Funk 45s and Other Rare Grooves

So what is funk? It’s sometimes difficult to know. In the 1950s, the piano style of both Ray Charles and Horace Silver were described as funk, and the word itself has long associations with black music, going back even further into history. Clearly the success of James Brown at the tail end of the 1960s—say from “Cold Sweat” onwards—established the funk era, but the Godfather of super-heavy funk had already set out his stall with “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” and “I Got You (I Feel Good)” in 1965. At the same time a series of productions he recorded with Bobby Byrd, James Crawford, and others saw him slowly perfect his groove. But he wasn’t working in a vacuum. In Memphis the studio group at Stax were creating a rhythmic template full of the funk—listen to Otis Redding’s “Sick Y’All” on the flip of “Try A Little Tenderness” or Rufus Thomas’ breakbeat friendly “Sophisticated Sissy” and there is no denying it. Whilst in Phoenix, Arizona, Arlester “Dyke” Christian and his Blazers procl