It was only a matter of time. This week’s Dad-Rock Tuesday will discuss Funkadelic’s One Nation Under A Groove.
My father went to high school on the south side of Chicago during the late 70s and early 80s. Therefore, he listened to funk. A lot of it, from what I’ve heard. As a 21st century white teenager from a Chicago suburb, I do not listen to funk. At all.
It’s not that I haven’t tried, though. This is not the first time that my father has attempted to get me into this genre. Parliament’s Motor Booty Affair has had many spins (it’s on vinyl, I’m allowed to use that terminology) in the Swole household. I just don’t get this stuff.
To this day, I still have trouble with describing funk. Remember that Beach Fossils post I wrote a while back? No? Well then you should click that link, brah. While Beach Fossils’ “music” hardly resembles funk, I do have the same problems with both that record and this Funkadelic one. And for some reason, all that I could think of was Beach Fossils when One Nation was playing. They’re both boring, extremely repetitive, and most tracks go on for two minutes too long.
This music is dated; that’s what it comes down to. Had I been around when One Nation came out, who knows what I’d think of it. I’ve been conditioned to like a faster, shorter and much less repetitive sound. Whether that’s a bad thing or not, I’ll leave up to you.
Swole Ear 
Well J$, you tried. Funk haters gon’ hate.
After not less than 30 seconds reflexion, I want to suggest a funk “gateway song” for someone who finds Funkadelic too old and the songs too long: De La Soul’s “Me, Myself and I” from their first album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3kgjzUsDeg
While Mr. Chops efforts are commendable, I prefer to simply let Sir Ear D’Voidoffunk stew in his narrow-minded ignorance. The album is brilliant and spans every genre but country. However, if it is a gateway you want, I still vote for Flashlight. Bootsy Collins can play at my funeral.
BTW, I don’t buy Mr. Swole’s “grew up in the white `burbs” explanation. I grew up in the most lilly-white Jewish ‘burb imagineable and that did not get in my way. Pretty sure that some of them RHCP boys may have grown up in similar suburban hamlets but they reached out to Uncle Jam to produce their second album.
Now, everybody say “BOOTSY”.
If funk is or was foisted upon your dad because he grew up on the south side of Chicago in the late 70s and early 80s why is hip hop as big or bigger in the white suburbs as it is in the inner city?
Funk is fun and upbeat. If you really want to be bored by something listen to the endless weltschmerz in the indie-acid stuff you’re addicted to. Tell those kids to stop whining and do something to make the world better.
If nothing else funk songs should be appreciated for their great titles and their utility in games of Charades. Try giving someone “Rumpofsteelskin” to act out if you want to make his head spin!
Uncle J — don’t be so hard on the boy. His disdain for the funk is, I agree, unacceptable, but some of his indie is damn good. Sleigh Bells makes the world a better place (but uses George Clinton’s beats to do it).