of how to produce your own. This by no means a foolproof formula for success (if you are an utter fool you will unfortunately still be an utter, {fool after reading this). However, when used in combination with good. taste and a little giblet gravy, this guide will give you the basic tools to produce a highly potent Funk 45° The first thing to understand is that if you are trying to make a Heavy Funk 45", you are NOT trying to make a “professional” record by today's standards. Funk 45's are rough because they were made rough. They were made in basements or garages or lo-fi studios by bands that played barbecues on Saturday afternoons. Many people come at Funk with this bullshit acid-jazz, smooth R&B method. Everything comes out all clean and happy and nice. They call itprofessionalism. Icallit bullshit. Ifyour B going to try to record Funk, you got to have enough balls to make it rough. Fuck what the radio station says. Fuck how smart you are and how fancy your ideas are. Ifyou're gonna come rough, COME ROUGH! ANATOMY OF A HEAVY FUNK 45 There are many beautiful animals in the forest, but none is quite '¥as ferocious as the mighty Heavy Funk 45’. In the interest of preserving ‘this rare and endangered species, | have written this step by step guide nd With that said you are ready for the basic principal of making a rough and heavy Funk 45': SHITTY IS PRETTY. By this | mean that in whatever you're doing, whether writing a horn line, getting some drum sounds, or designing a label, you got to be shitty. The shittier the better. The more you let go of the professional musician/engineer/producer bullshit that creeps into your head while holed up in a studio, the more you will be able to let yourself record the kind of rough-ass. shit that you want to hear when you're out on the dance floor tryin’ to get into your karate boogaloo. Why do people use $300 and one afternoon making an entire album of bare-back break beats their damn selfl They think if they throw one radio shack mic up in the living room and let their cousin play that beat he learned in high school then they won't be a legitimate professional music celebrity. Fuck em'! You don't need any of that money or big label bullshit to make the greatest record nobody will ever hear! Keep it rough, entry- level, stupid, and above all SHITTY! [have divided this guide into three basic parts: Music, Recording, and Presentation. Due to lack of space the latter sampled drums when they have $300,000 recording two steps will be printed in the next issue. For now we will budgets? Because they don't have the balls to spend only concentrate on the first step, composing a Funk 45°. Asin ll aspects of funk, you must remember that it must be simple. Get over the whole genius/composer/innovatoridea. You don't need to compose a masterpiece. If ‘you were a Mozart, you probably wouldn't be reading his article anyway. The points that {unkis necessarily raw and straight from the soul It doesn't come from thinking realhard ‘about counterpoint odé-time signatures, or new theories ofharmony. Itmustbe simple so ‘that when folks hear they wantto get down, nat ponder its significance in music class. So ifyou don't know alt of musi theory don't worry. You're a step ahead of those who do. If ‘you do, don't take yourselftoo seriously because there is no room here for creative egos. In additon to being simple, all parts (and they are all exactly that: parts) of an ‘arrangement must be brutally repetitive. Repotition of pattoms is the meat and potatoes ‘of every bad-ass groove, CChotd changes in the main section of the song are not common. If you want to be ‘adventurous you might get away witha groove that alternates between the I chord and the IV chord (e.g. 8" and), but your bestbetis probably justo lock in some mean parts ‘on one chord and stay there. Ifyou can't getinto the idea of playing one chord fora whole ‘song, putdown this magazineimmediately and gofind yourself anice Beatles songbook. Your frst step wil be finding some musicians. Not everybody with @ good sense of rhythm can play funk. Though itis very basic musi, very fewmusicians have the experience or ood taste to respectits subtleties. Itis best fo get time-machine players. Thats: genuine old-school players that think they arestilin 1971 (e.g. ClifDriver, Lee Fel). Ifthisisn't possible, your second choice isto got musicians ‘who are so into rough old shit that they can wilfully deny the influence ofthe last 30 years of music on their own playing (0.9 the Poots of Rhythm, Neal Sugarman, me). Your third and most probable option 's tofind musicians who are patient, disciplined, confident, and will do exactly what the fuckyoutellthem tao, If they are not patient and ciscipined they wil have a hard time playing the same shit over and ‘over (and over) again. If hey are not confident their insecurities wil possess them to prove how falented they actualy are by fucking up thee part with some old educated bullshit. Lastly. they must do ‘exactly what the fuck you say. There are two good reasons why they will. A. They respect you and what {You ae trying to accomplish and understand that they are a part of a whole. B. You had to pay them. As fat as option B. is concemed, beware of stugio musicians! They tend to be the least capable of playing anything tasteful, Funkis not‘professional’ music and studio musicians andazzers usually find itheneath them to play anything that goos wel with barbecued food, Its sad thal James Brown's guitar auctions consisted of. “Can you play aE9 chord?" (Yeah) "For how long?” We had a similar experience the first ime we brought Binky Grpite into the Desco studios. | told him” Give t Up Turnit Loose nD”, and we got right Gown in tot. Philip and | wanted to see how long he could play the part before stared fucking around, Five minutes... Ton minutes. ..Nobody said shit. We just kept playing Ike we had no intention of ever going tothe bridge, much less stopping, After watching Bink sit there with his eyes closed for thirty minutes without wandering one note from the &-note line, stoppedmyself He sbeen steppit’ with the Soul Providers ever sine. MELODY The melody should generally be restricted to the homs or maybe the organ. Vocals can be: the only melody, butts good te have some kind ‘of hormorgan line that can easily get stuck in some foofs head. Again simplicity is key, and shitty is pretty. If you have some music theory, don't use it too much, Extensions are a no-no. No 9s or 13" (a 6” is okay in a real happy ‘greove, but the context must imply that its indeed a6" and nota 13") tis besttostick with the pentatonic scale (1,3, 4, 5, and 7) for any melody. if you have no idea of what 'm taking about, dont fret- you have an excellent shot at ‘writing ance simple ine. Neveradd notes totry to make something more cute and clever. In fact, i's a good idea to take out as many noles 2s possible and leave only the really important ‘ones. Too many notes will rally killin. Just tty te keep the shit nice and RAW. Don’ forget Our secret litte key lo success: SHITTY, SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SHITTY, SHITTY: PRETTY!HARMONY \When youwrite horn lines you ntonly getto come up with shitty melodies, but yu getto come up wit shitty harmonies as well! Though 3s and6"s (and 10"s)are common and reliable, i you want to get extra shitty youcan ty one ofthe folowing three harmonies, each of which breaks basic rules of any respectable music theorist: 1. Medieval Style- Parallel 4"s and 5" can be just the thing to bring that (Eg. Inthekey ofAminor: aG rough-ass Gregorian shit toa simple line. with aD, anAwithanE, aCwith etc...) 2. Good OF Mr. Unison- Having all the hors play exactly the same notes is. the perfect way to pis off jazzers and revel in your own shittiness. How ‘could something so stupid be so clever? (This is also great for those of you who don'thave alotofformal musie education.) 3, The Point- My personal favorite right now, itis a mixture of Medieval and traditional harmonies that captures the sublle but shitty majoriminor ‘ambiguity that is such a rucimentary part of Soul music. Use a major 3° (minor 6") interval for every note of the line (parallel 3s). (E.9. Inthe keyot Eminor: aDwith an Fé, anE witha Gi,aGwithaB,etc...) Rhythm has got to be 99% of the arrangement. Other than the homs and sometimes the organ, all the parts are patterns that should ft together into the arrangement ke so many gears in a clock. With that in mind (as well as ‘our basic shityis-pretty principle), lets break down a rhythm arrangement instrumentby instrument The drums can be the simplest part but is often the most easily fucked-up part. they are too straight itcan sound like Disco. This soften the problem with these Funkadelc-head drummers that believe in that four-on-the-flor, backbeat-heavy, disco-but-they-cal-i-funk bullshit. However, it can be |worse ifyou got one of these Tower O' Power, Drummer's Magazine, chop's {guys who plays so much syncopated 32° nate builshit that you have to go and stick his size 5A David Gariball signature model drumsticks straight up his educatedass. There are a few nevers: 1. Wwohands onthe hi-hat, unless you are actualy in Ghana andit's sill 1970, is a never. 2. Swinging. Beau Dollar swings on Who ‘Knows? by the Dapps, James Black does it on Eddie Bo's records, but now that the eighties happened, itis nearly impossible to find any drummer that willbe able to successfully cary out a tasteful swinging funk beat and not fall into thal uptown jazz-funkcheesy sit.3. Complicatedils. Just say no. ‘The beat should be a one or maybe two bar pattern that repeals over and cover. Think ofa breakbeat you ike and rip itof. There are very few beats that havent already been played a thousand times so don't get bent out of| shape trying olay down an absolutely original one. Justtryto make itrough anditwill probably work. !tis common in funk to shi the backbeats around (that is:_ move the snare ‘accents offof the 2 and/or 4 toa neighboring eighth note). This isone of JB's biggest innovations which he started with Cold Sweat and continued to develop through 1 Got the Feelin; Give it up Tur it Loose, and ulimately Culminatedin The Popcom. Thisis very common on heavy funk 45's and you {can putitto good use. However itis too contrived it will come out ike bad ‘Tower of Power. Sometimes itworks better justto play a really straight beat \When you're trying to come up with a bass part remember that the bass is usually felt more than heard. Its goto be the same thing over and over and the simpler the line the better. Check out Joai Gales Push. oF Lyn Collins Think, or even the JB's Hot Pants Road. These are all examples of seriously heavy bass lines that consist of no more than twonotes. Like horn melodies, bass lines should be basically within the pentatonic minor scale, though ‘chromatic walks from the major 3rdto the § are very common as wel as from tho 7 tothe root._One more thing to remember before | move on: NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES "SLAP" OR POP" THE STRINGS OF A BASS. THIS IS NOT FUNKY AND COOL. IT IS TASTELESS AND EMBARASSINGLY STUPID. “The guitar on a funk 45 should be played like a tambourine._It's all about repetition. The JB school is usually two guitars: one playing strictly rhythm (chucking mutedt6"'s while squeezing out a patter of 9" chords,) and the ‘other playing a linear (one note at aime) picking pattern. Both parts usually repeat in one or two bar pattems and NEVER change. Other than the JB's, ‘who always had an extra guitar player and plenty of discipline, bands usually just play the rhythm parts. Often linear parts and rhythm parts are mixed together like in Prophet Sour’ Kick the Habit (Sticks of Dynamite), or Hook and Sling, ‘The organ is either playing the melody (ike the homs). playing rythm (like the guitar), or just fucking around. This is probably the only instrument that can fuck around once ina while. Of course, lke all instruments, the organ ‘mustbe played by someone wh has enough taste to know when not to play Anything at all. Youll find that cert chords (minor 7" for example) con't work for the organ because they sound too smooth. Chord wise, the organ should stick to dominant 7” and an occasional", Ihave baen very lucky to find Ear! Maxton, who knows exacty when he should be in the rhythm section, when to play a melody, when to fuck around, and when to just ay but. Before we found Earl, | spent a lot of time trying to get organists to play the right shit. Ifyou don't need anything fancy, tmight be easier to just play it yourself (this goes forall instruments if you have some basic idea how i should be played and cant find someone to doitbtterthan you.) ‘Congas and other percussion can be really nasty they are recorded rough fenough. Make sure that they are not too Latin forthe track you're doing though.” For straight funk stuf, they sound heavier when they are on the downbeat, Probably the most underestimated instrument is the tambourine. The tambourine dictates the groove. It should be loud and played by someone ‘who can really lay t. Dont let somebody's litle sister shake itjustto shake it. t's gotta be soli rom top to bottom. Pay Bobby Byrd a thousand dollars te do it right for three minutes and you will have a kiler record, (Secret tambourine hints: 1. The angle you holditat can determine the amount that the boat swings: 90 degrees to the floor will give you the straightest shiteenths. 2. Periodically switching from over-hand to back-hand techniques helps to relieve tambourine fatigue, but be conscious not to change the fee) Now that you have allthe parts, you goto putthem together right. Don'tget {00 excited about some complicated syncopation. Listen to Mary Jane Hooper I've Got Reason's or some Dyke and the Blazers. Straight and ‘simple but nasty as fuck. On the other hand, you should be aware of exactly how the pats tia with each other. To that end there ae three basictypes of syncopation: with (logether), against (calland-response), and independent. ‘The intros to Lee "Shot Willams Get Some Orderor General Crook Gimme ‘Some are good examples of with" syncopations. The guilarand bass are playing exactly the same part, the same rhythm, onthe same section ofthe bar. This can be coolin short parts, buttoo much ofit will make it sound like ‘either riff rock or jazz fusion, especially ifthe partis too complicated. The ‘only band who could realy get away witha lotof tis is the Meters. Cissy Strutisanenigma, ‘The cal-and-response syncopation is usualy the best. Check out Humpty Dump (The Viorettes). The bass picks up the bar and the guitar answers on the 2. Ora very clean example is Marva Whitney What Do | Have to Do to Prove My Love fo Youin which te horns hit the one and the guitar answers by aczenting the two, This type of arranging between the homs and the fythm sectionis ane ofthe greatest things that made JB's arrangements SO distinctive. A more extreme example would be Oscar Haris and the Twinkle Siars Relax Before Sex in which the saxes and brass have an elaborate two bar arrangement in which the bartone honks and the brass answers and then the bass trombone honks and the saxes answer in tur, ‘Meanwhile there are two guitars chatting back and forth and the whole thing isin stereo and it makes you paranoid ifyou smoke a joint and listen to iin headphones. This is why playing nothing is such an important part ofa funk arrangement. It allows space into which you can fitother things. Like the space between the cogs of gear, orthe whole in the center ofa wheel Last independent syncopationis when te parts neither follow nor answer ‘oneanother. Check out Hot Pants. The bass is playing a two-note line, one ‘uitaris playing a mean linear part and the whole time the other guitar is ‘chugging along Ike a tambourine completely independent of the whole thing. Another good example of adifferenttype ofindependentsyncopation is the Dyke and the Blazers’ arrangements, which were too rough to slow ‘down for calcuated JB type call-and-response arrangements. The bass is pounding along with the drums, the guitar is doing his thing, and the horns ‘are barking at wil, The paris are independent butitisimportant to remember that they are always related. One part is never stepping on another. Independent syncopation also describes the way the rhythm section might 'be doing a one or two bar pattern and the Hors have a long four or tight bar melody. Check out Ernie and the Top Noles Dap Walk ‘The bass and guitar are doing this two bar vamp and the homns areSHITTY IS PRETTY: ANATOMY OF A HEAVY FUNK 45 playing an eightbar (notably simple) melody. The greatest funk racks usually use al of these syncopations together. Hook and Sling isa two bar pattern where the bass and guitar play simple, independent pars for the fst bar and a half, and then play in unison (a “wit” type syncopation fr the last two beats when they run that ite line together. In Lickin’ Stick, the guitar and organ are perfect call-and response parts. The bass line is independent except for it goes “with” the qutar ‘accents onthe second bar. The hor line isa fourbar pattern, consisting oflong notes that go against the cu-up two bar pattern ofthe rhythm section. This all may seem to be abit complicated, but when you begin trying to figure out what the fuck to tell the musicians to do, keeping these principles of Lathe Desco studio / Me. Lee Fields / a danner keys ma !/ sweaty sticks... ‘Almostall ofthe time the purpose of a change is o take the band out ofthe ‘groove just for a minute So when it comes back i's twice as bad, Not al funk tracks need changes. They can just be three minutes of one really good part. However if youre going to do a change, there are four basic kinds: the turaround, the bridge, theB-section, and the break The most distinguishing thing about a turnaround is that, unike other changes it is NOT a repeating pattern. The expression “turnaround” originally referred to the V chord section that turns around the end of a blues pattern. (In a traditional 12 bar blues, the turnaround is actually the 9" and 10” bars.) tis not uncommon fora funk 45 tousea 12bartype blues arrangement (E.g. Pass the Peas, The Percolator Got Thing for You Baby, Papa's Got a Brand Now Bag, Frank Wiliams You Got to Be a Man, ttc.) When this is the case, a tumaround isnecessary, but there are lots of ‘songs thathave tumarounds that are notin abiues form, Aturnaroundis shot pat (never more than one or two bars) that usually signifies the end lfthe melody or the entrance of another one. usually only occurs once teach time it appears, as opposed toa bridge or B-eection which can be a patlern that repeals. Itaften has a chord change that hits the Vor vii chor which begs resolution back to the groove. Robert Moore Everything's Gonna Be Alright, uses a ii vi turnaround that goes to a IV. chord, ‘Sometimes it is simply a melodic turnaround lke in Naomi Oavis Fourty First Street Breakdowne, in which there is a chromatic descending turnaround everytime Naomi calls the band to “break itdown’. Tighten Up has a horn break that's actually more ofa tumaround than itis a break. ‘The tumaround for Hook and Sing has three chords (VI, Vl, I) and leads into drum break before returning tothe groove, ‘The bridge can be almost anything. itis most often eight or sitoen bars of ‘a repeating pattem on the IV chord (E.g. Bobby Wiliams Lot's Work A While, everything by JB, almost everything by everybody else), but can be almost any chord or combination of chords. My favor bridges are the ‘ones that use real cheesy chords (Ike minor i's and v's) before turing aroundand coming back othe groove. Usually these chords arerepeatod 8 few times. Check out Lee Fields Let's Get a Groove On, or the Mighty Iimperials version of Never Found a Gil featuring Joseph Henry. These are the bridges that are so bad that they're good. They can be as cheesy ' you like as long as they are SHORT ENOUGH SO THAT THEY DONT RUIN THE SONG. This envelope has been pushed most notably by Koo} ‘and the Gang whe often played the worlds ugliest, cheesiest, most ernble, Jazz chords for bridges tat always seem tobe lingering about forfour bars toolong. Just when you are gonna take the record and smash i they go ack othe original groove which you had forgotten about and now sounds, like the heaviest thing you ever heard. | do not condone playing jazz chords, but you need to express yourself chordally, itis better that you do itina terrible eight bar bridge than in heimportant partofasong. ‘The B-sectionis a completely independent part ofthe song, which, unlike a bridge or a turnaround, MUST BE GOOD. tis arranged as a repeating pattern a groove jus like the A-section of the song. perfect example is Escapism, The A part oes along for awhile... and then the snare hits fighttimes... and then BOOM: B-section. In fact, asin this example, the ‘section may never retum after the B-section, B-sectionstend tobe ong, ‘which is one of the major things that distinguishes them from bridges. AB- Section is diferent from all other changes in that its not a temporary Suspension from the section, Itis.a comfortable grooveinits own right, Finally, there is the break. A break is a section in which one or more instruments are featured by taking out al the other instruments. Kool and the Gang were masters of not only guitar breaks (e.g. the beginning of Let the Music Take Your Mind) buthom breaks as wel(e.9. Who's Gonna Take the Weight.) Drums usually accompany hom breaks. Check out It's My Thing (Marva Whitney) in which the saxes blow a nasty litle two bar cuss ‘over a break beat for eight bars leading the band into a screaming 8 bar bridge on the V chord before dropping back into the groove. InLyn Collins’ Think , the greatest part of the song isa break in which for a fleeting two bars the only sound you hear isthe unyielding chanky-chanky of Bobby Bytes tambourine. The obvious and most frequently abused break isthe ‘rumbreak. (I wllassume here thal examples are not necessary.) {cannot say too much ortoo litle about the drum break. ‘Amean drum break will make everybody ints presence fee! that they are sightly sexier than they were before the beat stepped into the room. A ‘mean drum break will make even white people bite their bottom lips and bob their heads up and down like abandoned monkeys. Amean drum break will make you forget that you haven't paid your rent yet. A mean ‘rum break will make gis like you. You can understand why i takes a ‘Feat deal of restraint for some folks to use them sparingly. However, pat ‘ofthe beauty ofthe breakis thatitis uncommon. ifallthe igersin the world \were white, nobody would goto Zigfied and Roy's magic show. Thatis to ‘ay: the breakbeat becomes too common, gris will eventually stop taking their pants of for them. In today's world of tasteless sampling and beat pimping, itis very dificult for most people to overcome the urge to pander {o the break hunters and indulge in excessive breaks. So find | must interject a personal plea to allthose who make music: IN THE NAME OF ‘ALL WHICH IS TASTEFUL AND DELICIOUS, RESTRAIN YOURSELF. DON'T BE ABEAT SLUT. To sprinkle breaks al over a record tke salton English food might make it more easily digestible to the masses but wil ‘eventually cheapen the face of the once-sacred break in society and Undermine the entice cause and effect ofits existence. Breaks are ike antibiotics. If we prescribe them to everybody, in afew years we wil alle immune to them, In summation, the arrangements and orchestrations of a Funk 45! are ilusive in ther simplicty. You must understand their tendencies without forcing them. Thinking too hard will leave you with an over-composed record that lacks the basic soul and feeling thatthe whole thing ought to be bultaround. i'youpour funk in your pocketitwill disappear lke water. But like water you stand outside when itis raning, you wil come back in wel mnot sure exactly what that means, but do know this: Ifyouare going to vite funk rack, you goto make it ROUGHAND NASTY. this article helps or encourages anyone out there to record ance slice of hheavy-shity, then Ihave accomplished something good (please send mea copy.) Ifnathing more, lonly hope that you have learned to appreciate the sie principal that | have come to know and love: SHITTY IS PRETTY. \With this as your mantra, and only one milion dollars, you are well an your vay to being a successful, Funk 45-producing millonairelike me. ‘Gabrie! Roth has produced funk for Desco Records for the ast four years and ts currently in forming a new tabel, Baptone Records, which will also specialize exclusively in Heavy Funk. He canbe contacted viae-mail at gabrielrothGmindspring.com,