The Best Funk Albums Ever

评语：1: James Brown – The Payback Where to begin with James Brown, one of funk’s foremost founding fathers and greatest exponents? Well, 1973’s The Payback is probably as good a place as any. Legendary trombonist Fred Wesley had significant input into this double album, one of a run of records that redefined Brown as an albums artist and one of the best funk albums ever made.

评语：2: Isaac Hayes – Shaft In the late 1960s, Stax songwriter, producer, and musician Isaac Hayes launched a career as a solo artist – his second album, Hot Buttered Soul, is rightly lauded as one of the greatest soul albums of all time. But it was his soundtrack to the 1971 Blaxploitation movie Shaft that showed quite how funky Hayes could be. Shaft! – you’re damn right!

评语：3: Funkadelic – Maggot Brain George Clinton started out singing doo-wop, but by the end of the 1960s he found his groove, thanks to a fusion of soul, psychedelia, and funk. Funkadelic’s eponymous debut album was a dark offering while the follow-up, Free Your Mind… promised redemption through funk music. But Maggot Brain is perhaps their sonic peak – thanks in no small part to that guitar solo on the title track.

评语：4: Rick James – Street Songs Having formed a teenage band with Neil Young, Rick James, the nephew of one of the Temptations, eventually shot to fame in the 70s after signing to Motown. His 1981 Street Songs album featured the monster smash “Super Freak” – although he admitted that he preferred recording ballads to his trademark bass-riff-heavy funk.

评语：5: Betty Davis – They Say I’m Different Having spent much of the 60s picking up influences ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Miles Davis (to whom she was briefly married) Betty Davis assembled her own band, wrote and recorded her own songs, and laid down a series of intensely funky (and sensual) records in the early 70s, before quietly disappearing from the music business.

评语：6: Stevie Wonder – Talking Book Is Talking Book strictly speaking a funk album? Perhaps not as a whole, but it would be impossible not to include an album with such joys as the slow’n’sleazy “Maybe Your Baby,” and the light’n’breezy “Big Brother.” And then there’s “Superstition” – Stevie singing this live on Sesame Street is almost certainly the funkiest thing that ever happened on children’s TV.

评语：7: Ohio Players – Fire The funk, it is said, has a groove that just won’t quit – something that Ohio Players took literally. Having formed in the late 1950s, they refused to give up on their dreams of stardom. In the early 70s, a string of LPs with suggestive titles and highly erotic covers finally brought success – 1974’s Fire may be the pick of the bunch.

评语：8: The Meters – Struttin’ Like funk itself, The Meters hail from New Orleans, and it’s the down-home New Orleans style that Struttin’ celebrates. “The Hand-Clapping Song” has become something of a cult classic, having been sampled by (among many others) A Tribe Called Quest, Erik B & Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, and Whitney Houston.

评语：9: Sly and The Family Stone – There’s a Riot Goin’ On Such is a measure of their greatness, that such an iconic record, one that regularly features near the top of lists of greatest albums, is arguably not even Sly & the Family Stone’s best album (check out 1969’s Stand! next). One thing that most everyone agrees on, however, is that it’s one of the best funk albums of all time that no self-respecting record collection should be without.

评语：10: Curtis Mayfield – Super Fly The soundtrack to the 1972 Blaxploitation movie of the same name, Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly is best known for the hits “Freddie’s Dead,” and the title track, while “Pusherman” has become one of Mayfield’s most popular tracks. The whole album is a masterpiece – intoxicating grooves, cinematic orchestration, and tales from the ghetto, with Mayfield vocally on the form of his life.

评语：11: Parliament – Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome is packed with delights. There’s Bootsy Collins’ impossibly brilliant bass on “Bop Gun (Endangered Species),” the twisted, ironic nods to more innocent days in “Sir Nose D Voidoffunk,” and so, so much more. The P-funk builds to a glorious climax with “Flash Light,” and its era-defining Moog bassline – much imitated, but never bettered.

评语：12: Gil Scott-Heron – Pieces of a Man American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron spent his teenage years in The Bronx, before his promise as a writer earned him a school scholarship in the Upper West Side. He launched his studio career with 1971’s album Pieces of a Man, opening with “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” an extraordinary work that still sounds vital over 50 years later.

评语：13: Kool & The Gang – Wild & Peaceful Just in case you were in any doubt, the Jersey City outfit’s 1973 album opens with the top 10 hit “Funky Stuff,” while the second number is aptly titled “More Funky Stuff.” And on it goes – “Jungle Boogie,” with its sublime bass-led signature riff, and “Hollywood Swinging” keep the party fuelled.

评语：14: Tower of Power – Tower of Power “What Is Hip?” asked Tower of Power on their 1973 eponymous breakthrough album. The California horn-section-cum-funk-band immediately answered their own question by becoming one of the hippest brass outfits around, providing sass for some of the biggest names in the music world. Adding Lenny Williams on vocals, they enjoyed chart success with the glorious “So Very Hard to Go.”

评语：15: Bootsy’s Rubber Band – Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band There are few funkier sounds than Bootsy Collins’ iconic popping bass, one of the defining features of James Brown’s conversion to funk, as well as being central to Funkadelic-Parliament’s interstellar groove machine. When he stretched out on his own for this 1976 George Clinton-produced offering, he struck gold, most notably on “I’d Rather Be With You.”

评语：16: Fred Wesley & the JBs – Damn Right I Am Somebody Trombone supremo Fred Wesley leads James Brown’s legendary backing band through a Brown-produced tour de force that captures the JBs at one of their highest peaks. It’s an album rammed with groove and licks that just won’t quit, with politics at the fore – “I’m Payin’ Taxes, What Am I Buyin’” a comment on Brown’s well-known contempt for the IRS.

评语：17: Isley Brothers – 3+3 The original Isleys family trio were joined by the three of the next generation (hence 3+3) for this 1973 classic. Young Ernie’s stunning guitar solo on “That Lady” (a cover of their own 1964 “Who’s That Lady?”) benefited from the lessons given by one-time Isleys guitarist Jimi Hendrix, while “Summer Breeze” was the feel-good hit of the summer of 1974.

评语：18: Marvin Gaye – Here, My Dear Here My Dear has come to be seen in some quarters as among Marvin Gaye’s finest work. When a judge ruled that his alimony settlement with Anna Gordy (daughter of Motown chief Berry) would be the proceeds from his next record, Gaye initially intended to “put out a load of garbage.” But soon he became immersed in making this brutally honest assessment of their marriage.

评语：19: Prince – 1999 By 1982, Prince already had a string of gold and platinum albums in the bag. But the release of 1999 changed everything, positioning him as a unique artist, a genius who took the influences of funk, rock, R&B, and pop, and fused them into a style all of his own. While the follow-up, Purple Rain, may have outsold 1999, it was this album that propelled Prince into the stratosphere.

评语：20: Michael Jackson – Off the Wall Where does funk end and disco begin? Not an easy question, but it’s likely the answer is to be found somewhere in these grooves. Michael Jackson’s 1979 masterpiece includes such timeless classics as “Don’t Stop Til you Get Enough” and “Workin’ Day and Night,” but the funk is everywhere, even when it’s not obvious – such as underpinning the smooth R&B/pop of “I Can’t Help It.”

评语：21: Donald Byrd – Blackbyrd There could have been few more respected figures in jazz than Donald Byrd – he’d played with all the top bop musicians, and taught jazz at Rutger and Howard. But when he released 1973’s Blackbyrd, many jazz purists turned away; funk wasn’t considered worthy in some quarters. But far more lapped it up for the groundbreaking fusion that history has proven it.

评语：22: Earth, Wind and Fire – Gratitude Gratitude captures the Chicago band in their element. Mostly recorded live, Gratitude showcases a band that could compete with the JBs for energy and tightness, and reportedly put on a show to rival even George Clinton for flamboyance. It’s a breathless double album that also includes the hit single (and positivity anthem) “Sing a Song.” And why not?

评语：23: Fela Kuti – Fela’s London Scene As Fela Kuti announces on J’Ehin J’Ehin “Only a fool can eat his teeth.” Quite. Hailing from Nigeria, Kuti shot to international acclaim when he fused jazz and funk with African Yoruba music to create Afrobeat. Recorded in England in 1971, Fela’s London Scene drips with hypnotic beats and grooves, generating a spellbinding mix that transcends the sum of its parts.

评语：24: Edwin Starr – War & Peace The Sound of Young America, as Motown billed itself, eschewed its apolitical stance with Edwin Starr’s monster hit “War.” The veteran Motown singer mixed psychedelic soul and funk on the accompanying long player – “Adios Senorita” shows the influence of labelmates The Temptations, while “Time” is an absolute force of nature.

评语：25: Manu Dibango – Soul Makossa You’d be forgiven for not being au fait with all the b-sides of singles celebrating African soccer teams, but 1972’s “Soul Makossa,” by Cameroon saxophonist Manu Dibango became more than just a cult favorite, after its chant refrain “ma-ma-ko, ma-ma-sa, ma-ko ma-ko-sa” was referenced first on Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” and then Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop the Music.”