Give Up the Funk Edition Part 1

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History, Music Commentary

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the ’70s, funk was pop—the cutting edge of Black music and the way listeners got their groove on, before disco and hip-hop. After James Brown taught a generation a new way to hear rhythm, and George Clinton tore the roof off with his P-Funk axis, nothing would be the same. Rising alongside blaxploitation at the movies, funk took many forms: Curtis Mayfield’s superfly storytelling. War’s low-riding grooves. Kool & the Gang’s jungle boogie. Earth, Wind and Fire’s jazzy crescendos. But when funk began fusing with rock and disco took over the charts, would these acts have to give up the funk? Join Chris Molanphy as he traces the history of funk’s first big decade. You’ll ride the mighty, mighty love rollercoaster and get down just for the funk of it. Podcast production by Kevin Bendis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Hit Parade listeners!
0:02.6	What you're about to hear is part 1 of this episode.
0:06.3	Part 2 will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month.
0:10.0	Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops?
0:13.9	Sign up for Slate Plus.
0:15.7	It supports not only this show, but all of Slates acclaimed journalism and podcasts.
0:21.6	Just go to slate.com slash Hit Parade Plus.
0:25.1	We'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives.
0:29.6	Plus Hit Parade The Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our
0:35.7	episode topics, and pop chart trivia.
0:38.9	Once again, to join that Slate.com slash Hit Parade Plus.
0:43.8	Thanks.
0:44.8	Now, please enjoy part 1 of this Hit Parade episode.
0:58.2	Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits
1:04.1	from coast to coast.
1:05.7	I'm Chris Malanfee, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slates Why Is The Song No. 1 series.
1:12.3	On today's show.
1:13.8	Fifty years ago, this month, the number one album in America was a smooth, sinuous slice
1:20.8	of uncut funk.
1:22.7	It was a soundtrack LP, but also an altruist album in its own right.
1:29.4	By a man already regarded as a soul legend, Curtis Mayfield.
1:43.8	Superfly from the Gordon Parks Jr. movie of the same name was a watershed, not only
	...

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