sexual, was challenging
914
00:38:31,016 --> 00:38:33,185
to a narrow conception of
what the black body was worth
915
00:38:33,185 --> 00:38:34,269
and what it was about.
916
00:38:34,269 --> 00:38:36,980
And this is a very curvy woman of color,
917
00:38:36,980 --> 00:38:40,734
so that the very cover
of the album signified
918
00:38:40,734 --> 00:38:41,568
what's inside.
919
00:38:41,568 --> 00:38:43,862
- First, they were really shocking.
920
00:38:43,862 --> 00:38:45,572
I thought they were very shocking.
921
00:38:45,572 --> 00:38:49,326
I was like, wow, they put
a naked lady on the cover.
922
00:38:49,326 --> 00:38:51,870
Meanwhile, of course, I was
a young girl at this point,
923
00:38:51,870 --> 00:38:54,331
and but I thought they were so stunning
924
00:38:54,331 --> 00:38:56,583
and they were so beautifully done
925
00:38:56,583 --> 00:38:57,876
and tastefully done.
926
00:38:57,876 --> 00:39:01,588
This was a great thing
about conceptualist.
927
00:39:01,588 --> 00:39:03,006
This was the thing I think about
928
00:39:03,006 --> 00:39:06,885
people in funk music and
combining stuff with fashion.
929
00:39:06,885 --> 00:39:09,888
It was, they were great conceptualists.
930
00:39:09,888 --> 00:39:11,348
- I'm in Ohio players album covers.
931
00:39:11,348 --> 00:39:13,058
Let me, can we just...
932
00:39:13,058 --> 00:39:15,060
That's a moment in and of itself.
933
00:39:15,060 --> 00:39:17,604
- Our concept was the band.
934
00:39:17,604 --> 00:39:19,606
If we could put on our album,
935
00:39:19,606 --> 00:39:21,358
a beautiful black woman,
936
00:39:21,358 --> 00:39:23,902
we would have every man
937
00:39:23,902 --> 00:39:25,904
alive looking at it.
938
00:39:25,904 --> 00:39:29,366
And if they would look at
it and they would buy it,
939
00:39:29,366 --> 00:39:32,077
then possibly they would
put it on and listen to it.
940
00:39:32,077 --> 00:39:36,623
The honey concept was just unbelievable.
941
00:39:36,623 --> 00:39:38,625
When we walked into the studio,
942
00:39:38,625 --> 00:39:41,211
and saw this girl laying
on this plexiglass
943
00:39:41,211 --> 00:39:43,505
and then pouring the
honey over her, it's like,
944
00:39:43,505 --> 00:39:45,424
"What are y'all getting ready to do?"
945
00:39:45,424 --> 00:39:49,428
It's like, one of the biggest
946
00:39:49,428 --> 00:39:52,765
and most anticipated things
947
00:39:52,765 --> 00:39:55,392
with us doing an album, is to finish it,
948
00:39:55,392 --> 00:39:58,103
to see how the album cover was gonna look.
949
00:39:58,103 --> 00:40:00,647
It was like, okay, let's
finish this album cover
950
00:40:00,647 --> 00:40:03,108
called honey, and see where
we're going from here.
951
00:40:04,818 --> 00:40:05,819
- [N. George] The girl was
really covered in honey?
952
00:40:05,819 --> 00:40:07,154
- Really covered in honey.
953
00:40:07,154 --> 00:40:10,240
And after a couple hours of shooting,
954
00:40:10,240 --> 00:40:12,367
shots and likewise,
955
00:40:12,367 --> 00:40:13,952
you've probably heard the story.
956
00:40:13,952 --> 00:40:15,704
She got stuck to the plexiglass.
957
00:40:15,704 --> 00:40:16,538
- [N. George] She really
got stuck to the plexiglass?
958
00:40:16,538 --> 00:40:18,957
- She really got stuck to the Plexiglass
959
00:40:18,957 --> 00:40:21,794
and we had to pour warm water over her
960
00:40:21,794 --> 00:40:24,254
and pry her off that plexiglass.
961
00:40:24,254 --> 00:40:26,089
(interviewer laughing hysterically)
962
00:40:26,089 --> 00:40:27,966
- [N. George] That's not an urban legend?
963
00:40:27,966 --> 00:40:29,301
- It's not urban legend.
964
00:40:29,301 --> 00:40:30,844
That's the truth.
965
00:40:30,844 --> 00:40:32,679
- [Questlove] Steve
Arrington, a member of Slave
966
00:40:32,679 --> 00:40:35,682
and later Hall of Fame
would be a funk leader,
967
00:40:35,682 --> 00:40:38,185
as both drummer and vocalist.
968
00:40:38,185 --> 00:40:41,563
- I think, melodically
969
00:40:41,563 --> 00:40:44,274
we took things in a new place,
970
00:40:44,274 --> 00:40:48,487
as we drew from the funk of George,
971
00:40:48,487 --> 00:40:51,156
and guitar nastiness
972
00:40:51,156 --> 00:40:53,325
of Sly.
973
00:40:53,325 --> 00:40:56,119
We sort of blended it and added some
974
00:40:57,287 --> 00:40:59,623
melodic perspective of maybe
975
00:40:59,623 --> 00:41:02,292
a Stevie and more jazz perspectives.
976
00:41:02,292 --> 00:41:06,046
I never was known as a singer
in Dayton only a drummer.
977
00:41:06,046 --> 00:41:09,174
I sang with this lounge band The Murphy's
978
00:41:09,174 --> 00:41:10,884
and 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon', you know,
979
00:41:10,884 --> 00:41:16,348
doing all the on my way to Vegas tunes.
980
00:41:16,431 --> 00:41:17,307
You know what I'm saying?
981
00:41:17,307 --> 00:41:19,476
Came back to Dayton and I remember
982
00:41:20,310 --> 00:41:25,315
Slave then moved to Jersey.
983
00:41:25,482 --> 00:41:27,234
And then we went into the studio
984
00:41:27,234 --> 00:41:29,361
for 'Just a Touch of Love' album.
985
00:41:29,361 --> 00:41:30,654
We had did the track
986
00:41:30,654 --> 00:41:33,490
and the guy who was gonna sing on it,
987
00:41:34,867 --> 00:41:37,619
wasn't in the studio for a while.
988
00:41:37,619 --> 00:41:40,205
And so we all took a turn
at the mic and I was like,
989
00:41:40,205 --> 00:41:43,083
man, we feeling that.
It's kind of strange.
990
00:41:43,083 --> 00:41:45,168
- Steve Arrington,
991
00:41:45,168 --> 00:41:47,629
as talented and powerful as he is,
992
00:41:47,629 --> 00:41:50,507
he's also a brilliant experimentalist.
993
00:41:51,341 --> 00:41:54,887
He's someone that can do things vocally,
994
00:41:54,887 --> 00:41:56,972
that are unacceptable.
995
00:41:56,972 --> 00:42:00,517
He can actually sing a
song, make it sound good
996
00:42:00,517 --> 00:42:04,897
and even be outside of
the notes in the chord.
997
00:42:04,897 --> 00:42:07,524
But he'll skim over those notes,
998
00:42:07,524 --> 00:42:09,192
go outside and come back.
999
00:42:09,192 --> 00:42:10,235
Some of the kinds of things
1000
00:42:10,235 --> 00:42:13,947
that some of the great jazz
singers were noted for doing.
1001
00:42:13,947 --> 00:42:15,782
He brings that to funk.
1002
00:42:15,782 --> 00:42:18,785
And it really comes to, I think,
1003
00:42:18,785 --> 00:42:20,662
a kind of national spotlight
1004
00:42:20,662 --> 00:42:22,789
with the song 'Just a Touch of Love'.
1005
00:42:22,789 --> 00:42:25,542
- We made a serious stamp on the world
1006
00:42:25,542 --> 00:42:29,421
of innovation in a small town to say,
1007
00:42:29,421 --> 00:42:31,506
to be innovative and unique
1008
00:42:33,091 --> 00:42:35,302
is powerful with just some guys
1009
00:42:35,302 --> 00:42:38,096
who started in a garage
doing talent shows.
1010
00:42:38,096 --> 00:42:41,850
It just comes from cats man
who just didn't give a flip.
1011
00:42:41,850 --> 00:42:43,685
And just say, we're gonna do it our way
1012
00:42:43,685 --> 00:42:44,561
if it goes voo!
1013
00:42:44,561 --> 00:42:45,812
Voo!
1014
00:42:45,812 --> 00:42:48,398
And you hear the fret noise
so you hear the fret noise
1015
00:42:48,398 --> 00:42:50,400
or (indistinct) goes Owww!
1016
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:51,234
Awww!
1017
00:42:51,234 --> 00:42:52,027
Oh, girl.
1018
00:42:52,027 --> 00:42:54,404
So what? It is what it is.
1019
00:42:54,404 --> 00:42:55,280
And I'm going eiya!
1020
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:56,239
Eiya!
1021
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:57,032
Eiya!
1022
00:42:57,032 --> 00:42:58,825
Everybody just did their own thing.
1023
00:42:59,451 --> 00:43:02,579
- [Questlove] Zapp, led by
guitarist Roger Troutman,
1024
00:43:02,579 --> 00:43:04,831
led funk forward by embracing technology.
1025
00:43:06,041 --> 00:43:10,128
- The technological experimental savvy
1026
00:43:10,128 --> 00:43:14,132
of Roger, is also part of the reason why
1027
00:43:14,132 --> 00:43:17,844
the group actually ends up surviving
1028
00:43:17,844 --> 00:43:21,014
this transition from the 70s to the 80s.
1029
00:43:21,014 --> 00:43:24,893
So Roger was doing things
experimentally with
1030
00:43:24,893 --> 00:43:26,478
playing his guitar through
1031
00:43:26,478 --> 00:43:26,561
playing his guitar through
a Leslie speaker cabinet
1032
00:43:26,561 --> 00:43:29,064
a Leslie speaker cabinet
1033
00:43:29,064 --> 00:43:31,024
to get a kind of
1034
00:43:31,024 --> 00:43:34,736
different sound out of his guitar.
1035
00:43:34,736 --> 00:43:37,322
He was doing those things early on.
1036
00:43:37,322 --> 00:43:41,868
And he was somebody that
learned the technologies
1037
00:43:41,868 --> 00:43:46,790
that as the studio became more the space
1038
00:43:46,790 --> 00:43:48,458
for creative genius
1039
00:43:48,458 --> 00:43:51,461
and less the live performance stage.
1040
00:43:51,461 --> 00:43:53,171
He was able to make that transition.
1041
00:43:53,171 --> 00:43:55,465
- Guys have always been
interested in like,
1042
00:43:55,465 --> 00:43:56,758
what's gonna make the
1043
00:43:58,343 --> 00:44:00,178
what kind of things are available to go
1044
00:44:00,178 --> 00:44:02,055
and bring novelty to the sound.
1045
00:44:02,055 --> 00:44:03,348
So there's always been
1046
00:44:03,348 --> 00:44:06,184
this interest in incorporating technology.
1047
00:44:06,184 --> 00:44:10,063
- There's a technology
that's also connected
1048
00:44:10,063 --> 00:44:11,940
to the development of funk music.
1049
00:44:11,940 --> 00:44:13,191
Two things I would say number one,
1050
00:44:13,191 --> 00:44:14,943
the wah wah pedal
1051
00:44:14,943 --> 00:44:17,404
had a deep impact.
1052
00:44:17,404 --> 00:44:18,947
The other thing is clavinet.
1053
00:44:18,947 --> 00:44:20,782
Clavinet is a keyboard
1054
00:44:21,783 --> 00:44:24,786
that actually pluck strings
that was made by Hohner.
1055
00:44:24,786 --> 00:44:26,204
And then clavinet
1056
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:29,624
the D6 clavinet and the clavinet,
1057
00:44:30,667 --> 00:44:33,503
God, Stevie Wonder.
1058
00:44:33,503 --> 00:44:37,049
- I took 'More Bounce to
the Ounce'
1059
00:44:37,049 --> 00:44:39,134
And the first time we
ever, we didn't sample it,
1060
00:44:39,134 --> 00:44:41,803
we just cut it and taped it together,
1061
00:44:41,803 --> 00:44:44,931
off another song he had on the
album called 'Funky Bounce'.
1062
00:44:44,931 --> 00:44:46,850
That lil beat on More Bounce.
1063
00:44:46,850 --> 00:44:48,435
I took that off.
1064
00:44:48,435 --> 00:44:50,562
No sampling was around yet.
1065
00:44:50,562 --> 00:44:52,856
And I just taped them
together, taped 'em together,
1066
00:44:52,856 --> 00:44:56,443
till I got 30 seconds of that.
1067
00:44:56,443 --> 00:44:57,986
Then I called Roger back in,
1068
00:44:57,986 --> 00:45:01,156
and told him to play Wes Montgomery,
1069
00:45:01,156 --> 00:45:06,078
of James Brown and we sing 'More Bounce to the Ounce'
1070
00:45:06,078 --> 00:45:10,707
But then I had him sing,
the talk box on the MOOG
1071
00:45:10,707 --> 00:45:15,462
and on the guitar, so you get
three point harmony on it.
1072
00:45:15,462 --> 00:45:17,255
So it don't sound like a talk box.
1073
00:45:18,256 --> 00:45:21,301
- [Questlove] Dayton definitely
made its mark on funk.
1074
00:45:21,301 --> 00:45:22,469
But the hard streets of Detroit
1075
00:45:22,469 --> 00:45:26,264
would be a home base for funk's
most influential music mob.
1076
00:45:26,264 --> 00:45:30,185
(playing the guitar)
1077
00:45:31,144 --> 00:45:32,979
In the early 60s, a barber
1078
00:45:32,979 --> 00:45:35,607
who specialized in processing hair,
1079
00:45:35,607 --> 00:45:38,318
was also trying to make
it as a songwriter.
1080
00:45:38,318 --> 00:45:41,446
He wrote songs for Motown
in Detroit during the week,
1081
00:45:41,446 --> 00:45:43,865
and did hair in New
Jersey on the weekends.
1082
00:45:43,865 --> 00:45:46,576
His name was George Clinton.
1083
00:45:46,576 --> 00:45:49,162
- I wrote songs from Mondays and worked to Friday,
1084
00:45:49,162 --> 00:45:51,998
starting in about 63.
1085
00:45:52,999 --> 00:45:54,000
- [N. George] And you'd
come back to New Jersey
1086
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:54,417
on the weekend?
1087
00:45:54,417 --> 00:45:56,211
- On the weekend, I'd
worked at the barber shop.
1088
00:45:56,211 --> 00:45:58,004
(interviewer laughing hysterically)
1089
00:45:58,004 --> 00:46:00,465
- You wrote songs Monday
to Friday and did hair.
1090
00:46:00,465 --> 00:46:02,300
- And come back and do hair.
1091
00:46:02,300 --> 00:46:07,305
And then we got a hit
record, 'I Wanna Testify'.
1092
00:46:08,348 --> 00:46:11,476
'Testify' came out at the same time,
1093
00:46:12,644 --> 00:46:15,063
'Flower Power' came out.
1094
00:46:16,940 --> 00:46:19,484
So we got out there and
got turned comletely out.
1095
00:46:20,610 --> 00:46:22,070
And then we went to Boston
1096
00:46:22,070 --> 00:46:26,950
We was at Cambridge, we was over at Harvard with the kids,
1097
00:46:26,950 --> 00:46:31,371
they would get 64 dollars to test acid.
1098
00:46:31,371 --> 00:46:33,039
We didn't know what the
hell they was doing.
1099
00:46:33,039 --> 00:46:35,834
We though they were
trying to get with the girls.
1100
00:46:35,834 --> 00:46:37,085
- [N. George] So you
started dropping acid?
1101
00:46:37,085 --> 00:46:40,380
- So next thing we know, we was out there,
1102
00:46:40,380 --> 00:46:43,341
and all these little
kids are laughing at us.
1103
00:46:43,341 --> 00:46:45,468
But we was having fun with the young kids
1104
00:46:45,468 --> 00:46:50,390
and next thing you know,
we was old ass hippies.
1105
00:46:50,390 --> 00:46:51,933
- [Questlove] The old
school process specialist's
1106
00:46:51,933 --> 00:46:53,351
got an Afro.
1107
00:46:53,643 --> 00:46:56,771
But his hairstyle was
as much punk as funk.
1108
00:46:56,771 --> 00:46:57,689
- I couldn't stay still.
1109
00:46:57,689 --> 00:47:00,358
I cut holes in my Afro.
1110
00:47:00,358 --> 00:47:02,652
I had moons and stars and dicks
1111
00:47:02,652 --> 00:47:04,863
and everything designed into them.
1112
00:47:05,947 --> 00:47:09,242
Long before people started
cutting those designs in there.
1113
00:47:09,784 --> 00:47:11,578
I was doing the shit way back there.
1114
00:47:12,412 --> 00:47:13,413
You know, they were still wearing suits
1115
00:47:13,413 --> 00:47:18,210
and I was wearing diapers and sheets
1116
00:47:18,210 --> 00:47:19,586
and nothing.
1117
00:47:19,586 --> 00:47:21,838
The music was changing slowly
1118
00:47:21,838 --> 00:47:22,672
slowly.
1119
00:47:22,672 --> 00:47:23,506
The records started changing
1120
00:47:23,506 --> 00:47:24,299
slowly
1121
00:47:24,299 --> 00:47:28,094
and it went on that way until
Bootsy came into the group.
1122
00:47:28,094 --> 00:47:29,721
- Going up to the house first of all,
1123
00:47:29,721 --> 00:47:31,681
is kinda like, you know,
1124
00:47:34,142 --> 00:47:35,393
you get this
1125
00:47:35,393 --> 00:47:38,396
(spooky humming)
1126
00:47:38,396 --> 00:47:40,690
you know, The Addams Family kind of thing.
1127
00:47:40,690 --> 00:47:41,691
Da! Da! Daa!
1128
00:47:41,691 --> 00:47:43,151
(snapping fingers)
1129
00:47:43,151 --> 00:47:44,319
Da! Da! Daa!
1130
00:47:44,319 --> 00:47:45,445
(snapping fingers)
1131
00:47:45,445 --> 00:47:47,405
So, you get that kinda vibe first
1132
00:47:47,864 --> 00:47:49,282
and I'm like, okay, I'm cool.
1133
00:47:49,282 --> 00:47:50,742
So I go up to the door,
1134
00:47:50,742 --> 00:47:52,827
she say, well come on in.
1135
00:47:53,453 --> 00:47:57,624
I go in, and the whole place is like dark.
1136
00:47:57,624 --> 00:48:00,627
And got the black lights going on.
1137
00:48:00,627 --> 00:48:02,462
and I'm looking around.
1138
00:48:02,462 --> 00:48:04,589
No furniture, I say Dang!
1139
00:48:04,589 --> 00:48:06,341
This is awfully weird,
1140
00:48:06,341 --> 00:48:08,635
even for me is weird.
1141
00:48:08,635 --> 00:48:11,721
And then I look over in the corner
1142
00:48:11,721 --> 00:48:15,433
and I see this sheet
sitting over in the corner
1143
00:48:15,433 --> 00:48:17,644
with some yellow
1144
00:48:18,728 --> 00:48:19,854
chicken feet on.
1145
00:48:20,939 --> 00:48:23,942
And she said, "yeah
that's George over there."
1146
00:48:23,942 --> 00:48:24,943
I'm like, yeah, I figured.
1147
00:48:24,943 --> 00:48:27,153
I figured that had to be George.
1148
00:48:27,153 --> 00:48:30,448
So I go over, and he said, "sit down."
1149
00:48:30,448 --> 00:48:33,326
And I sit down beside him.
1150
00:48:33,326 --> 00:48:34,953
We start talking immediately.
1151
00:48:36,204 --> 00:48:37,038
And so,
1152
00:48:38,581 --> 00:48:40,083
I was telling him about the band
1153
00:48:40,083 --> 00:48:42,961
and he says, yeah, I
know about The J.B.'S.
1154
00:48:42,961 --> 00:48:43,753
He says, yeah.
1155
00:48:43,753 --> 00:48:47,048
And he was telling me
how bad we were in this,
1156
00:48:47,048 --> 00:48:48,508
that and the other and that
1157
00:48:48,508 --> 00:48:51,344
he wanted to hook up, we need to hook up.
1158
00:48:51,344 --> 00:48:53,471
- Something I did with him was okay,
1159
00:48:53,471 --> 00:48:55,515
help me write some tracks for Parliament.
1160
00:48:55,515 --> 00:48:58,184
And I help you put your group together.
1161
00:48:58,184 --> 00:48:59,185
The Rubber Band.
1162
00:49:00,061 --> 00:49:02,647
He said, "Can we could use that name?"
1163
00:49:02,647 --> 00:49:04,357
That's your name, Rubber Band.
1164
00:49:04,357 --> 00:49:05,942
And we did stretch it out
1165
00:49:05,942 --> 00:49:07,402
in New york walking down the street.
1166
00:49:07,402 --> 00:49:09,362
Stretching out and runnin' loose,
1167
00:49:09,362 --> 00:49:10,363
in a rubber...
1168
00:49:10,363 --> 00:49:12,824
The whole song we had that
walking down the street.
1169
00:49:12,824 --> 00:49:14,701
Came back to Detroit and recorded it.
1170
00:49:17,078 --> 00:49:18,496
That was the thing.
1171
00:49:18,496 --> 00:49:20,373
Getting him was the new sound.
1172
00:49:22,375 --> 00:49:24,419
Then he got Maceo and Fred.
1173
00:49:25,378 --> 00:49:27,380
So, Parliament all of a sudden had
1174
00:49:27,380 --> 00:49:29,090
what we call P-Funk now.
1175
00:49:29,090 --> 00:49:30,675
- [Questlove] This funk Dynamic Duo
1176
00:49:30,675 --> 00:49:32,510
would write many of the eras defining jams
1177
00:49:32,510 --> 00:49:33,970
on a boat off of Miami.
1178
00:49:33,970 --> 00:49:36,389
In the infamous Bermuda Triangle.
1179
00:49:36,389 --> 00:49:37,849
- Bootsy he now went
1180
00:49:38,975 --> 00:49:41,227
all the way to Bimini.
1181
00:49:41,227 --> 00:49:43,021
That's the 'Motor Booty' album,
1182
00:49:43,021 --> 00:49:45,523
talking about number one Bimini Road.
1183
00:49:45,523 --> 00:49:48,526
Well, I took him through that and you go
1184
00:49:48,526 --> 00:49:51,529
all the way around Bermuda Triangle
1185
00:49:51,529 --> 00:49:53,239
and all those weird places.
1186
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:54,574
- When we first start going fishing,
1187
00:49:54,574 --> 00:49:57,827
I thought we were just
going fishing for fish.
1188
00:49:57,827 --> 00:50:00,413
Which we caught a lot of fish (laughing)
1189
00:50:00,413 --> 00:50:03,124
But I started realizing
that we were fishing
1190
00:50:04,292 --> 00:50:05,543
from the universe.
1191
00:50:05,543 --> 00:50:08,129
We had the studio going 27 hours a day.
1192
00:50:08,129 --> 00:50:09,839
And it was like,
1193
00:50:11,132 --> 00:50:12,550
I made sure
1194
00:50:12,550 --> 00:50:15,178
that's when I had to make decisions about,
1195
00:50:15,178 --> 00:50:18,556
okay, are you gonna stay up
and act a fool all night,
1196
00:50:18,556 --> 00:50:22,310
or are you gonna act a
fool until four o'clock?
1197
00:50:22,310 --> 00:50:24,145
Get maybe two or three hours of sleep
1198
00:50:24,145 --> 00:50:26,856
and then beat everybody
over to the studio?
1199
00:50:26,856 --> 00:50:29,442
- I've slept for a few
nights in the studio yeah.
1200
00:50:29,442 --> 00:50:30,443
We like I said,
1201
00:50:30,443 --> 00:50:32,779
it was a party for seven days.
1202
00:50:32,779 --> 00:50:34,322
And we wouldn't we'd...
1203
00:50:34,322 --> 00:50:35,490
Say like 'Knee Deep'.
1204
00:50:35,490 --> 00:50:38,743
The song 'Knee Deep' took
us a week to record.
1205
00:50:38,743 --> 00:50:41,287
So, we stayed in the studio
for those seven days.
1206
00:50:41,287 --> 00:50:43,039
No one would leave maybe to go get
1207
00:50:43,039 --> 00:50:46,167
something to eat but,
everybody would take shifts.
1208
00:50:46,167 --> 00:50:47,001
Next.
1209
00:50:47,001 --> 00:50:47,794
Next.
1210
00:50:47,794 --> 00:50:50,004
And yeah, you'd be stepping over people
1211
00:50:50,004 --> 00:50:51,464
Folk, people didn't take baths,
1212
00:50:51,464 --> 00:50:53,466
nobody washed up, and talking 'bout,
1213
00:50:54,592 --> 00:50:55,468
funk.
1214
00:50:55,468 --> 00:50:57,512
Yeah, it was pretty funky up in there.
1215
00:50:57,512 --> 00:50:58,513
- A bath?
1216
00:50:59,722 --> 00:51:03,184
Come on and soak in that doodoo.
1217
00:51:05,061 --> 00:51:08,481
Like I used to tell 'em,
I'd have the bass so loud
1218
00:51:08,481 --> 00:51:09,315
that I wanna be able
1219
00:51:09,315 --> 00:51:11,818
to rub my hand across
the record and feel it.
1220
00:51:12,777 --> 00:51:13,903
You know what I'm saying.
1221
00:51:13,903 --> 00:51:16,906
I want the funk so strong up in the air,
1222
00:51:16,906 --> 00:51:19,784
when you pick up the record you say, Whoo!
1223
00:51:19,784 --> 00:51:22,912
They were funky in the
studio when they made that.
1224
00:51:22,912 --> 00:51:24,456
- Now, it was crazy.
1225
00:51:25,665 --> 00:51:28,626
You had to step over mugs,
this that and the other.
1226
00:51:28,626 --> 00:51:31,546
But I kinda clocked in early.
1227
00:51:32,338 --> 00:51:34,507
But that don't mean everybody clocked in.
1228
00:51:36,342 --> 00:51:41,347
And, I just when George
gave me that opportunity
1229
00:51:41,347 --> 00:51:42,974
something just clicked.
1230
00:51:42,974 --> 00:51:45,226
It was like, okay, you
gotta stop acting a fool.
1231
00:51:45,226 --> 00:51:47,770
It didn't mean I had
to stop acting a fool,
1232
00:51:47,770 --> 00:51:49,564
it just meant you gotta,
1233
00:51:50,690 --> 00:51:52,650
balance this fool,
1234
00:51:52,650 --> 00:51:54,694
because the fool was still me.
1235
00:51:55,570 --> 00:51:58,114
And to this day, it's
gonna always be there.
1236
00:51:58,114 --> 00:52:00,492
But I had to find a balance
1237
00:52:00,492 --> 00:52:03,161
to do what I felt I needed to do.
1238
00:52:03,161 --> 00:52:04,954
- We'd all be in the studio,
1239
00:52:04,954 --> 00:52:07,290
and someone like myself and Lynn,
1240
00:52:07,290 --> 00:52:09,501
maybe in the corner singing.
1241
00:52:09,501 --> 00:52:11,419
♪ I got a string on my thing ♪
1242
00:52:11,419 --> 00:52:12,253
Right?
1243
00:52:12,253 --> 00:52:14,714
And then Georgia say, I hear
that sang that say it again,
1244
00:52:14,714 --> 00:52:16,090
and we would say,
1245
00:52:16,090 --> 00:52:17,717
♪ when I'll pull my string ♪
1246
00:52:17,717 --> 00:52:18,551
right?
1247
00:52:18,551 --> 00:52:19,802
And then he said go put it down.
1248
00:52:19,802 --> 00:52:21,513
It would happen just like that.
1249
00:52:21,513 --> 00:52:24,390
Or someone over on the side like Boogie
1250
00:52:24,390 --> 00:52:25,975
might be just hitting a melody.
1251
00:52:27,143 --> 00:52:30,855
(making tune with mouth)
1252
00:52:30,855 --> 00:52:33,441
That simple, and then he
would say put it down.
1253
00:52:33,441 --> 00:52:35,568
So he was the funk referee
1254
00:52:35,568 --> 00:52:38,905
like a magnet in the middle of this
1255
00:52:38,905 --> 00:52:41,574
and all these energies
and music and everything
1256
00:52:41,574 --> 00:52:43,201
will be flowing to him.
1257
00:52:43,201 --> 00:52:45,828
Like he would be kind of,
hooking up to you, right
1258
00:52:45,828 --> 00:52:48,206
and one at a time, we would all go
1259
00:52:48,206 --> 00:52:49,541
and put those parts together.
1260
00:52:49,541 --> 00:52:51,543
And George would just,
1261
00:52:51,543 --> 00:52:52,919
all those parts that are flowing
1262
00:52:52,919 --> 00:52:55,588
the creative energies
that were in that room.
1263
00:52:55,588 --> 00:52:57,340
I don't know how he managed
1264
00:52:57,340 --> 00:53:00,760
to remember it all at one
time and then retain it.
1265
00:53:01,219 --> 00:53:02,887
- [N. George] What do you think
1266
00:53:02,887 --> 00:53:05,056
P-Funk and George's contribution was to?
1267
00:53:05,056 --> 00:53:07,600
What did he bring to the
to the music that was new?
1268
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:08,434
- Funk.
1269
00:53:09,894 --> 00:53:11,938
So George brought funk.
1270
00:53:11,938 --> 00:53:13,731
Straight funk.
1271
00:53:13,731 --> 00:53:14,607
He's just funky.
1272
00:53:15,733 --> 00:53:17,902
Normally he can't help it.
1273
00:53:18,903 --> 00:53:20,363
- And what's really deep is,
1274
00:53:20,363 --> 00:53:22,657
he didn't know where the one was at.
1275
00:53:22,657 --> 00:53:24,617
And that was funny too.
1276
00:53:24,617 --> 00:53:25,618
And so,
1277
00:53:27,203 --> 00:53:30,331
I kinda had to show him where the one was.
1278
00:53:30,331 --> 00:53:34,752
I got it, I told him, I got
this from James Brown.
1279
00:53:34,752 --> 00:53:36,212
And he was so deep.
1280
00:53:36,212 --> 00:53:37,964
It was like, give it here.
1281
00:53:39,382 --> 00:53:41,467
He didn't care where it came from,
1282
00:53:41,467 --> 00:53:43,469
it's like, give up the funk.
1283
00:53:43,928 --> 00:53:47,348
- Bootsy had been to James Brown school.
1284
00:53:47,348 --> 00:53:50,810
So he knew what it mean to be one, two,
1285
00:53:50,810 --> 00:53:52,228
three, four.
1286
00:53:52,228 --> 00:53:53,521
One, two,
1287
00:53:53,521 --> 00:53:54,772
three, four.
1288
00:53:54,772 --> 00:53:57,609
One, he knew the essence of that,
1289
00:53:57,609 --> 00:53:59,235
but once he realized that,
1290
00:53:59,235 --> 00:54:02,947
the one was what it is on James' record,
1291
00:54:02,947 --> 00:54:07,201
we just tried to, we got stupid with it.
1292
00:54:07,201 --> 00:54:13,541
We want the funk, give up the funk. Awww
1293
00:54:13,791 --> 00:54:17,086
We exaggerated it and clowned it
1294
00:54:17,086 --> 00:54:18,379
from then on.
1295
00:54:18,379 --> 00:54:21,674
And Bootsy had that image brother.
1296
00:54:21,799 --> 00:54:22,383
- [N. George] Right.
1297
00:54:22,425 --> 00:54:26,012
- They had the same essence
that they had on James.
1298
00:54:26,012 --> 00:54:27,388
That lock.
1299
00:54:28,264 --> 00:54:31,684
You can go to work by the timing
1300
00:54:31,684 --> 00:54:34,437
you don't need no
metronome with Catfish.
1301
00:54:34,437 --> 00:54:38,107
- Well, the whole
Mothership Connection theory
1302
00:54:38,107 --> 00:54:40,985
was basically that Black people
1303
00:54:40,985 --> 00:54:42,695
were the first aliens.
1304
00:54:42,695 --> 00:54:46,032
And it tied into George's
whole alien culture,
1305
00:54:47,116 --> 00:54:50,703
theories and mindset that he was way into.
1306
00:54:50,703 --> 00:54:53,456
So he basically took
the whole Easter Island
1307
00:54:53,456 --> 00:54:55,416
and all these various things
1308
00:54:55,416 --> 00:54:59,462
that Stonehenge like
who made the pyramids.
1309
00:54:59,462 --> 00:55:01,839
Who knows who built these things, okay?
1310
00:55:01,839 --> 00:55:05,051
And he tied it into, I know who built 'em,
1311
00:55:05,051 --> 00:55:07,595
Black people who were the original aliens
1312
00:55:07,595 --> 00:55:09,055
and came from outer space.
1313
00:55:09,055 --> 00:55:09,889
And bla, bla, bla.
1314
00:55:09,889 --> 00:55:11,307
So he created this whole thing.
1315
00:55:11,307 --> 00:55:15,728
- They take all this
kind of fresh 60s, 70s
1316
00:55:16,771 --> 00:55:20,316
hard look at ancient artifacts
1317
00:55:20,316 --> 00:55:23,277
and questioning the origin of mankind
1318
00:55:23,277 --> 00:55:25,571
and put it to an incredibly funky beat.
1319
00:55:27,740 --> 00:55:29,742
Because these are essentially kind
1320
00:55:29,742 --> 00:55:32,036
of Black nationalist ideas.
1321
00:55:32,036 --> 00:55:34,080
The idea of the Egyptians being,
1322
00:55:35,456 --> 00:55:38,209
a highly advanced civilization,
1323
00:55:38,209 --> 00:55:40,878
perhaps with extraterrestrial ties.
1324
00:55:41,170 --> 00:55:43,339
I mean, that's a very bold notion.
1325
00:55:43,339 --> 00:55:44,215
And at the same time,
1326
00:55:44,215 --> 00:55:46,050
Black folks are reclaiming Africa
1327
00:55:47,176 --> 00:55:48,761
and all that
1328
00:55:48,761 --> 00:55:51,764
goes into what becomes P-Funk.
1329
00:55:51,764 --> 00:55:56,060
At the same time, P-Funk
is clever because,
1330
00:55:56,894 --> 00:55:59,021
it's a way to celebrate blackness
1331
00:55:59,021 --> 00:56:00,523
without saying the word black.
1332
00:56:00,523 --> 00:56:03,484
- A lot of what happened
with funk was high concept.
1333
00:56:03,484 --> 00:56:07,905
Certainly the ultimate was
the mothership connection.
1334
00:56:07,905 --> 00:56:11,909
The whole idea of a new consciousness
1335
00:56:11,909 --> 00:56:14,036
that we arrived at through music
1336
00:56:14,036 --> 00:56:16,497
was a big part of
1337
00:56:16,497 --> 00:56:19,500
was a big kind of organizing principle
1338
00:56:19,500 --> 00:56:21,627
that showed up again and again.
1339
00:56:21,627 --> 00:56:23,629
- In my case you asked me what made me
1340
00:56:23,629 --> 00:56:26,382
go that deep into it
with Digital Underground,
1341
00:56:26,382 --> 00:56:28,259
I didn't think about it.
1342
00:56:28,259 --> 00:56:29,927
I just am a product of it.
1343
00:56:29,927 --> 00:56:32,221
I'm a clone of Dr. Funkenstein.
1344
00:56:32,221 --> 00:56:33,514
That's in me.
1345
00:56:33,514 --> 00:56:34,348
You know I'm saying.
1346
00:56:34,348 --> 00:56:37,518
That's in me just as much
as check one, two, one, two.
1347
00:56:37,518 --> 00:56:41,397
So, I can't help it,
that's just how I think.
1348
00:56:41,397 --> 00:56:43,566
One nation under a groove,
free your mind and your ass will follow
1349
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:45,234
I was branded by that.
1350
00:56:45,234 --> 00:56:48,404
- Of all the great records
that P-Funk had created,
1351
00:56:48,404 --> 00:56:51,407
none of them had a bigger
impact on the next generation,
1352
00:56:51,407 --> 00:56:52,408
than 'Flashlight'.
1353
00:56:52,408 --> 00:56:56,954
- 'Flashlight'. When that, come
on that was a game changer.
1354
00:56:57,872 --> 00:56:59,457
The second that would come on.
1355
00:56:59,457 --> 00:57:01,459
- [N. George] Tell me what
was it about 'Flashlight'
1356
00:57:01,459 --> 00:57:02,293
that was unique?
1357
00:57:02,293 --> 00:57:03,294
- 'Flashlight' was just like,
1358
00:57:04,587 --> 00:57:06,547
to this day, I still don't
know what I'm hearing.
1359
00:57:06,547 --> 00:57:07,965
And, I'm a musician.
1360
00:57:07,965 --> 00:57:10,676
I don't know what I'm hearing.
1361
00:57:10,676 --> 00:57:11,803
I don't know what's vocals.
1362
00:57:11,803 --> 00:57:13,012
I don't know what's synth.
1363
00:57:13,012 --> 00:57:16,557
I don't know what's bass
being played through neutron.
1364
00:57:16,557 --> 00:57:19,560
I don't know what's
happening on that track.
1365
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:21,145
And it says a lot.
1366
00:57:21,145 --> 00:57:22,438
There's a magic.
1367
00:57:22,438 --> 00:57:26,275
There's some magic shit on
there, that's incredible.
1368
00:57:26,275 --> 00:57:28,152
- Bernie was very familiar
with the harpsichord
1369
00:57:28,152 --> 00:57:29,695
he took classical music.
1370
00:57:29,695 --> 00:57:32,198
So he's got a perfect ear,
1371
00:57:32,198 --> 00:57:36,494
so that he learned very quick
1372
00:57:36,494 --> 00:57:37,703
how to play
1373
00:57:38,830 --> 00:57:41,833
and adjust enough while he's playing.
1374
00:57:41,833 --> 00:57:43,626
'Cause you know, the thing,
the Moog ain't got
1375
00:57:43,626 --> 00:57:46,003
no notes of its own.
1376
00:57:46,003 --> 00:57:47,588
You got to make them.
1377
00:57:47,588 --> 00:57:48,923
Blend this a little bit of decay,
1378
00:57:48,923 --> 00:57:50,132
a little bit of (indistinct)
1379
00:57:50,132 --> 00:57:51,300
You gotta shape the notes.
1380
00:57:51,300 --> 00:57:52,468
- Bootsy had this track.
1381
00:57:53,636 --> 00:57:54,595
But he didn't want it.
1382
00:57:54,595 --> 00:57:55,471
He gave it.
1383
00:57:56,305 --> 00:57:57,723
He said, "George you take it."
1384
00:57:59,016 --> 00:58:00,518
That's what George says.
1385
00:58:00,518 --> 00:58:02,895
(both laughing)
1386
00:58:02,895 --> 00:58:06,899
So, we listen to it.
1387
00:58:08,234 --> 00:58:10,903
And everything else is me on that record,
1388
00:58:10,903 --> 00:58:12,321
except for the vocals.
1389
00:58:12,321 --> 00:58:14,365
- You did all the instruments.
- Yes.
1390
00:58:14,365 --> 00:58:16,158
Except for the guitar and drums,
1391
00:58:16,158 --> 00:58:19,036
and saxophone solo and vocals.
1392
00:58:19,036 --> 00:58:20,454
And then doing the baseline
1393
00:58:21,622 --> 00:58:24,500
his two other (indistinct)
1394
00:58:24,500 --> 00:58:25,459
moog, synth.
1395
00:58:26,752 --> 00:58:28,796
That's three moogs, and the strings.
1396
00:58:28,796 --> 00:58:31,757
Some strings, string ensemble
1397
00:58:31,757 --> 00:58:33,968
So the strings, the three synthesizers
1398
00:58:33,968 --> 00:58:36,178
and the rest is vocals.
1399
00:58:36,178 --> 00:58:37,346
- When you put it on loud
1400
00:58:37,346 --> 00:58:39,557
and you're in the high school dance
1401
00:58:39,557 --> 00:58:42,184
and someone's had a 16 year old.
1402
00:58:43,185 --> 00:58:45,396
Your ass just starts to move.
1403
00:58:45,396 --> 00:58:47,356
- And for the first time
they played Flashlight
1404
00:58:47,356 --> 00:58:48,941
on the radio.
1405
00:58:48,941 --> 00:58:51,068
And again that electrified feeling I got
1406
00:58:51,068 --> 00:58:53,571
when I saw 'The Clones of
Dr. Funkenstein' album,
1407
00:58:53,571 --> 00:58:56,073
I held the radio knob for five minutes
1408
00:58:56,073 --> 00:58:57,783
until 'Flashlight' was over.
1409
00:58:57,783 --> 00:58:59,660
And then I fell back like this.
1410
00:59:01,412 --> 00:59:03,956
And my life again was forever changed.
1411
00:59:03,956 --> 00:59:05,958
How could you make a record that funky?
1412
00:59:05,958 --> 00:59:07,376
- When Flashlight was out,
1413
00:59:08,377 --> 00:59:10,212
there was parties where
Flashlight would get played
1414
00:59:10,212 --> 00:59:11,964
every other record
1415
00:59:11,964 --> 00:59:15,092
or every three records all night.
1416
00:59:15,092 --> 00:59:16,844
That was a hot record.
1417
00:59:16,844 --> 00:59:18,095
I've only experienced like three
1418
00:59:18,095 --> 00:59:18,971
or four records in my lifetime
1419
00:59:18,971 --> 00:59:20,097
that was that hot.
1420
00:59:20,556 --> 00:59:22,266
- [Questlove] The success
of the P-Funk mob,
1421
00:59:22,266 --> 00:59:23,935
was part of a wave of funk bands
1422
00:59:23,935 --> 00:59:25,686
that would have major hits,
1423
00:59:25,686 --> 00:59:27,605
be musically adventurous,
1424
00:59:27,605 --> 00:59:30,107
and have dynamic stage shows.
1425
00:59:30,107 --> 00:59:32,693
Kool and the Gang out of New Jersey,
1426
00:59:32,693 --> 00:59:36,614
B.T. Express and Brass
Construction out of Brooklyn.
1427
00:59:36,614 --> 00:59:38,950
The Bar-Kays out of Memphis.
1428
00:59:38,950 --> 00:59:41,953
Brothers Johnson and
War out of Los Angeles.
1429
00:59:41,953 --> 00:59:45,289
Tons of bands that started in
one city, and moved to others.
1430
00:59:46,165 --> 00:59:47,875
Maze, featuring Frankie Beverly
1431
00:59:47,875 --> 00:59:49,961
moved from Philadelphia to the Bay Area.
1432
00:59:50,836 --> 00:59:54,006
Cameo relocated from New York to Atlanta.
1433
00:59:54,006 --> 00:59:55,716
Two of the biggest bands of the era
1434
00:59:55,716 --> 00:59:58,052
made Los Angeles their base of operations.
1435
00:59:59,053 --> 01:00:01,597
The Commodores coming fromTuskegee,
1436
01:00:01,597 --> 01:00:04,600
and Earth, Wind and Fire from Chicago.
1437
01:00:04,600 --> 01:00:08,020
Earth, Wind and Fire brought
funk as close to elegance,
1438
01:00:08,020 --> 01:00:09,855
as it could come.
1439
01:00:09,855 --> 01:00:11,482
- I talk about this all the time.
1440
01:00:13,025 --> 01:00:14,902
You kind of have like the guys who,
1441
01:00:15,903 --> 01:00:19,323
you are either a Rolling
Stones guy or Beatles guy.
1442
01:00:19,323 --> 01:00:22,493
And even though you
love the Rolling Stones,
1443
01:00:22,493 --> 01:00:24,328
you kinda lean toward the Beatles.
1444
01:00:24,328 --> 01:00:27,790
So, it's kinda same thing
with Earth, Wind and Fire
1445
01:00:27,790 --> 01:00:28,749
and Parliament Funkadelic.
1446
01:00:28,749 --> 01:00:30,042
Either your on Earth, Wind and Fire guy
1447
01:00:30,042 --> 01:00:31,168
or you're a Funkadelic.
1448
01:00:31,168 --> 01:00:33,587
And I love Earth, Wind and Fire.
1449
01:00:33,587 --> 01:00:34,380
I love Earth, Wind and Fire.
1450
01:00:34,380 --> 01:00:36,465
But I'm definitely a Funkadelic.
1451
01:00:36,465 --> 01:00:39,051
But Earth, Wind and Fire to me,
1452
01:00:40,678 --> 01:00:46,475
just the whole Afro Cuban
thing and you know Afrocentric.
1453
01:00:47,226 --> 01:00:49,103
And just to me the mysticism.
1454
01:00:49,103 --> 01:00:51,772
I used to sit and like stare at
1455
01:00:51,772 --> 01:00:53,649
'All in All' like for hours,
1456
01:00:53,649 --> 01:00:55,651
just looking at the
pyramids and all that stuff.
1457
01:00:55,651 --> 01:00:58,029
And my fascination with it to this day
1458
01:00:58,029 --> 01:01:00,197
can be stemmed back to looking at those
1459
01:01:00,197 --> 01:01:01,657
album covers back in the day.
1460
01:01:01,657 --> 01:01:03,534
- Earth, Wind and Fire was Bill Cosby.
1461
01:01:04,493 --> 01:01:07,079
P-Funk was Richard Pryor.
1462
01:01:07,079 --> 01:01:08,914
Both comedic geniuses.
1463
01:01:08,914 --> 01:01:12,376
But, that was the difference.
1464
01:01:12,376 --> 01:01:15,921
Earth, Wind and, they would
both talking about cosmology,
1465
01:01:15,921 --> 01:01:16,964
but in a different way.
1466
01:01:16,964 --> 01:01:18,215
- There was a whole thing
with Earth, Wind and Fire.
1467
01:01:18,215 --> 01:01:19,675
They we're focused on Egypt.
1468
01:01:19,675 --> 01:01:23,387
There was a whole Egyptology
and pyramid power,
1469
01:01:23,387 --> 01:01:26,557
the past and the future, being collapsed.
1470
01:01:27,975 --> 01:01:30,102
That was a big part of it.
1471
01:01:30,102 --> 01:01:33,522
- It's about the belief
that we owe our debt
1472
01:01:33,522 --> 01:01:35,691
to other people, and that the world
1473
01:01:35,691 --> 01:01:38,235
has to be brought together
in a multiracial fashion.
1474
01:01:38,235 --> 01:01:40,529
The irony is, out of funk music
1475
01:01:40,529 --> 01:01:43,115
emerges a kind of synthetic
1476
01:01:43,115 --> 01:01:45,409
collagist approach, where
things are brought together.
1477
01:01:45,409 --> 01:01:47,745
Think about Earth, Wind and
Fire's 'It's All About Love'.
1478
01:01:47,745 --> 01:01:50,081
We into astrology and mysticism
1479
01:01:50,081 --> 01:01:51,707
and we're a religion you dig.
1480
01:01:51,707 --> 01:01:53,709
So, that was actually prophetic.
1481
01:01:53,709 --> 01:01:56,128
And that was pretty
radical and cutting edge
1482
01:01:56,128 --> 01:01:59,256
because you're speaking to
these deeply christianized
1483
01:01:59,256 --> 01:02:02,259
Black people, whose modernist worldviews
1484
01:02:02,259 --> 01:02:04,720
are being challenged by this Afrofuturism,
1485
01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:07,890
which is projecting our
blackness into space.
1486
01:02:07,890 --> 01:02:09,725
- [Questlove] A leader and
changing the look of funk,
1487
01:02:09,725 --> 01:02:12,895
was a vocal trio from my
hometown of Philadelphia,
1488
01:02:12,895 --> 01:02:16,148
who went from the Bluebells to Labelle.
1489
01:02:16,148 --> 01:02:20,736
- They were like, way
before Gaga, Lady Gaga.
1490
01:02:20,736 --> 01:02:23,906
They were to me, they were the originals
1491
01:02:23,906 --> 01:02:26,992
of avant garde ladies that
just didn't give a flip
1492
01:02:26,992 --> 01:02:29,745
plus Patty could sing like beyond
1493
01:02:30,746 --> 01:02:34,166
and Nona and those guys were innovators.
1494
01:02:34,166 --> 01:02:36,168
This was before Grace Jones.
1495
01:02:37,920 --> 01:02:41,632
They told women it's cool to be yourself
1496
01:02:41,632 --> 01:02:43,467
and to be to be provocative
1497
01:02:44,343 --> 01:02:45,511
and to be
1498
01:02:47,221 --> 01:02:49,306
outside the box.
1499
01:02:49,306 --> 01:02:50,599
- We started wearing
1500
01:02:52,017 --> 01:02:55,604
space influence clothing by Larry LeGaspi.
1501
01:02:55,604 --> 01:02:59,066
And for that particular night,
1502
01:02:59,066 --> 01:03:02,319
we wanted to, I guess it's
called early branding.
1503
01:03:02,319 --> 01:03:04,780
We did the show at the
Metropolitan Opera House called
1504
01:03:04,780 --> 01:03:07,199
and we said wear something silver.
1505
01:03:07,199 --> 01:03:09,160
And we had nuns and silver,
1506
01:03:09,160 --> 01:03:11,203
people painted their horses silver
1507
01:03:11,203 --> 01:03:13,247
and had silver drawn carriages.
1508
01:03:13,247 --> 01:03:17,334
Salvador Dali came, I mean
it was really a big night.
1509
01:03:22,339 --> 01:03:25,551
- One of the key figures in funk style
1510
01:03:25,551 --> 01:03:29,221
is a gay Filipino man named Larry LeGaspi,
1511
01:03:29,221 --> 01:03:31,056
who was a stylist for,
1512
01:03:31,056 --> 01:03:33,642
initially he developed Labelle's look
1513
01:03:33,642 --> 01:03:37,938
extraterrestrial looking
sci-fi women singers.
1514
01:03:37,938 --> 01:03:38,856
That was then adopted
1515
01:03:38,856 --> 01:03:41,192
and it went on with
George Clinton's outfits
1516
01:03:41,192 --> 01:03:43,360
and P-Funk's outfits got more elaborate,
1517
01:03:43,360 --> 01:03:44,945
LeGaspi did that.
1518
01:03:44,945 --> 01:03:47,364
He also went on, he worked also
1519
01:03:47,364 --> 01:03:49,575
with Kiss on the rock side.
1520
01:03:49,575 --> 01:03:50,993
But this idea, it's interesting
this thing about funk
1521
01:03:50,993 --> 01:03:54,205
that it embraced freakiness,
the outsiderness.
1522
01:03:54,205 --> 01:03:56,665
So you have a gay Filipino man
1523
01:03:56,665 --> 01:03:59,001
who's unheralded in a sense,
1524
01:03:59,001 --> 01:04:00,669
but who is an essential part
1525
01:04:00,669 --> 01:04:03,547
of creating the look of funk in the 70s.
1526
01:04:03,547 --> 01:04:06,675
- They opened the door
for that whole inclusion.
1527
01:04:08,552 --> 01:04:10,846
Sexual orientation, none of that mattered.
1528
01:04:10,846 --> 01:04:13,682
It was really, Labelle
had 'em all coming together
1529
01:04:13,682 --> 01:04:15,434
in a way than any other group
1530
01:04:15,434 --> 01:04:17,811
that I remembered up to that point.
1531
01:04:17,811 --> 01:04:20,105
So you had the disco thing going on,
1532
01:04:20,105 --> 01:04:22,399
but when they came along, it did this.
1533
01:04:22,399 --> 01:04:23,525
Whosh!
1534
01:04:23,692 --> 01:04:25,527
So you'd go to their
concerts there would be gays,
1535
01:04:25,527 --> 01:04:27,905
straights, doesn't matter.
1536
01:04:27,905 --> 01:04:31,408
And that opened the door
for that, to me, Labelle.
1537
01:04:32,034 --> 01:04:36,705
(upbeat music)
1538
01:04:36,747 --> 01:04:38,832
- The sampling of funk
beats by hip hop artists
1539
01:04:38,832 --> 01:04:42,753
created a new dynamic
across musical generations.
1540
01:04:42,753 --> 01:04:46,257
- But sooner or later,
somebody comes and are prr!
1541
01:04:46,257 --> 01:04:47,007
Prr Prr!
1542
01:04:47,007 --> 01:04:47,883
Prr prr!
1543
01:04:47,883 --> 01:04:51,428
and takes it back to back to square one
1544
01:04:51,428 --> 01:04:53,055
with the simplicity.
1545
01:04:53,055 --> 01:04:55,015
It always gon do that.
1546
01:04:55,015 --> 01:04:56,767
And when it comes, people gon' say
1547
01:04:57,726 --> 01:05:00,062
"what's that, it's getting on the nerves."
1548
01:05:00,062 --> 01:05:00,896
"What is that?"
1549
01:05:00,896 --> 01:05:02,439
"What is that?"
1550
01:05:02,439 --> 01:05:03,857
It's the new shit.
1551
01:05:03,857 --> 01:05:10,739
James Brown, P-Funk did all
the songs that had that raw,
1552
01:05:10,781 --> 01:05:13,742
unprocessed 'cause you
have a lot of room left,
1553
01:05:13,742 --> 01:05:15,452
so you can process it yourself.
1554
01:05:16,453 --> 01:05:19,748
- Funkadelic had a song
called 'Good Old Funky Music'.
1555
01:05:19,748 --> 01:05:21,667
It's just a simple stripped down beat
1556
01:05:21,667 --> 01:05:23,294
but the way they recorded it,
1557
01:05:23,294 --> 01:05:26,171
it sounded monster to us.
1558
01:05:26,171 --> 01:05:29,049
We heard that and it was like, oh my god.
1559
01:05:29,049 --> 01:05:30,467
We could not believe our headphones.
1560
01:05:30,467 --> 01:05:32,886
We couldn't believe the speakers.
1561
01:05:32,886 --> 01:05:35,306
It literally could shake the room
1562
01:05:35,306 --> 01:05:36,098
and then I think
1563
01:05:36,098 --> 01:05:39,935
you know, then hip hop artists, like ourselves,
1564
01:05:39,935 --> 01:05:41,937
had the idea of like getting
a hold of those things
1565
01:05:41,937 --> 01:05:45,316
and then, okay, turn the bass way up,
1566
01:05:45,316 --> 01:05:47,109
or doubling up a
1567
01:05:47,192 --> 01:05:50,529
kick drum, or chopping it up to make it
1568
01:05:50,529 --> 01:05:54,408
even move or make it even crunch
1569
01:05:54,408 --> 01:05:56,201
even harder.
1570
01:05:56,201 --> 01:05:58,245
- Hip Hop is gonna be
deeply influenced by funk,
1571
01:05:58,245 --> 01:06:00,539
because they have similar preoccupations
1572
01:06:00,539 --> 01:06:03,125
with repetition and
circularity and vamping
1573
01:06:03,125 --> 01:06:04,960
and taking a break beat and moving on.
1574
01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:08,380
- As art 'Funky Drummer'
is the most important
1575
01:06:09,214 --> 01:06:12,551
hip hop break, in hip hop's stratosphere.
1576
01:06:14,219 --> 01:06:15,512
But I feel as though
1577
01:06:15,512 --> 01:06:18,724
the actual heart of hip hop
1578
01:06:19,808 --> 01:06:22,394
lies within 'Impeach The President',
1579
01:06:23,395 --> 01:06:25,564
by a group called the Honeydrippers.
1580
01:06:25,564 --> 01:06:29,234
'Impeach The President' is, I mean,
1581
01:06:29,234 --> 01:06:31,653
that is Black music's
1582
01:06:33,572 --> 01:06:34,823
'We Will Rock You'.
1583
01:06:34,823 --> 01:06:37,242
Like just that that instantaneous,
1584
01:06:37,242 --> 01:06:38,369
I know that drum break.
1585
01:06:38,994 --> 01:06:40,371
- Part of the funk,
1586
01:06:40,371 --> 01:06:42,122
especially back then
when I first came out,
1587
01:06:42,122 --> 01:06:43,415
it was really about
1588
01:06:46,543 --> 01:06:48,754
it's connection through hip hop.
1589
01:06:48,754 --> 01:06:49,588
You know what I'm saying?
1590
01:06:49,588 --> 01:06:52,132
So, kind of like in that lineage
1591
01:06:52,132 --> 01:06:54,009
is how we were reaching it.
1592
01:06:54,009 --> 01:06:57,888
And so, by the time I did 'Voodoo',
1593
01:06:57,888 --> 01:06:59,390
whereas it's,
1594
01:06:59,390 --> 01:07:00,432
we're kinda like
1595
01:07:00,432 --> 01:07:04,770
not leaning as heavy on
to the head nod thing,
1596
01:07:04,770 --> 01:07:06,563
weed smokin' head nod hip hop thing,
1597
01:07:06,563 --> 01:07:08,565
but getting more elemental.
1598
01:07:08,565 --> 01:07:09,775
- I credit sampling anyway,
1599
01:07:09,775 --> 01:07:12,569
I know there's going to be a
great deal of controversy,
1600
01:07:12,569 --> 01:07:14,405
but I'm gonna credit sampling is,
1601
01:07:14,405 --> 01:07:16,031
sampling took that essence,
1602
01:07:16,031 --> 01:07:18,200
took that that rawness of the funk
1603
01:07:18,200 --> 01:07:19,743
and then put that back on the radio,
1604
01:07:19,743 --> 01:07:20,744
where it had been missing.
1605
01:07:20,744 --> 01:07:22,913
- I would definitely
credit this to hip hop
1606
01:07:22,913 --> 01:07:29,211
and the West Coast.
1607
01:07:29,294 --> 01:07:32,923
The G Funk type thing because those cats
1608
01:07:32,923 --> 01:07:35,884
religiously are fucking with the funk.
1609
01:07:35,884 --> 01:07:37,052
They're not fucking around.
1610
01:07:37,052 --> 01:07:38,053
Every time I go to Cali,
1611
01:07:38,053 --> 01:07:39,596
that's all I hear in the streets.
1612
01:07:39,596 --> 01:07:43,767
And, Snoop and Dre and all
those groups out there.
1613
01:07:43,767 --> 01:07:44,601
I mean, that's all they do.
1614
01:07:44,601 --> 01:07:46,186
they sample Roger,
1615
01:07:46,186 --> 01:07:47,896
they sample Cameo,
1616
01:07:48,897 --> 01:07:51,233
sample all the old P-Funk stuff.
1617
01:07:51,233 --> 01:07:52,943
- Everything was up for grabs.
1618
01:07:52,943 --> 01:07:54,945
Jimmy Castor Bunch, J.B.'s' whatever.
1619
01:07:54,945 --> 01:07:58,198
It was kind of like then, after 1989,
1620
01:07:58,198 --> 01:08:00,909
you could never sample another
James Brown record again.
1621
01:08:00,909 --> 01:08:02,786
Because you'd heard it.
1622
01:08:02,786 --> 01:08:06,498
You've heard so many things that were just
1623
01:08:06,498 --> 01:08:09,793
mined and used for so many hip hop tracks
1624
01:08:09,793 --> 01:08:10,794
at a certain point, you know.
1625
01:08:11,795 --> 01:08:13,964
So, you had to get it on the ground floor.
1626
01:08:13,964 --> 01:08:15,924
- Me being sampled most
not just by hip hop,
1627
01:08:15,924 --> 01:08:16,758
rap everything.
1628
01:08:17,926 --> 01:08:19,636
Is all across the board.
1629
01:08:19,636 --> 01:08:21,930
I thank God that they chose me
1630
01:08:21,930 --> 01:08:26,935
and four, fives years have
gone by and they still
1631
01:08:28,645 --> 01:08:30,689
using me for everything on major
1632
01:08:30,689 --> 01:08:33,233
most of the major endorsements.
1633
01:08:33,233 --> 01:08:35,861
I feel great about the whole thing.
1634
01:08:35,861 --> 01:08:38,363
- Y'all think James
Brown has a hot catalog,
1635
01:08:38,363 --> 01:08:40,866
listen to this P-Funk stuff.
1636
01:08:40,866 --> 01:08:43,368
And it was really, like you say,
1637
01:08:44,495 --> 01:08:45,871
I was more
1638
01:08:45,871 --> 01:08:47,122
continuing what they were doing.
1639
01:08:47,122 --> 01:08:48,373
I just felt like digital underground
1640
01:08:48,373 --> 01:08:51,543
was the hip hop version
extension of Funkadelic.
1641
01:08:51,543 --> 01:08:53,837
- Rap and hip hop have blown up,
1642
01:08:53,837 --> 01:08:55,964
and they're all coming to George.
1643
01:08:55,964 --> 01:08:58,800
So I said, "George, now what
do you think about all this?"
1644
01:08:58,800 --> 01:09:00,677
He says, "remember that album The Clones
1645
01:09:00,677 --> 01:09:01,887
of Dr. Funkenstein?"
1646
01:09:01,887 --> 01:09:02,804
I said, "Yeah."
1647
01:09:02,804 --> 01:09:04,973
He said, "these are the clones.
1648
01:09:04,973 --> 01:09:05,807
All of them.
1649
01:09:05,807 --> 01:09:08,519
They're all the clones
of Dr. Frankenstein."
1650
01:09:08,519 --> 01:09:10,562
- The sampling of funk
beats by hip hop artists
1651
01:09:10,562 --> 01:09:14,441
created a new dynamic
across musical generations.
1652
01:09:14,441 --> 01:09:16,818
- I was in Andre Harell's office.
1653
01:09:16,818 --> 01:09:19,196
And Puffy came in and said, " 'Tumes, man.
1654
01:09:19,196 --> 01:09:19,696
I didn't know you were here."
1655
01:09:19,696 --> 01:09:22,282
He said, "look, I have this artist.
1656
01:09:22,282 --> 01:09:24,576
I want you to meet."
1657
01:09:24,576 --> 01:09:27,037
He said, "'Cause I wanna do a sample of"
1658
01:09:28,997 --> 01:09:30,415
'Juicy Fruit'
1659
01:09:30,415 --> 01:09:34,336
So he came in and it was Biggie.
1660
01:09:34,336 --> 01:09:35,712
So we met brilliant, man.
1661
01:09:35,712 --> 01:09:38,173
Really, really nice young man.
1662
01:09:38,173 --> 01:09:40,717
I mean, I really dug Biggie man.
1663
01:09:40,717 --> 01:09:42,761
And then he thanked me
1664
01:09:42,761 --> 01:09:44,012
for giving clearance
1665
01:09:44,012 --> 01:09:47,057
'cause they were having trouble
getting the records cleared.
1666
01:09:47,057 --> 01:09:50,018
And that was the bridge
into the next generation.
1667
01:09:50,018 --> 01:09:51,436
- They would just buy the gear
1668
01:09:51,436 --> 01:09:53,438
and start figuring it out.
1669
01:09:53,438 --> 01:09:55,190
They started figuring
out how to make music.
1670
01:09:55,190 --> 01:09:56,650
They would start sampling and say,
1671
01:09:56,650 --> 01:09:59,945
well, I'll take 'Good Time',
since that already works.
1672
01:09:59,945 --> 01:10:02,197
I'll take that
put in my little sampler
1673
01:10:02,197 --> 01:10:04,032
and make a little groove
out of 'Good Times'.
1674
01:10:04,032 --> 01:10:05,325
And I was like,
1675
01:10:05,325 --> 01:10:07,160
and all of a sudden, my whole
1676
01:10:08,453 --> 01:10:11,456
perspective on it changed
because I realized that,
1677
01:10:12,332 --> 01:10:16,795
they wish that they could
have had the knowledge.
1678
01:10:16,795 --> 01:10:19,506
- People who make records, like
1679
01:10:19,506 --> 01:10:21,466
DJs who make records,
they have to buy vinyl,
1680
01:10:21,466 --> 01:10:23,927
buy records, and find little
snippets that they like
1681
01:10:23,927 --> 01:10:24,761
and edit.
1682
01:10:24,761 --> 01:10:26,179
I don't have to buy nothing.
1683
01:10:26,179 --> 01:10:27,764
I bought this in 1977.
1684
01:10:27,764 --> 01:10:29,182
You know what I mean?
1685
01:10:29,182 --> 01:10:29,975
(laughing)
1686
01:10:29,975 --> 01:10:31,226
And I could do it.
1687
01:10:31,226 --> 01:10:32,227
But you know what, hey,
1688
01:10:32,227 --> 01:10:34,271
they stopped teaching people
how to play instruments.
1689
01:10:34,271 --> 01:10:35,272
What do you expect?
1690
01:10:35,272 --> 01:10:36,523
People are going to start being creative
1691
01:10:36,523 --> 01:10:38,233
just 'cause you take away their tools.
1692
01:10:38,233 --> 01:10:40,110
- And they go in and they dig.
1693
01:10:40,110 --> 01:10:41,820
And I've heard people say to me like,
1694
01:10:41,820 --> 01:10:42,946
Yo, man,
1695
01:10:42,946 --> 01:10:45,782
I came to you through
that Jay Z record dude
1696
01:10:45,782 --> 01:10:47,367
and I heard the original
'Weak in the Knees'
1697
01:10:47,367 --> 01:10:49,494
and I started getting into your career.
1698
01:10:50,537 --> 01:10:52,497
So, that's really been cool.
1699
01:10:52,497 --> 01:10:56,668
I dig where things have gone.
1700
01:10:58,712 --> 01:11:01,298
I understand the side of it that,
1701
01:11:02,716 --> 01:11:04,843
I guess when you looked at it also
1702
01:11:04,843 --> 01:11:06,386
you could look at it from this direction
1703
01:11:06,386 --> 01:11:08,388
and that is well but,
1704
01:11:08,388 --> 01:11:09,973
the people who made the music,
1705
01:11:09,973 --> 01:11:11,391
our career was done.
1706
01:11:11,391 --> 01:11:13,268
- [N. George] You've been sampled a lot.
1707
01:11:13,268 --> 01:11:14,102
- Yeah.
1708
01:11:14,102 --> 01:11:16,229
- [N. George] Do you
feel like the artists,
1709
01:11:17,439 --> 01:11:19,983
are you getting paid for the...
1710
01:11:19,983 --> 01:11:24,529
- Sometimes they don't but I'm thankful.
1711
01:11:24,529 --> 01:11:26,698
They keep me alive (laughing)
1712
01:11:26,698 --> 01:11:28,033
- [N. George] You don't
have any beef with sampling?
1713
01:11:28,033 --> 01:11:29,534
- No. I don't care.
1714
01:11:30,410 --> 01:11:31,536
- [N. George] Well, are there any...
1715
01:11:31,536 --> 01:11:32,954
- I may sample all of them?
1716
01:11:34,289 --> 01:11:36,667
I may do that, yeah.
1717
01:11:36,667 --> 01:11:38,001
Sample everybody that's sampled me.
1718
01:11:38,001 --> 01:11:40,587
I may even sample what they sampled.
1719
01:11:42,005 --> 01:11:42,839
(giggling)
1720
01:11:42,839 --> 01:11:44,007
and call it a sample.
1721
01:11:46,009 --> 01:11:49,262
(upbeat music playing)
1722
01:11:54,434 --> 01:11:55,435
- Everything in the 80s became, you know,
1723
01:11:55,435 --> 01:11:57,187
with technology.
1724
01:11:57,187 --> 01:12:01,024
Everyone wanted to have
this very expensive sound.
1725
01:12:01,024 --> 01:12:04,444
This big, lush, tons of reverb everything.
1726
01:12:04,444 --> 01:12:06,905
Big snare drum sound, everything,
1727
01:12:06,905 --> 01:12:08,323
perfect for the radio.
1728
01:12:08,323 --> 01:12:09,574
It was all about getting on the radio.
1729
01:12:10,158 --> 01:12:12,744
Funk music involves jamming,
1730
01:12:12,744 --> 01:12:14,871
and it really involves like
1731
01:12:14,871 --> 01:12:17,791
being in a rehearsal
studio with a bunch of guys
1732
01:12:17,791 --> 01:12:20,585
a guitar player, bass player, drummer,
1733
01:12:20,585 --> 01:12:22,462
brass section, whatever,
1734
01:12:22,462 --> 01:12:23,755
that there's not,
1735
01:12:23,755 --> 01:12:24,589
I don't know how much...
1736
01:12:24,589 --> 01:12:26,091
That just isn't around.
1737
01:12:26,091 --> 01:12:28,009
It's also expensive to do that.
1738
01:12:28,009 --> 01:12:30,178
Rehearsing and getting
1739
01:12:30,178 --> 01:12:32,472
a real drummer in there
with a bass player.
1740
01:12:32,472 --> 01:12:34,641
Is easy to just program it.
1741
01:12:34,641 --> 01:12:37,060
So that's kind of killed it off.
1742
01:12:37,060 --> 01:12:39,396
- I really think that the technology,
1743
01:12:40,313 --> 01:12:42,023
in a way killed the funk band,
1744
01:12:42,023 --> 01:12:43,483
which is something,
1745
01:12:43,483 --> 01:12:45,318
I really believe that once
1746
01:12:45,318 --> 01:12:47,487
a lot of those bands
started using drum machines
1747
01:12:47,487 --> 01:12:49,614
and replacing the drummers,
1748
01:12:49,614 --> 01:12:52,075
I think they lost, a lot
of them lost their way.
1749
01:12:52,075 --> 01:12:54,077
I mean, some of them like Cameo, I mean,
1750
01:12:54,077 --> 01:12:55,954
they made a sound out of it.
1751
01:12:55,954 --> 01:12:58,623
But some of the others
didn't make a sound.
1752
01:12:58,623 --> 01:13:01,626
What we were tryin' to do with 'Planet Rock',
1753
01:13:01,626 --> 01:13:03,795
it was go in a different direction,
1754
01:13:03,795 --> 01:13:05,505
which was something we wanted
1755
01:13:05,505 --> 01:13:08,383
to take the European thing of Kraftwerk
1756
01:13:08,383 --> 01:13:09,509
and bring it to the Bronx.
1757
01:13:09,509 --> 01:13:13,054
So basically, it wouldn't
have worked with a drummer
1758
01:13:13,054 --> 01:13:14,681
'cause that wasn't what the sound was.
1759
01:13:14,681 --> 01:13:18,268
We wanted something very
precise, very clean.
1760
01:13:18,268 --> 01:13:20,103
They weren't really interested in anything
1761
01:13:20,103 --> 01:13:22,105
but the funky beat, the break.
1762
01:13:22,105 --> 01:13:24,232
And that's why when we
went to do Kraftwerk,
1763
01:13:24,232 --> 01:13:25,650
when we went to do 'Planet Rock',
1764
01:13:25,650 --> 01:13:27,235
and we used the Kraftwerk beat,
1765
01:13:27,235 --> 01:13:29,821
it was very specific that
they wanted that beat
1766
01:13:29,821 --> 01:13:31,114
repeated over and over.
1767
01:13:31,114 --> 01:13:33,241
And a drummer really couldn't get that.
1768
01:13:33,241 --> 01:13:35,660
I don't think that, that
it's very difficult.
1769
01:13:35,660 --> 01:13:37,245
- You know, all the drummers,
1770
01:13:37,245 --> 01:13:38,121
they were calling me,
1771
01:13:38,121 --> 01:13:39,289
Oh my god, aren't you scared?
1772
01:13:39,289 --> 01:13:40,290
We're not gonna have a gig.
1773
01:13:40,290 --> 01:13:42,250
I'm like, no.
1774
01:13:42,250 --> 01:13:44,085
We just incorporate the drum machine
1775
01:13:44,085 --> 01:13:46,254
and we play find that space,
1776
01:13:46,254 --> 01:13:49,090
and then find where we
can incorporate technology
1777
01:13:49,090 --> 01:13:49,883
with what we do.
1778
01:13:49,883 --> 01:13:54,095
Live with, drum machines,
you gotta figure it out.
1779
01:13:54,095 --> 01:13:55,972
So I think it got to a point where,
1780
01:13:55,972 --> 01:13:58,558
some people couldn't afford
to bring out these bands
1781
01:13:58,558 --> 01:14:02,187
and after a while, if they
weren't selling records,
1782
01:14:02,187 --> 01:14:03,688
it got to a point where you had to,
1783
01:14:03,688 --> 01:14:06,608
put five acts on one show,
in order to sell the tickets.
1784
01:14:06,608 --> 01:14:10,111
So, the economy changed,
a lot had to do with it.
1785
01:14:10,111 --> 01:14:36,429
(live band playing)
1786
01:14:36,471 --> 01:14:37,889
- [Questlove] Emerged out the frozen north
1787
01:14:37,889 --> 01:14:40,725
from a place that seemed
to frigid, for funk.
1788
01:14:41,601 --> 01:14:44,479
But Prince would not
only have massive hits
1789
01:14:44,479 --> 01:14:46,648
but founded a movement out of Minneapolis.
1790
01:14:47,899 --> 01:14:52,028
Between his proteges
like The Time and Sheila E.
1791
01:14:52,028 --> 01:14:55,198
Disciples like producers
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis,
1792
01:14:55,198 --> 01:14:57,200
and imitators from other cities,
1793
01:14:57,200 --> 01:14:59,661
like Detroit's Ready For the World.
1794
01:14:59,661 --> 01:15:02,205
Prince's sound dominated the 80s
1795
01:15:02,205 --> 01:15:03,540
and continues to reign.
1796
01:15:04,457 --> 01:15:06,793
- Sly and the Family Stone, George Clinton
1797
01:15:06,793 --> 01:15:07,961
Parliament Funkadelic.
1798
01:15:07,961 --> 01:15:10,964
All they were doing was taking Black music
1799
01:15:10,964 --> 01:15:13,758
and adding all these hippie
1800
01:15:13,758 --> 01:15:16,636
elements to it or at
that time psychedelic.
1801
01:15:16,636 --> 01:15:18,763
So Prince and The Time they were kind of,
1802
01:15:18,763 --> 01:15:19,931
they were doing the same thing.
1803
01:15:19,931 --> 01:15:23,226
Except, the elements that
they were bringing in were
1804
01:15:23,226 --> 01:15:25,937
new wave, new romantic, that whole thing
1805
01:15:25,937 --> 01:15:28,356
that was going on in Europe and all that
1806
01:15:28,356 --> 01:15:29,482
Adam Ant type of shit
1807
01:15:29,482 --> 01:15:31,818
and they were bringing that into,
1808
01:15:31,818 --> 01:15:34,279
rhythm and blues and
funk or what have you.
1809
01:15:34,279 --> 01:15:35,655
So, it's kinda same the thing.
1810
01:15:35,655 --> 01:15:37,908
- He's a musician who plays funk.
1811
01:15:39,492 --> 01:15:41,077
And plays it very well.
1812
01:15:42,412 --> 01:15:44,956
Brother was brought up in Minneapolis
1813
01:15:44,956 --> 01:15:49,961
at a time when the minority
population of that city
1814
01:15:50,211 --> 01:15:53,506
was insignificant in numbers.
1815
01:15:53,506 --> 01:15:54,299
- Real clever.
1816
01:15:54,299 --> 01:15:56,676
So, I mean, he didn't copy
1817
01:15:56,676 --> 01:15:58,845
and never used the same chords.
1818
01:15:58,845 --> 01:16:00,138
He got a real good.
1819
01:16:00,138 --> 01:16:04,267
He can do a 'Purple Rain'
and went ahead and did
1820
01:16:04,267 --> 01:16:08,104
♪ Purple Rain Purple Rain ♪
1821
01:16:08,104 --> 01:16:09,981
It's country western as hell.
1822
01:16:09,981 --> 01:16:11,983
But you don't relate it to that,
1823
01:16:11,983 --> 01:16:15,278
because you put a nice Jimi Hendrix
1824
01:16:15,278 --> 01:16:16,863
pretty tone over it,
1825
01:16:16,863 --> 01:16:20,158
on the guitar, which is really slick.
1826
01:16:20,158 --> 01:16:23,036
- He had to kill funk.
1827
01:16:23,036 --> 01:16:27,874
And by him saying, we are
a new dangerous sound,
1828
01:16:27,874 --> 01:16:30,835
and that new dangerous
sound was Chuck Berry.
1829
01:16:30,835 --> 01:16:33,338
Their new dangerous sound was new wave
1830
01:16:33,338 --> 01:16:36,007
which was going back
to early rock and roll.
1831
01:16:36,007 --> 01:16:39,594
But, he was not scared,
1832
01:16:39,594 --> 01:16:41,429
to make it dance music.
1833
01:16:41,429 --> 01:16:44,474
- Prince loved James Brown
there is no question about.
1834
01:16:44,474 --> 01:16:45,433
He loves Santana.
1835
01:16:46,476 --> 01:16:49,437
And for all I know, he loves Led Zeppelin.
1836
01:16:49,437 --> 01:16:50,605
- Well, the thing is,
1837
01:16:50,605 --> 01:16:52,983
is he created his own sound,
1838
01:16:52,983 --> 01:16:54,025
just like James and Sly
1839
01:16:54,025 --> 01:16:56,778
and everyone else created their own sound.
1840
01:16:56,778 --> 01:16:58,321
That sound was,
1841
01:16:58,321 --> 01:17:01,616
if all he knew was to
play, 'cuase he produced
1842
01:17:01,616 --> 01:17:03,868
and wrote and played everything himself.
1843
01:17:03,868 --> 01:17:06,037
Well, so supposedly he doesn't play horn.
1844
01:17:06,037 --> 01:17:08,331
So, if he played keyboards,
1845
01:17:08,331 --> 01:17:10,500
he's gonna have horn sound,
he did everything himself.
1846
01:17:10,500 --> 01:17:13,169
So that's why the sound sounded like that.
1847
01:17:13,169 --> 01:17:15,046
He didn't kill the horns,
1848
01:17:15,046 --> 01:17:16,506
he wanted to play everything himself.
1849
01:17:16,506 --> 01:17:18,633
So obviously, when I'm
gonna get a horn patch
1850
01:17:18,633 --> 01:17:20,885
and this is what I would
play if I had horns.
1851
01:17:20,885 --> 01:17:22,804
And then when he could
afford to have horn players,
1852
01:17:22,804 --> 01:17:25,015
but then he brought in horn players.
1853
01:17:25,015 --> 01:17:29,185
He's a great making a point
lines incredible funky.
1854
01:17:29,185 --> 01:17:30,061
He experimented.
1855
01:17:30,061 --> 01:17:32,897
He used different sounds, some records,
1856
01:17:32,897 --> 01:17:34,357
he didn't use any bass at all.
1857
01:17:34,357 --> 01:17:35,483
That was unheard of.
1858
01:17:35,483 --> 01:17:37,902
So he's like, there's no limit.
1859
01:17:37,902 --> 01:17:40,071
- One of things about
the way Prince recorded
1860
01:17:40,071 --> 01:17:43,241
is that he had a unique
sound to his drums.
1861
01:17:43,241 --> 01:17:45,493
He used the drum machine
1862
01:17:45,493 --> 01:17:48,038
but he also used live drums.
1863
01:17:48,038 --> 01:17:50,790
And he also used keyboards in a very
1864
01:17:50,790 --> 01:17:53,626
kind of a way, that
hadn't been used before.
1865
01:17:53,626 --> 01:17:54,919
He's a real arranger though.
1866
01:17:54,919 --> 01:17:57,213
He was a real I mean, he's a real,
1867
01:17:57,213 --> 01:17:58,798
not just as composer but the way
1868
01:17:58,798 --> 01:18:02,218
he arranged his music was very unique.
1869
01:18:02,218 --> 01:18:03,803
- Prince's funk is all about,
1870
01:18:05,138 --> 01:18:07,223
deep snares, and if he does,
1871
01:18:09,142 --> 01:18:10,393
does use a crack snare.
1872
01:18:10,393 --> 01:18:12,395
He turns the snare off.
1873
01:18:12,395 --> 01:18:14,522
So his thing is things more about
1874
01:18:14,522 --> 01:18:18,943
(playing drum)
1875
01:18:19,069 --> 01:18:19,861
You know what I mean.
1876
01:18:19,861 --> 01:18:22,864
Like it's more, it's a driving funk.
1877
01:18:22,864 --> 01:18:24,240
- I always put it this way.
1878
01:18:25,408 --> 01:18:27,160
What I recognized when I
was first around Prince
1879
01:18:27,160 --> 01:18:31,081
and we come to rehearsals
and sound checks and so on,
1880
01:18:31,081 --> 01:18:33,666
was that whenever he wanted to jam
1881
01:18:33,666 --> 01:18:36,169
and just have fun, inevitably
1882
01:18:36,169 --> 01:18:37,962
he would call the James Brown tune.
1883
01:18:37,962 --> 01:18:40,757
He might play 'Body Heat'
for an hour and a half,
1884
01:18:40,757 --> 01:18:42,300
or 'It's Too Funky in Here'.
1885
01:18:42,300 --> 01:18:43,718
Those were two of his favorites
1886
01:18:43,718 --> 01:18:44,886
that he would just jam on
1887
01:18:44,886 --> 01:18:47,430
and he'd played guitar for 10 minutes.
1888
01:18:47,430 --> 01:18:49,390
Then he'd sit down and go over to Bobby Z
1889
01:18:49,390 --> 01:18:50,975
and get him up and he played the drums,
1890
01:18:50,975 --> 01:18:53,269
and this jam would just go on forever
1891
01:18:53,269 --> 01:18:54,187
to the point where the crew
1892
01:18:54,187 --> 01:18:55,855
and everybody was like
looking at their watches
1893
01:18:55,855 --> 01:18:57,107
like alright already let's go.
1894
01:18:57,107 --> 01:18:58,733
We wanna go home eat dinner,
1895
01:18:58,733 --> 01:19:00,443
and rehearsal would go and
on and on and on
1896
01:19:00,443 --> 01:19:02,320
and he was having a blast.
1897
01:19:02,320 --> 01:19:03,154
- Yo.
1898
01:19:04,781 --> 01:19:07,992
The one figurehead that totally embraced
1899
01:19:09,869 --> 01:19:13,915
the chitlins era of James Brown,
1900
01:19:13,915 --> 01:19:16,584
the part that no one would ever touch.
1901
01:19:16,584 --> 01:19:19,462
Rappers have taken all these Funky Drummer
1902
01:19:19,462 --> 01:19:20,755
and give it up a turn loose breaks
1903
01:19:20,755 --> 01:19:23,049
and the payback and all these classic
1904
01:19:23,049 --> 01:19:24,467
prime James breaks.
1905
01:19:25,343 --> 01:19:28,429
But there's someone that actually took
1906
01:19:28,429 --> 01:19:31,808
the James stuff that
no one wanted to touch
1907
01:19:31,808 --> 01:19:33,935
and made it into their own.
1908
01:19:33,935 --> 01:19:36,771
And that person was Prince.
1909
01:19:36,771 --> 01:19:37,647
- Morris Day and The Time
1910
01:19:37,647 --> 01:19:40,316
were very much his funk alter ego.
1911
01:19:40,316 --> 01:19:43,319
Certainly Prince
trademarked a brand of funk
1912
01:19:43,319 --> 01:19:46,322
that was fresh, sonically fresh.
1913
01:19:46,322 --> 01:19:49,826
- The only thing that is
on the one in '777 9311'
1914
01:19:49,826 --> 01:19:51,536
is the hand clap.
1915
01:19:51,536 --> 01:19:54,622
Everything else is all over the one.
1916
01:19:54,622 --> 01:19:57,625
Like it's almost as if
the silence of the one
1917
01:19:57,625 --> 01:19:59,252
is the funk.
1918
01:19:59,252 --> 01:20:00,253
And the fact that
1919
01:20:00,253 --> 01:20:02,338
that song
1920
01:20:02,338 --> 01:20:05,216
was a top 10 hit
1921
01:20:05,216 --> 01:20:06,968
and digestible,
1922
01:20:06,968 --> 01:20:09,095
easily digestible.
1923
01:20:09,095 --> 01:20:11,222
It's baffling to me.
1924
01:20:11,222 --> 01:20:16,227
- He seems to have a formula
1925
01:20:17,520 --> 01:20:21,065
that doesn't waver too much.
1926
01:20:23,193 --> 01:20:28,531
It is a little trickstery
that reminds me of...
1927
01:20:30,200 --> 01:20:31,492
- [N. George] Can we ask
about one more person?
1928
01:20:31,492 --> 01:20:32,994
- Sure.
1929
01:20:32,994 --> 01:20:34,078
- [N. George] Rick James.
1930
01:20:34,078 --> 01:20:34,871
- Yep.
1931
01:20:36,998 --> 01:20:37,832
Rick.
1932
01:20:39,500 --> 01:20:40,668
I hated that he did what he did.
1933
01:20:40,668 --> 01:20:42,962
And that's what I think about him.
1934
01:20:42,962 --> 01:20:45,798
I hated that he beat up the
girl and that's what goes in my mind.
1935
01:20:46,966 --> 01:20:49,260
I hate that he did that.
1936
01:20:49,260 --> 01:20:51,679
He was calling me every
night to come over there.
1937
01:20:53,014 --> 01:20:53,973
To come over that hotel.
1938
01:20:54,849 --> 01:20:56,684
I tell you what he say one time
1939
01:20:56,684 --> 01:20:57,685
I didn't like this either.
1940
01:20:57,685 --> 01:21:01,272
He said, "Man hurry up and
write a song so I can know what to do"
1941
01:21:04,400 --> 01:21:06,277
But I didn't want him to think that.
1942
01:21:06,277 --> 01:21:08,404
- Rick was a star.
1943
01:21:08,404 --> 01:21:10,865
He enjoyed being a star.
1944
01:21:10,865 --> 01:21:13,826
He had a star quality about him.
1945
01:21:13,826 --> 01:21:17,121
He did some wild funk,
he was very musical.
1946
01:21:19,123 --> 01:21:20,750
Like that 'You and I' joint.
1947
01:21:20,833 --> 01:21:24,879
That's a bad track but
Rick could do it all man.
1948
01:21:24,879 --> 01:21:27,048
His persona, perhaps
1949
01:21:27,048 --> 01:21:31,636
it did overshadow before
it was all over with.
1950
01:21:31,636 --> 01:21:34,722
But, you can't deny the great music.
1951
01:21:34,722 --> 01:21:36,432
That 'Street Life' album.
1952
01:21:36,432 --> 01:21:37,016
- [N. George] 'Street Songs'
1953
01:21:37,016 --> 01:21:38,601
- 'Street Songs'
1954
01:21:38,601 --> 01:21:40,019
(sighs heavily)
1955
01:21:40,019 --> 01:21:40,853
- [N. George] That's (indistinct)
1956
01:21:40,853 --> 01:21:41,646
- Yeah man.
1957
01:21:41,646 --> 01:21:43,439
- [N. George] It's a masterpiece.
1958
01:21:43,439 --> 01:21:44,857
The whole thing was him and Prince.
1959
01:21:44,857 --> 01:21:48,152
Because, he accused Prince of
1960
01:21:49,320 --> 01:21:51,614
conceptually took this and then the girls.
1961
01:21:51,614 --> 01:21:53,574
And it is interesting
the rivalry they had,
1962
01:21:53,574 --> 01:21:57,161
because they were compatible talents.
1963
01:21:57,161 --> 01:21:58,288
And Rick in his own way
1964
01:21:58,288 --> 01:21:59,956
was one of the few people who
could mess with Prince
1965
01:21:59,956 --> 01:22:01,582
in terms of the range of
stuff that he could do
1966
01:22:01,582 --> 01:22:03,751
- And what if they had done
something together?
1967
01:22:03,751 --> 01:22:05,962
I mean, a Prince-Rick record
1968
01:22:05,962 --> 01:22:08,339
or Rick-Prince record
however you wanna say it.
1969
01:22:09,590 --> 01:22:10,383
Whoo!
1970
01:22:11,676 --> 01:22:13,761
- [Questlove] For many
younger black musicians,
1971
01:22:13,761 --> 01:22:16,806
Prince was the bridge
between funk's traditions
1972
01:22:16,806 --> 01:22:18,766
and the new technology savvy sound.
1973
01:22:19,809 --> 01:22:21,936
Indie funkster, Dam Funk studied records
1974
01:22:21,936 --> 01:22:23,354
like '1999',
1975
01:22:23,354 --> 01:22:26,065
to create what he calls, modern funk.
1976
01:22:27,400 --> 01:22:29,193
That's what I'm tryin' to take modern Funk
1977
01:22:29,193 --> 01:22:31,696
I call it modern funk
because we continue to...
1978
01:22:31,696 --> 01:22:34,073
I wanna try to bring beautiful music,
1979
01:22:34,073 --> 01:22:36,826
along with the street beat on the bottom.
1980
01:22:37,118 --> 01:22:39,620
The progression of funk was dying.
1981
01:22:39,620 --> 01:22:41,497
We had a lot of tribute bands.
1982
01:22:41,497 --> 01:22:43,207
I'm not mad at the tribute bands.
1983
01:22:43,207 --> 01:22:45,209
They're very talented,
you know what I'm saying.
1984
01:22:45,209 --> 01:22:47,086
But I'm not a retro artist.
1985
01:22:47,086 --> 01:22:50,798
I'm not up there going back to 1969.
1986
01:22:50,798 --> 01:22:52,800
- I think again, he's
pushing the boundaries.
1987
01:22:52,800 --> 01:22:55,845
He's basically one of these people that
1988
01:22:55,845 --> 01:22:58,389
was very highly influenced by funk music
1989
01:22:58,389 --> 01:23:00,725
and wants to do it in the 21st century.
1990
01:23:00,725 --> 01:23:02,393
And this is his interpretation
1991
01:23:02,393 --> 01:23:07,148
of what funk music is in the 21st century.
1992
01:23:07,148 --> 01:23:09,817
Or what it has evolved into being.
1993
01:23:11,027 --> 01:23:12,653
- [Questlove] Dam's love of funk
1994
01:23:12,653 --> 01:23:14,447
led him to create a long running party
1995
01:23:14,447 --> 01:23:16,949
called Funkmosphere.
1996
01:23:16,949 --> 01:23:19,452
It serves L.A.'s vibrant
underground scene.
1997
01:23:19,452 --> 01:23:22,038
Steve Arrington was so inspired by Dam,
1998
01:23:22,038 --> 01:23:24,415
that he collaborated with
him on his first new tracks
1999
01:23:24,415 --> 01:23:25,750
in over 20 years.
2000
01:23:25,750 --> 01:23:29,003
- L.A. sort of feels
like the way Dayton felt
2001
01:23:29,003 --> 01:23:32,757
in the 70s, with people not being afraid
2002
01:23:32,757 --> 01:23:35,301
to try to do different things.
2003
01:23:35,301 --> 01:23:37,845
And that's why I've
connected with that scene
2004
01:23:37,845 --> 01:23:39,263
to try and open up and say,
2005
01:23:39,263 --> 01:23:40,973
hey, I wanna be a part of this,
2006
01:23:40,973 --> 01:23:42,558
sort of like a second movement.
2007
01:23:42,558 --> 01:23:43,434
- The future of funk.
2008
01:23:43,434 --> 01:23:47,480
I think Dam's really
kinda trailblazing like,
2009
01:23:47,480 --> 01:23:50,191
'cause there's not that
many other people who are
2010
01:23:50,191 --> 01:23:51,567
in his path right now.
2011
01:23:51,567 --> 01:23:52,735
There's a group in Japan
2012
01:23:52,735 --> 01:23:54,404
who I call the Japanese Dam Funk,
2013
01:23:54,404 --> 01:23:55,405
and there's a guy in France
2014
01:23:55,405 --> 01:23:56,739
who I call the French Dam Funk.
2015
01:23:56,739 --> 01:23:59,200
I think people are starting to pop up
2016
01:23:59,200 --> 01:24:00,034
that sound like it.
2017
01:24:00,034 --> 01:24:01,911
And it's like kind of
a recognizable sound.
2018
01:24:01,911 --> 01:24:03,746
Like, Oh, that sounds like Dam.
2019
01:24:03,746 --> 01:24:04,872
I'm hopeful.
2020
01:24:06,582 --> 01:24:08,584
Pretty confident that it's
2021
01:24:09,877 --> 01:24:12,588
that there's gonna be
an artist that really
2022
01:24:12,588 --> 01:24:13,631
reaches the kids.
2023
01:24:16,759 --> 01:24:20,054
- D'Angelo to me, is
2024
01:24:20,054 --> 01:24:21,055
one of the most
2025
01:24:22,723 --> 01:24:25,768
awe inspiring torchbearers of funk
2026
01:24:25,768 --> 01:24:27,353
that I've ever known.
2027
01:24:27,353 --> 01:24:29,105
We're brothers in funk.
2028
01:24:29,105 --> 01:24:32,233
And I'll say that making the Voodoo record
2029
01:24:32,233 --> 01:24:34,485
was like one of the most enlightening
2030
01:24:35,486 --> 01:24:38,489
educational experiences I've ever had.
2031
01:24:38,489 --> 01:24:40,533
I mean, that changed the way
2032
01:24:40,533 --> 01:24:42,618
that I thought about recording,
2033
01:24:42,618 --> 01:24:43,494
that changed the way
2034
01:24:43,494 --> 01:24:45,663
that I thought about engineering.
2035
01:24:45,663 --> 01:24:47,498
- When D sits down at a piano,
2036
01:24:47,498 --> 01:24:49,333
it's nobody but D.
2037
01:24:49,333 --> 01:24:50,960
And yeah, there's James Brown in it,
2038
01:24:50,960 --> 01:24:52,128
there's Prince in it,
2039
01:24:52,128 --> 01:24:54,547
there's Sly in it, there's George in it.
2040
01:24:54,547 --> 01:24:56,048
Because how can there not be
2041
01:24:56,048 --> 01:24:58,634
if you've listened to
this music growing up.
2042
01:24:58,634 --> 01:25:00,344
But I don't think anybody else
2043
01:25:00,344 --> 01:25:02,930
has so comfortably merged
2044
01:25:02,930 --> 01:25:05,850
the classic elements of R&B and funk,
2045
01:25:05,850 --> 01:25:08,769
with the hip hop influence the way D has,
2046
01:25:08,769 --> 01:25:10,521
and that's why it's
fresh and contemporary.
2047
01:25:11,481 --> 01:25:13,566
- I think funk is dead in its own way.
2048
01:25:13,566 --> 01:25:15,359
It's not what it used to be,
2049
01:25:15,359 --> 01:25:17,278
but it's it has morphed into something
2050
01:25:17,278 --> 01:25:18,696
that's different in the 20th century.
2051
01:25:18,696 --> 01:25:20,490
Absolutely. It's totally different.
2052
01:25:21,407 --> 01:25:22,241
And it's okay.
2053
01:25:22,241 --> 01:25:23,534
- [Questlove] From Brazil.
2054
01:25:23,534 --> 01:25:26,496
The country that gave the
world Samba and Bossa Nova.
2055
01:25:26,496 --> 01:25:29,582
The gritty favelas that
surround the big cities
2056
01:25:29,582 --> 01:25:34,170
have generated their own
brand of funk, baile funk.
2057
01:25:34,170 --> 01:25:36,255
From West Africa funkalicious grooves
2058
01:25:36,255 --> 01:25:38,591
called Afro Beat, have been inspired
2059
01:25:38,591 --> 01:25:41,260
by several generations of the Kuti clan,
2060
01:25:41,260 --> 01:25:43,846
beginning with his legendary Father Fella
2061
01:25:43,846 --> 01:25:47,391
and continuing with his son Seun.
2062
01:25:47,391 --> 01:25:50,019
Not only as 21st century funk global,
2063
01:25:50,019 --> 01:25:51,896
but is deeply ingrained in the scene
2064
01:25:51,896 --> 01:25:53,606
people think of as rock centered.
2065
01:25:54,899 --> 01:25:58,277
Jam bands may have been
inspired by the Grateful Dead,
2066
01:25:58,277 --> 01:26:01,280
but jam band icons Phish and Les Claypool,
2067
01:26:01,280 --> 01:26:03,282
are among the many that work funky rhythms
2068
01:26:03,282 --> 01:26:05,701
into their winding musical excursions.
2069
01:26:05,701 --> 01:26:08,579
It is some 60 years after James Brown made
2070
01:26:08,579 --> 01:26:11,290
on the one, a musical commandment.
2071
01:26:12,291 --> 01:26:15,753
Yet funk still continues
to move feet and booties.
2072
01:26:15,753 --> 01:26:16,879
What is it's legacy?
2073
01:26:17,547 --> 01:26:21,300
- Well, I think funk is everywhere
2074
01:26:21,300 --> 01:26:23,594
and nowhere at the same time.
2075
01:26:23,594 --> 01:26:26,055
It's ubiquitous in that,
2076
01:26:26,055 --> 01:26:29,725
it still provides the recipe
2077
01:26:29,725 --> 01:26:32,770
for the musical orientation.
2078
01:26:32,770 --> 01:26:37,483
That is, we have not quite gone outside
2079
01:26:37,483 --> 01:26:40,027
of the formula that James Brown
2080
01:26:40,027 --> 01:26:41,862
and Sly Stone have given
2081
01:26:41,862 --> 01:26:46,200
around syncopation, around the one.
2082
01:26:46,200 --> 01:26:49,453
Those things are so deeply entrenched
2083
01:26:49,453 --> 01:26:53,165
not only in Black music
but in American pop music,
2084
01:26:53,165 --> 01:26:54,041
that you can't get rid of it.
2085
01:26:54,041 --> 01:26:57,670
- The pillars of that dance music is funk.
2086
01:26:57,670 --> 01:26:58,671
Whether it's
2087
01:26:59,672 --> 01:27:01,757
via sampling until you something old
2088
01:27:01,757 --> 01:27:04,927
or is just inspired and fueled by
2089
01:27:04,927 --> 01:27:07,221
that concept of something gritty,
2090
01:27:07,221 --> 01:27:09,515
something dirty, something that's making
2091
01:27:09,515 --> 01:27:12,643
just the audience move and
reactive in a certain way
2092
01:27:12,643 --> 01:27:15,605
that's kind of almost beyond a mind
2093
01:27:15,605 --> 01:27:19,358
or intellectual reaction to records.
2094
01:27:19,358 --> 01:27:23,237
It's just that whole that the
spirit of putting a record
2095
01:27:23,237 --> 01:27:28,242
on and just having a
reaction of bodies move.
2096
01:27:28,659 --> 01:27:31,662
That's gonna just go on and on.
2097
01:27:31,662 --> 01:27:32,955
- I'm one of the few people
2098
01:27:34,915 --> 01:27:37,960
that does believe that
funk has never left.
2099
01:27:39,670 --> 01:27:41,088
The ripple is just spread,
2100
01:27:42,131 --> 01:27:43,966
throughout the earth.
2101
01:27:43,966 --> 01:27:45,926
Is it an America as much? No.
2102
01:27:45,926 --> 01:27:47,720
But you know, everything must change.
2103
01:27:47,720 --> 01:27:52,642
So, it doesn't mean that
I'm not a believer in it.
2104
01:27:53,809 --> 01:27:56,145
But no, funk is is still here.
2105
01:27:56,145 --> 01:27:57,938
The one will never go anywhere.
2106
01:27:58,648 --> 01:28:00,983
- It's like funk will
be the guest of honor
2107
01:28:00,983 --> 01:28:02,568
but it always will bring somebody with it.
2108
01:28:02,568 --> 01:28:04,528
So, what name should I put down
2109
01:28:04,528 --> 01:28:05,404
to get into the club?
2110
01:28:05,404 --> 01:28:07,406
Funk well, funk plus three guests.
2111
01:28:07,406 --> 01:28:09,533
It's always gonna be
funk with some other form
2112
01:28:09,533 --> 01:28:11,869
riding out and I think
whatever form that is,
2113
01:28:11,869 --> 01:28:14,830
may succeed it, but it
will never eclipse it,
2114
01:28:14,830 --> 01:28:17,333
'cause the funk is the fundamental structure
2115
01:28:17,333 --> 01:28:20,252
of our existence when we
fight against nastiness,
2116
01:28:20,252 --> 01:28:22,421
and when we celebrate
ecstasy at our heights.
2117
01:28:24,548 --> 01:28:26,300
- [Questlove] Man's natural state is funk.
2118
01:28:27,551 --> 01:28:28,719
If you don't wash,
2119
01:28:28,719 --> 01:28:31,555
don't brush your teeth,
or splash on cologne,
2120
01:28:31,555 --> 01:28:33,057
you will be funky.
2121
01:28:33,057 --> 01:28:34,975
So when we say funk,
2122
01:28:34,975 --> 01:28:36,852
we're not talking about simply music,
2123
01:28:36,852 --> 01:28:39,146
but the unfettered
essence of men and women.
2124
01:28:40,272 --> 01:28:42,983
So funk never dies.
2125
01:28:42,983 --> 01:28:44,485
It is eternal.
2126
01:28:44,485 --> 01:28:47,571
It just smells a little
different from time to time.
2127
01:28:47,571 --> 01:30:28,422
(funk music)
149439
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.