Make It Funky Soul & Funk in the Sixties
Jan 02, 2016
Sam Cooke bio
• B. 1931 in Mississippi, grew up Chicago• Joined popular black gospel quartet The Soul
Stirrers in 1950• Records ‘You Send Me’ in 1957, becomes #1 hit• After hearing Dylan’s ‘Blowing in the wind’,
writes ‘A change is gonna come’, referring to the civil rights movement (recorded in 1964)
• Shot to death in 1964, 200,000 attend funeral
Curtis Mayfield
• B. Chicago 1942, d. 1999.• Lead singer for The Impressions, multi-
instrumentalist, major songwriter• Later wrote soundtrack for blaxploitation
movie Superfly
Motown Records
• Founded by Berry Gordy in 1960• Brilliant entrepreneur, on of most successful
black-owned corporations in history• Name from Mo(tor) + Town. Detroit= Motor
City, capital of automakers• Ground-breaking arrangements by talented
unidentified studio musicians, who would influence later developments: funk, jazz-rock etc.
Fingertips part 2
• N° 1 hit. Little Stevie only 12• Another hit with ‘Uptight’, with narrative
about a poor man’s son born on the wrong side of the tracks, trying to make it with a girl of higher social status
• This social awareness would be more fully expressed in his 1970s albums
Stax
• Founded by Jim Stewart & sister Estelle Axton, two white business people
• Center for Southern soul with great integrated team of studio musicians, guitarist Steve Cropper, Booker T Jones & the MGs,
• Cf. The Blues Brothers
Otis Redding
• b. Georgia, 1941, father gospel singer• Sang in Baptist church choir, infl. by Sam
Cooke & Little Richard• Recorded for Stax in 1964• Sitting on the Dock of the Bay recorded 3 days
before tragic plane crash, Dec. 10, 1967 & became posthumous n° 1 hit
Aretha
• B. 1942, Memphis, moved to Detroit when 6• Father prominent Baptist minister• Began career singing in church• Recasts O. Redding’s version of ‘Respect’
affirming woman’s perspective, becomes a symbol of feminist movement. Producer Jerry Wexler: ‘overtones of civil-rights movement and gender equality…an appeal to dignity’
• TCB: Taking care of business
James Brown
• b. S. Carolina, 1933, d. 2006• Sings with gospel group in 50s, records R & B
hit ‘Please Please Please’ with Famous Flames, sells > 1 m. in 1956
• Commercial breakthrough on pop charts in 60s: Night Train (instrumental), Papa’s Got a Brand new bag 1965
• Cold Sweat, 1967, considered early funk classic. Say It Loud… black power anthem
Sly & the Family Stone
• San Francisco psychedelic rock, soul, funk band founded in 1967 by brothers Sly & Freddie Stone
• Everyday People released in late ‘68, became n° 1 hit
• Famous performance of ‘I Want to Take You Higher’ at Woodstock festival