Post by timmy84 on Mar 8, 2006 18:05:06 GMT -5
You know for all of Marvin's love of doo-wop, gospel, jazz and the blues, as well as soul, I always had a feeling that Marvin had a deep love for the funk. Especially in his later records up until the end of his life. Sometimes I don't look at funk as a kind of musical genre, it's a way of life and I think no one lived that kind of life better than Marvin and sung it better than him. He may not have been as funky as Sly Stone, James Brown and George Clinton but in a way like Stevie, Curtis and the Isleys, he adapted to funk the same way them guys did.
I have a feeling that even some of Marvin's '60s records had a funk input in them considering how great the Funk Brothers' playing was. Probably one of the first funk songs ever was a Marvin song called "You". It was a sound from Marvin that before he had kept hidden. "You" exposed Marvin's vocals to a gospel texture that even surpassed that of "Can I Get a Witness?" and the musicianship was so gritty and funky with the background. That and "Chained" just brought a new texture to Marvin's music leading up to his seminal version of Norman & Barrett's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".
Gladys & the Pips' version of "Grapevine" was very Aretha Franklin's "Respect"-like. Marvin's version was altogether different. Spooky with its dark keyboard lines, chilling with the percussion coming in, the strings chiming in and that bluesy soulful vocal oohing and crooning and spewing his guts out. The Andantes handling the vocals in a very dark manner, it was such a groovy track yet you felt the pain. It bridged funk and soul in the same way James' records had done. It was, IMO, his "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" without the feel to dance or those staccato-like guitar riffs, lol.
Another funk song that Marvin did in the '60s was one of the last songs he released in the decade: the "Grapevine"-esque "That's the Way Love Is". The song is great on its own too. And the song had Marvin prophesizing like a preacher telling a heartbroken girl to move on after her love goes away. I mean, songs like this and "Grapevine" made the lines of funk and soul blurry and blurry. It also sounds like Marvin singing the song like it was his last. Great songs that should be celebrated more for the emotional feel and dark notion that some of the songs conveyed: a bittersweet soul symphony under a funk-driven beat, much like the Temptations' music between 1967 and 1971.
After making history with What's Going On[/i] in 1971, there were a few tracks that you could say showcased Marvin's love of the funk: the Latin-funk of "Right On" and the bluesy-driven funk of "Inner City Blues" (which is one of the finest FUNK songs on this planet... I mean, that bass is slamming every time you play it, the drums are so simple yet revealing, the vocals - now in layered notions - showcased anger in a beautiful light never breaking away from showcasing its pain within a scenery. The bongos crescendoing into both instruments. Even the way the song closed was funky as it just had Marvin's vocals and the bongos playing back and forth.
1972 brought out "You're the Man", "Double Clutch", "Where Are We Going?" and the Trouble Man[/i] album. The songs mentioned were funky in its own way in different settings as was the Trouble Man album. That album had some of the most sinewy funk grooves ever delivered on an album especially during that time in the so-called "blaxplotation" era. "T Plays It Cool", "T Stands for Trouble", "Deep In It", "Trouble Man" and its themes all laid down a background for what it sounded like to play jazz in the ghetto.
"Let's Get It On" has been regarded as one of, if not the greatest, love songs of all time, but it's probably one of the greatest funk songs I ever heard. Just for the grooves, ya know? Take away the vocals and it's like you HAVE TO DANCE! Lose yourself in the groove but then again when you get to the end of the vocal version, Marvin also gets you in the groove after going "have you been sanctified?" and clapping his hands. It was a mixture of many different sounds that's what made it funky to me, as with all the rest of them.
"I Want You"? Another great funk love song. Very soulful but it had a groove that just takes you deep into it as was the music of Barry White's. And Marvin and Barry both emulated each other's styles so it's evident how deep Barry's sound had had on Marvin and how Leon Ware was able to use what he learned from Barry and Marvin essentially to create what he created. Marvin's vocals send it home for me every time but if you hear the jamming instrumental to it, oh ish... you wouldn't be just making love but you'd be getting down on the dance floor. "After the Dance" has a deep funk groove that continues even after its vocal version's end. The two instrumentals also are funky.
And this is where it comes down to "Got to Give It Up". Possibly one of, if not the greatest, dance songs of all time. It is not, and I repeat, not DISCO. It's FUNK! The commercial side you hear is the edited version that has been played on every classic soul radio station but if you hear the 11-minute version, lawd, THIS SONG... it cemented Marvin's place as one of the best funk musicians and singers on the planet. The falsetto, the tenor creeping in a few times, the layered vocals, the short lyrics - which said a lot, and the groove that won't stop. It's almost a 30-minute party when you play the song. Even 29 years after its release, the song still reigns true to so many funkateers young and old. It inspired Michael Jackson to get funky.
Marvin's later albums including 1978's Here, My Dear[/i], 1981's In Our Lifetime[/i] and 1982's Midnight Love[/i] also had a very funk ethos into its material. Every song on each album has infectious grooves that just, you have to really dig the sounds to dig the entire project. Funky as all get out.
Marvin is credited for having blazed the trail for the continuing evolution of rhythm and blues as he went from doo-wop to gospel-inflected soul, from the mellow string-adapted soul of his mid-'60s material and his duets to the gritty soul/funk material of his late-'60s work, from the socially and sexually-aware material of the early-to-mid-'70s to the modern funk of the late-'70s and early-'80s contemporary R&B/electro funk feel, the man could had made a New Jack Swing song infectious had he lived that long and been exposed to Teddy Riley and the like and he still could've had a song to make you groove no matter what.
That was the magic of Marvin's funk material. He brought people together through that. It's sadly underrated but hopefully it's appreciated here. :movethecrowd:
I have a feeling that even some of Marvin's '60s records had a funk input in them considering how great the Funk Brothers' playing was. Probably one of the first funk songs ever was a Marvin song called "You". It was a sound from Marvin that before he had kept hidden. "You" exposed Marvin's vocals to a gospel texture that even surpassed that of "Can I Get a Witness?" and the musicianship was so gritty and funky with the background. That and "Chained" just brought a new texture to Marvin's music leading up to his seminal version of Norman & Barrett's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".
Gladys & the Pips' version of "Grapevine" was very Aretha Franklin's "Respect"-like. Marvin's version was altogether different. Spooky with its dark keyboard lines, chilling with the percussion coming in, the strings chiming in and that bluesy soulful vocal oohing and crooning and spewing his guts out. The Andantes handling the vocals in a very dark manner, it was such a groovy track yet you felt the pain. It bridged funk and soul in the same way James' records had done. It was, IMO, his "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" without the feel to dance or those staccato-like guitar riffs, lol.
Another funk song that Marvin did in the '60s was one of the last songs he released in the decade: the "Grapevine"-esque "That's the Way Love Is". The song is great on its own too. And the song had Marvin prophesizing like a preacher telling a heartbroken girl to move on after her love goes away. I mean, songs like this and "Grapevine" made the lines of funk and soul blurry and blurry. It also sounds like Marvin singing the song like it was his last. Great songs that should be celebrated more for the emotional feel and dark notion that some of the songs conveyed: a bittersweet soul symphony under a funk-driven beat, much like the Temptations' music between 1967 and 1971.
After making history with What's Going On[/i] in 1971, there were a few tracks that you could say showcased Marvin's love of the funk: the Latin-funk of "Right On" and the bluesy-driven funk of "Inner City Blues" (which is one of the finest FUNK songs on this planet... I mean, that bass is slamming every time you play it, the drums are so simple yet revealing, the vocals - now in layered notions - showcased anger in a beautiful light never breaking away from showcasing its pain within a scenery. The bongos crescendoing into both instruments. Even the way the song closed was funky as it just had Marvin's vocals and the bongos playing back and forth.
1972 brought out "You're the Man", "Double Clutch", "Where Are We Going?" and the Trouble Man[/i] album. The songs mentioned were funky in its own way in different settings as was the Trouble Man album. That album had some of the most sinewy funk grooves ever delivered on an album especially during that time in the so-called "blaxplotation" era. "T Plays It Cool", "T Stands for Trouble", "Deep In It", "Trouble Man" and its themes all laid down a background for what it sounded like to play jazz in the ghetto.
"Let's Get It On" has been regarded as one of, if not the greatest, love songs of all time, but it's probably one of the greatest funk songs I ever heard. Just for the grooves, ya know? Take away the vocals and it's like you HAVE TO DANCE! Lose yourself in the groove but then again when you get to the end of the vocal version, Marvin also gets you in the groove after going "have you been sanctified?" and clapping his hands. It was a mixture of many different sounds that's what made it funky to me, as with all the rest of them.
"I Want You"? Another great funk love song. Very soulful but it had a groove that just takes you deep into it as was the music of Barry White's. And Marvin and Barry both emulated each other's styles so it's evident how deep Barry's sound had had on Marvin and how Leon Ware was able to use what he learned from Barry and Marvin essentially to create what he created. Marvin's vocals send it home for me every time but if you hear the jamming instrumental to it, oh ish... you wouldn't be just making love but you'd be getting down on the dance floor. "After the Dance" has a deep funk groove that continues even after its vocal version's end. The two instrumentals also are funky.
And this is where it comes down to "Got to Give It Up". Possibly one of, if not the greatest, dance songs of all time. It is not, and I repeat, not DISCO. It's FUNK! The commercial side you hear is the edited version that has been played on every classic soul radio station but if you hear the 11-minute version, lawd, THIS SONG... it cemented Marvin's place as one of the best funk musicians and singers on the planet. The falsetto, the tenor creeping in a few times, the layered vocals, the short lyrics - which said a lot, and the groove that won't stop. It's almost a 30-minute party when you play the song. Even 29 years after its release, the song still reigns true to so many funkateers young and old. It inspired Michael Jackson to get funky.
Marvin's later albums including 1978's Here, My Dear[/i], 1981's In Our Lifetime[/i] and 1982's Midnight Love[/i] also had a very funk ethos into its material. Every song on each album has infectious grooves that just, you have to really dig the sounds to dig the entire project. Funky as all get out.
Marvin is credited for having blazed the trail for the continuing evolution of rhythm and blues as he went from doo-wop to gospel-inflected soul, from the mellow string-adapted soul of his mid-'60s material and his duets to the gritty soul/funk material of his late-'60s work, from the socially and sexually-aware material of the early-to-mid-'70s to the modern funk of the late-'70s and early-'80s contemporary R&B/electro funk feel, the man could had made a New Jack Swing song infectious had he lived that long and been exposed to Teddy Riley and the like and he still could've had a song to make you groove no matter what.
That was the magic of Marvin's funk material. He brought people together through that. It's sadly underrated but hopefully it's appreciated here. :movethecrowd:
Bad I know but the Master is the Master right 
