The Etymology of Funk ( The music and the term)

Feb 22 2014 | lee martell

[ArtDodger]

Hmmm.. All this time, I thought the word,funky was chosen because it rhymed with monkey..

[BenLurkin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EARjW-JH70

[expatguy]

The Ohio Players - Fire

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[LS]

Actually, as Mike Allen has shown in his work, “soul” music and rock has a heavy strain of Scots/Irish folk tunes in it. The notion that it’s “all black music” is just silly.

[MCH]

Funk is still limping along, although certainly not mainstream. I was recently reintroduced to it when Joe Bonamassa (JB) started playing with a funk band in L.A. over the past couple years called Rock Candy Funk Party (RCFP).

As one of the best guitarists in the world today, anything with JB in it HAS to be good, even though he usually plays blues-rock and other variants. This RCFP stuff is not really my cup of tea, but some of the tracks are still really good.

For instance, check out this Rock Candy Funk Party video of Octopus "E" on youtube from a recently released CD. In fact, RCFP played on the Conan O'Brien show just last week, including a rare TV appearance by JB. There's quite a bit of RCFP on youtube of late.

[lee martell]

Thanks for introducing me to Mingo Fishtrap. I’ve never heard of them before now, and they have been around since the 1990s. At least we have one good legacy band now active and making music. It’s quite a big group of people, men and women.

[x]

[lee martell]

Thanks for adding a little Rock Candy to our musical diet. I like many kinds of music when done well and with style. I think one of the best features of most Funky music is that the music makes you feel good and the rhythm is usually very easy to walk into. It is similar to but in many ways the exact opposite from The Blues, which is meant to be ponderous, lugubrious and introspective. Each style serves a purpose, as parts of a musical wardrobe.

[Alas Babylon!]

Funk is an old word meaning smells, or an earthy scent. It also was used to describe a persons B O.

It got its music flavor in the numerous juke joints of Southern blacks, especially when some musicians where also running booze during prohibition, coming in from their booze runs to play, smelling all funky, while jukin an rockin.