Extreme Vs the Funk Nazi's

Preface: Quien es mas Funky?

I am a big fan of the Rock band Extreme, but was always troubled by one aspect of their music. Or rather, the lack of a certain aspect. My favorite music is when R&B and Rock is blended, but that is sometimes a difficult mix to achieve. I was originally drawn to Extreme because I had heard that they incorporated both Rock and Funk. But when I heard them, though their Rock was excellent, their Funk could have used some work.

I wasn't alone in this feeling.

The Funk Nazi's

Essentially this issue was raised when members of Fishbone (including bassist Norwood Fisher) were asked (in an interview in Guitar Player Magazine) their opinion of the video for "Get the Funk Out", by the Band Extreme .

Basically they said "It was the most unfunky sh*t they ever saw", and they added - "it was a rip-off of the Red Hot Chili Peppers".

I found myself in agreement with the first opinion, but not the second. No, the song was not really funky, even though it was clearly trying to be. It was a good song (in fact a great song), but it was nowhere near traditional funk. Their were certain crucial elements of funk that Extreme was missing, particularly in the bass work and in the way that the horn parts were structured. (Some of the horn players who had played on Stevie Wonder's Superstition were used in the song) These differences may have been deliberate, a finger-in-the-eye of the traditionalist. The lyrical theme of the song was "I'll do what I want, it's my party...nobodies holding you prisoner...if you don't like it...well.....nuff said", but I think they were also the result of a lack of familiarity with tradition funk music. And ultimately, a lack of respect for it.

In the article, Fishbone went on to compare the bass playing of Extreme 's bassist Pat Badger to the Pepper's bassist, Flea. Fishbone and the Peppers were both from L.A.and they had jammed with each other ( Extreme was from Boston), They said "Flea knew how to 'Get on the one'...and 'hold down the groove'...but Pat clearly didn't even know what that was. (For some perspective on what they meant, check out this example of Fishbone doing tradition funk with "Nutt Megalomaniac")... Not that Pat wasn't a very good bass player, it was just that he wasn't playing funk bass - he was playing rock bass - and these are very different, although neither is inherently better than the other. Based on his response to an interview on MTV Europe on the question of "funk" where Pat said that he "wasn't the bassist who did a lot of slaps and pops" it was clear he didn't seem to understand that the difference between the two playing styles was a lot more than simply adding a bunch of "slaps and pops" to your playing.

But on the other hand, I suspected that Extreme didn't even honestly know who the Chili Peppers were, or what they were all about, let alone bother to copy them. At this point in time the Chili Peppers had only had one hit (More on that later). I was familiar with both Extreme and the Peppers and they were very different, any similarities in this particular video (both Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt going shirtless, and Gary wearing a bowler hat - both tendencies were habits for Anthony Kiedis of the Peppers) were completely coincidental, IMO. Extreme had been doing things like that since their first record, which was much more like Van Halen , than the Peppers.

(Probably not so coincidentally, after Extreme broke up a couple years ago Gary Cherone was hired as the new singer for Van Halen and is featured on their new album, VH III)

The following issue of Guitar Player (also, probably not by accident) featured an interview with John Frusciante and Flea of the Peppers. They were asked by the interview nearly the same question. "What do you think of 'Get the Funk out'"by Extreme .

Their answer was almost word for word the same as Fishbone's. Unfunky and a Rip-off.

The Comeback Line.

In the issue following the one with the Peppers, there was an interview with Nuno Bettencourt, Guitarist of Extreme . They advised him of the comments by the Peppers and wanted his response. Which was "Chili who? Oh, those guys that did the Stevie Wonder song ("Higher Ground" - (Stevie's Original Version))...I don't listen to band's who don't write their own material...".

During this same time period I became friends with Paulo Bettencourt (one of Nuno's older brothers), and I know from him that Nuno's has a wicked wit and tongue. So his comment I have always suspected was just a retaliatory jab. Maybe, he did know who the Pepper's were, and that they certainly wrote plenty their own songs. It was about a year or so after this that they had their first really big hit song with "Under the Bridge". Then again, rather than just being a smart-mouth comment, maybe he *didn't* know this and was just show his ignorance of the group.

I've never been sure which it was.

Either way, the crucial issue was ignored. Was "Get the Funk Out" intended to be truly funky or not? If not, then judging it on a basis of whether it was funky was inappropriate, but if it was.....

It could be argued that what Extreme was doing was not intended to be "pure" Funk, but a hybrid. They were taking some elements of Funk music and adapting it into a Rock and Metal context. But they didn't necessarily use every aspect or element of Funk. Therefore they were pioneers in a way, creating something new that hadn't existed before. Something that couldn't be fairly evaluated by comparing it to the past.

Part of the problem with that view, is that Extreme was not the first band to combine Elements of Rock and Funk. Not by a long shot. Hendrix had done it. Sly Stone did it. As did Funkadelic , Curtis Mayfield, Ike and Tina Turner, Mother's Finest , Living Colour , Dan Reed Network, Infectious Grooves, Electric Boys, Fishbone and the Chili Peppers . and to a lesser extent groups like Queen , Motley Crue (during the late 80's - "Dr. Feelgood" was pretty funky), Aerosmith and Van Halen had done it. The tradition of grooving and funky Metal continues today with groups such as Sevendust. Nicklebag, Nine Inch Nails, and Korn

Not everyone has done it in the same (nor should they), but neither have they done it with the same levels of effectiveness. There were enough bands doing this ("Funky Metal" or "Metallic Funk" take your pick), that it could easily have been considered a style of it's own. Those who succeeded typically displayed a better understanding of the underpinnings of both Funk and Rock, without sacrificing or compromising either. (On the "successful" list I would include Infectious Grooves, Fishbone, Electric Boys, etc ... but I'm sure opinions will vary in this area)

As far as I know, this is where the exchange between these groups ended. I've always felt that it was never resolved. Again, I think that a large part of both Fishbone and the Peppers comments were legitimate- vis a vis the quality of Extreme 's Funk - which is a completely different issue from the overall quality of their music.

At the time that this article came out, I was living in LA And while doing a magazine interview (for a now defunct Rockzine called "Metalmorphosis"). I had a chance to interview a friend of mine who I respect greatly as a guitarist and asked his opinion. His name is Victor Johnson. Victor had played guitar with The BusBoys, at the time of the interview he was playing with a grooving Metal group called "Total Eclipse". He is now playing guitar with erstwhile Van Halen singer, Sammy Hagar.

Victor's response at the time was that Extreme 's comment "was kinda wack". That Peppers "couldn't really play..." (which if you're talking about Anthony's singing, makes sense to me),. He felt that Nuno's comment alluding to incompetence on the part of the Peppers was way...way...off the scale, in terms of inaccurate and inappropriate. Like me, Victor was a fan of Extreme 's and Nuno's. In fact, he thought that Nuno was "several times the guitarist" that he himself was. (Personally, I always that was being for too humble even for him. Victor is *killer* guitarist. Check this sample from the Total Eclipse song "Get outta yo body") So his comment clearly didn't come from any personal beef with the band or Nuno, he just seemed to feel that the "Comeback Line" was a little strong.

Me too. But then, so too were the "Rip-off" comments a bit out of line.

To Funk or not to Funk?

Extreme seemed to be heavily enamored with that word, "Funk". Their publishing company was called "Funky Metal Music". Their first tour was subtitled the "The Funky Metal Tour". They had not only released "Get the Funk out", but had also recorded, if not released, other songs such as "Funky Little Holiday" and "Never been Funked".

Also playing Funky Rock songs wasn't all that Extreme did or attempted to do. They had a great many influences in their music besides hard rock, and funk. Their first big hit, "More than Words" (from the album "Pornographitti") was an acoustic ballad played with a single guitar and sung with just two voices ( Extreme often used three part harmony on their songs). Many people hearing this song thought that the group was an 80's version of the Everly Brothers. Extreme were also influenced by Frank Sinatra, (which was evident on their song "When I First Kissed You"). And for their third album, "III Sides to Every Story", they used a full 80 piece orchestra for the suite of songs that concluded the album called "Everything under the sun". Everything they did wasn't Funky, and wasn't intended to be Funky - nor was it all Rock, let alone Hard Rock. Part of the reason they were called " Extreme " was because of the Extreme diversity of their musical influences. They, much like Fishbone , were all over the musical map. This not only caused them problems with funk fans, it also caused them problems with rock fans who were unfamiliar with and unprepared for a group that changed so much from song to song.

I was an avid fan of Extreme . I collected numerous interviews with them in order to glimpse their origins and their influences. They were predominantly influenced by three prior groups. Queen , Aerosmith and Van Halen . Gary Cherone once said that in an interview that Extreme 's "Funk", was the kind that those bands (especially Aerosmith) performed.

However, none of those bands ever called what they did "Funk" to my knowledge or "Funky Metal" for that matter. They may have played it on occasion, but they never called it that.

Tracing down the Sources

Queen , Aerosmith and Van Halen had all themselves been influenced by other bands... "Le Freak" and "Good Times" by the band Chic (which featured guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers) was a directly influence on Queen 's "Another one bites the dust". Van Halen (especially David Lee Roth) was influenced by groups such as the Gap Band ("Early in the Morning", "Burn Rubber on Me"), and Aerosmith ("Get a Grip") was directly influenced by numerous blues artists such as Muddy Waters. (Many people, notably George Clinton , have said that Funk is essentially Blues slowed down, although I think it's a lot more to it than that)

Another direct influence on both Van Halen and Queen 's guitarists (Eddie Van Halen and Brian May, respectively) was Eric Clapton . Eric was always a bluesman, but he often presented the blues in a rock or pop context, sometimes even a Country context ("Lay down Sally"). He spent his teenage years studying the music of black American delta blues. He became good friends with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Albert King, and Jimi Hendrix, who recognized and respected his talent even at a young age. He studied and came to learn the difference between the blues of the Mississippi Delta, and Chicago. He was and is, an expert on the blues.

At one point, Eddie Van Halen and Bryan May collaborated on a record which was designed to be a tribute to blues and Eric.

Eric's response to the result was less than enthusiastic, and rather similar to what Fishbone's and the Peppers response to Extreme . He had learned what was blues, and what wasn't blues.

According to him, this wasn't blues.

It was something completely different, something that those who really didn't understand blues may produce, but not what a true bluesman would do, and not something that Clapton would do and call "The Blues".

He stated that "there are things that are blues, and things that aren't". In his opinion, they had defied the "rules" of blues, most likely (I suppose) because they hadn't really studied and learned what those rules were and as a result had produced something entirely different, or else were just trying to do something that was wild and imaginative and unbound by current blues conventions. It seemed that it was Eric's view that it's one thing to add to a genre's lexicon by doing something that hadn't been done before, but still works within the genre - it's another to do something completely outside the genre and claim that it still a part of it. Now, Eddie has studied Clapton, had learned every one one of his solo's lick for lick, but still Eric felt - based on this recording - that he hadn't learned blues.

In my view, the same could be said of Extreme , they had defied the "rules" of Funk because, from what I and others could tell, they didn't know what Funk was, and as a result, produced something that was kinda "Funky", but not Funk.

Is that bad?

Not necessarily. But it is somewhat irresponsible and disrespectful to people who take Funk seriously - just as Eric was not keen on Eddie and Bryan's version of Blues. In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with taking an inspiration and doing new things with it, (Clapton himself made a carrier of doing neo-blues and so far has only released one completely Blues album) however it can be problematic when you claim that your new thing is the *same* as what inspired it, when that clearly isn't the case.

People are likely to become confused when people define different things as the same. It is possible that the NEW definition may become dominant, especially if it becomes popular and therefore would cause the original definition and the original creators to become marginalized and irrelevant.

Don't laugh, it's happened before. (See how Rock was White Washed)

The Originators : Who made da Funk?

James Brown and George Clinton .

Both James and George blended several other musical forms to create their particular mixture. Healthy doses of Gospel, R&B, Rock & Roll and even jazz were employed. The funk they created was heavy on the bottom and creamy on the top. It not only used tight syncopation, but it also depended on the call and response between different instruments and voices, each using short, stabbing notes and chords, played both on, and off (or between) the beats of the song.

George especially delved into heavy rock and rock/funk blends on a regular basis. (Listen to this Real Audio sample from Funkadelic's HardCore Jollies) George's first successful group was was called The Parliaments and were originally signed to Motown Records. But there was another group with that name and The Parliaments , who were essentially a dop-wop group in the vein of the Four Tops, found it difficult to find a unique place for themselves in Motown's stable. So they left Motown and changed their name to Parliament . They put together a backing band of musicians, which included Guitarists Gary Shider, and Eddie Hazel, as well as former James Brown bassist Bootsy Collins. The backing band garnered a name of their own, Funkadelic. (Which represented the growing "strangeness" in their music, aka Funk, as well as various Psychedelic influences which were creeping in via Jimi Hendrix )

Parliament and Funkadelic released albums separately but toured together. The Parliament albums tended to highlight to original ensemble vocals styles of "The Parliament s" with liberal use of keyboards and horns as accompaniment, especially apparent on songs such as "Dr. Funkenstein", "Give up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucka)", "Aqua-Boogie" or "Flashlight". Where as Funkadelic usually (but not always) used lots of heavily distorted Hendrix inspired guitars on songs such as "Maggotbrain","Super Stupid","Who says a Funk band can't play Rock?" and "Hit it and Quit it". (A song that was recently covered by the band Nicklebag) They didn't always adhere to this formula, one of Funkadelic's biggest hits was "(Not Just) Knee deep". In general, Funkadelic was intended to be melding of Hendrix and Sly Stone.

Parliament/Funkadelic (as they eventually became known), not only produced a specific kind of music, they spoke to an entire subculture. The feed it and nurtured with their own point of view. Predominantly black, radical and anti-racist. Their records were eminently political, but we're often couched in humor and overt sexual innuendo.

I've met some of the members of Fishbone (at a Black Rock Coalition Bar-b-que), and I can say for a fact that they are huge Parliament fans. They were discussing rare and obscure Parliament records like "Ozmandias" when I met them. (Fishbone's "Junkie's Prayer" from the album "Reality of my Surroundings" is a direct homage to Funkadelic) The same can be said of the Chili Peppers, as George Clinton himself was the producer of their second album, "Freaky Stylely". (Sample tracks in Real Audio, "Hollywood" and "Jungle Man") Groups such as Parliament , Ohio Players and The Meters are direct influences on the Peppers and this they have made widely known.

Parliament/Funkadelic had many contemporaries in the form of music they were creating during the 70's, The Brothers' Johnson, Average White Band, Slave, Ohio Players, Roger, Zapp, Cameo, Curtis Mayfield, Lakeside, The Gap Band, Sly Stone, Steve Wonder (sometimes - Stevie was versatile), Chic as well as many many others.

Each group placed their own stamp on the form, and did it on their own way, but at the same time they maintained a curtain sensibility and cultural perspective. A certain consistency between them. To a large extent these groups, their perspective, what they expressed and how they expressed it became a large and vital portion of the Black American consciousness. It existed independent, if not in flat-out defiance of mainstream American culture. Largely because... it had to. Certainly Black American's were not readily invited to participate in America during the 60's-70's. In many ways, they still aren't unless they first shed their "blackness" by eschewing black culturalism.

For more information on the origins of Funk read "The History of Funk" w/introduction by George Clinton.

It's all a matter of Perspective.

Extreme didn't come from this perspective. The perspective of R&B, Soul and Hardcore Funk, let alone Black Nationalism, Radicalism and Culture. During the 1970's, AM Radio (which was the primary method of exposing new music) went through a profound change. In 1971, an AM radio station might play classical, as well as Folk, to R&B, to Heavy Rock back to back - opposed to within "blocks" scheduled at specific times. You could hear Simon & Garfunkel, Vivaldi and Hendrix on the same station, one following the other. But in the mid 70's that changed. Radio began to be very narrowly targeted. Niche markets were formed. There grew a niche for R&B and a niche for Rock, and niche for Hard Rock. Extreme and their music came from the perspective and niche of Hard Rock. Although they dabbled in other genre's, at their core they were a "Hard Rock" band. The chance for them being directly exposed to R&B and hardcore Funk via radio (or records for that matter) was probably slim and nil.

But they were not completely ignorant of social and cultural situations very similar to those that inspired Parliament ...Nuno Bettencourt and his family were born in Portugal and immigrated to the Boston area when he was quite young. The Bettencourt family faced quite a bit of social strife since they were foreign, originally spoke little English, and found themselves called names and racial slurs quite often. The records of Extreme reflected a definite anti-racist streak with songs such as "Color-me-blind", but also reflected - in my opinion - a certain naïveté, as if the solution to social and racial problems was to simply stick your head in the sand and pretend they didn't exist. Parliament was certainly more confrontation, in their approach. They address the problems head-on and directly, although within a veneer of outrageousness and fantasy.

With this in mind, I think it's fully possible that the various members of Extreme had little or no chance to be exposed and become familiar with any of the groups I've just mentioned, other than peripherally. This in itself isn't their fault, but is simply reflective of how isolated different segments of American culture are from one another, especially after radio changed during the 70's.

I had an opportunity to spend some time with another Boston band, Flesh, which featured two members who were relatives of members of Extreme . Markus Cherone and Paulo Bettencourt (yes, the same Paulo Bettencourt I mentioned previously). For a time they had moved to LA, to try and get a record deal and that is when we became acquainted. Flesh played the same brand of Funky Metal that Extreme played, but there were also some differences. They included a little bit more R&B than Extreme . Frequently they would throw in pieces of Michael Jackson's "Wanna be starting something" into their set, and they performed Stevie Wonders "I Wish". Visiting them at their apartment my wife and I were treated to bootleg copies of Prince and the New Power Generation, Live in Japan.

Still... all of these artists (Stevie, Michael and even Prince) are, to my mind, considered funk lightweights. They weren't Hardcore Funk. (Just as Extreme wasn't hardcore Heavy Metal, like a band like Slayer) They were all massive pop stars - Who didn't know who Michael Jackson was during the late 80's? Or Prince after Purple Rain? But they were not Parliament-Funkadelic. The P-Funk was a whole 'nother thang. It operated an entirely different level and few groups reached that level of street credibility. Their album cover artwork was the crudest possible, reflecting a completely "underground" perspective. Parliament was the full-on embodiment of underground black radical culture. Prince, Michael and Stevie were all mainstream. (Although every once in a while, Prince would go pretty far underground himself). Prince eventually signed George Clinton to his record label and frequently copped George's licks and sound, like on songs such as "Erotic City", meanwhile Stevie's flight with social-consciousness on "Songs in the Key of Life" was a definite stand out. His melody for "Past-Time Paradise" was not long ago reused by Coolio for his song "Gangster's Paradise". However, for the most part, they are rather non-radical on the political tip, but the P-Funk in it's heyday was the height of radicalism.

I never heard of Extreme doing a cover of an R&B artist, although they did do covers on occasion. They recorded a version of the Beatles' Help! as a b-side to one of their singles, and they performed (marvelously) a medley of Queen songs at the Freddie Mercury tribute at Wembly Stadium. (I think I have a copy of Extreme doing "Play that Funky Music White-Boy" live during the Pornagraphitti tour, which is horrifically ironic.)

Even so, I think that on their third album, Extreme started to get a little bit of the message - although I don't know if it was obvious to their fans or even to Extreme. The song, "Politicalamity" went beyond their usual Queen /Aerosmith references points to cop a riff from Wilson Picket's 1965 hit, "In the Midnight Hour". But then again, this song had been recently popularized at the time by "The Commitments" soundtrack, which featured a set of Irish youth singing old Motown and Soul songs.

"The Irish are the blacks of Europe..." the movie proclaimed. Ok, I'll buy that. The Irish connected with the anguish and disenfranchisement of Soul Music (in the movie), just as the working class youth of England had connected with Black, Southern, American Blues during the 60's (Clapton, The Yardbirds, The Animals, The Bluesbreakers, Led Zeppelin) They too, could understand the pain and hurt expressed in such gracious tones. "The Commitments" soundtrack was pretty ubiquitous and Extreme might have subconsciously picked up the riff from there, rather than be consciously making a reference to Soul great, Wilson Picket. The Commitments record had skyrocketed up the charts, while most of the original artists and original recordings, gathered dust. While there songs were become hits, the original artist were going broke.

Besides "Politicalamity", the Extreme song "Cupid's Dead" used a classic James Brown drum part reminiscent of the song "Funky Drummer". But again, I think they made a rather typical mistake (in playing in unison with that part, rather than in counterpoint against it), which often occurs when people try to translate Funk to Rock, due to many of the inherent differences between them.

Easily the funkiest song that Extreme ever did - was "Cynical" from their fourth album "Waiting for the Punchline", because this song included syncopation between the guitar and bass - which was a rarity for Extreme.

For a detail description of the differences between Rock and Funk - read How to be Un-phong-kay...

What you eat is what you are.

I myself grew up listening to all of the R&B, Soul and Funk bands I mentioned above, to that I would add Motown Groups like the Four Tops, the Spinners, as well Aretha Franklin. I listened to a lot of pop and rock, including The Tubes, Gary Newman, Bruce Springsteen, Rich Springfield, ELO and such in the early 80's even some neo-Country artists like Eddie Rabbit and Kenny Loggins. But I was practically ignorant of groups such as Aerosmith (not becoming truly aware of them until Run DMC covered "Walk this Way"), or Van Halen (not until "Jump" from 1984), although I was familiar with Queen ("Body Language","Under Pressure","Another one bites the dust","Bohemian Rhapsody","We are the Champions" when I went to High School in the San Fernando Valley) I didn't even become aware of Eric Clapton until he released the song "Lay down Sally" which is a Country he did, that I heard while visiting my grandmother in Louisiana. (It was a driving trip and just about every radio station in Texas, plays Country. I distinctly remember"Driving my Life Away" by Eddie Rabbit and "Lay Down Sally" by Clapton from that trip.) I had heard "Layla" and "Sunshine of your Love" but didn't know anything about who produced it, let alone realize that Eric had been a member of both Cream and Derek and the Domino's. (I didn't learn any of this until I began to study Rock Guitar) I didn't know anything about Led Zeppelin . Nothing about Black Sabbath. Practically nothing about Yes except for "Roundabout"

This was all alien to me.

It was from another world.

Surely, a world as strange and alien as the world of Parliament/Funkadelic ("The Spanking of Electric War Babies"? ,"Maggotbrain"?, "The Mothership"?) was to Extreme. At least from listening to Extreme, it sounded like these groups were alien to them.

During the 80's as I become more aware of hard rock via some friends who were fans of the band Dokken, I discovered a whole plethora of groups, from AC/DC to Quiet Riot, whom I had previously been completely unaware and had no appreciation for. I recognized in them, a similar sense of isolation and a pilgrimage that was within black music and black culture - so, I became a hardcore Hard Rock fan. I could see myself in them. Hard Rockers dressed differently, and wore their hair long - for this they were ridiculed and ostracized. They too, existed largely outside of mainstream society and culture.

Yet, I could see it as very possible that someone could be immersed completely within the Hard Rock scene and culture and never have any awareness of what was going on with Parliament or any of the groups in that culture. Part the natural reaction to being ridiculed and ostracized... is to cut oneself off from those who would attack you, thereby furthering your isolation.

You may be alone, but your safe.

Hard Rock and Funk were kindred spirits, alike, yet separate. Funk was heavily supported by Black people, and Black People are still black even if they do cut their hair. (Although not every black person is automatically a fan of funk - nor is every Funk fan black)

Being a Hard Rocker was a matter of conscious and conspicuous choice. Just as being a Punk fan is.

Being a Black Hard Rocker, or a Funk Rocker was a veritable act of courage. You could be ridiculed by everybody.

A lot of people were. Hendrix was.

Extreme always struck me of being from the Hard Rock world, but not of the Funk world (or a black one) This is essentially what the Fishbone and the Peppers were saying. They couldn't get "on the one...". Maybe they could have, in time, but I think that they just didn't know or care about that.

Extreme got their Funk third hand via Rock groups such as Aerosmith and Queen.. (They may have even gotten a little through jazz artists such as Al Dimeola, who Nuno was a big fan of and emulated in his playing)... but not directly from the sources. Sources like Parliament , Roger, Zapp, or even Chic for that matter. (It certainly didn't sound like Extreme was influenced by any of these artists) Each link in the chain, changed the music a little. Like a copy, each step created a level of degradation and loss of resolution. The final result may be unrecognizable when compared to the original.

I think that it's only inevitable that each group or person add their own spin and interpretation to a form of expression. Just as, in the world of art, each generation added their own interpretation... so is this true in the world of music. At the same time it may also be inevitable, that those who admire and respect the values of one generation of art or music... may find the interpretation of others unacceptable, if not heresy.

For more information of how blacks were driven out of Rock n' Roll read The Big Picture aka "How Rock as Whitewashed..."

Faking the Funk

It is my feeling that to some extent, it was partially the fear that the musical integrity of Funk would be diluted and watered down by bands like Extreme , performing a brand of music that was not Funk... while claiming in various ways that it was. This is to a large extent, exactly what had occurred before with Rock n' Roll.

Extreme had a different audience than either Fishbone or the Peppers. Fishbone had originally been known as a Ska band ("Party at Ground Zero") although they did do Metal/Funk blends such as on the tracks "Freddie's Dead" and "Fight the Youth". The Peppers were predominantly members of the Punk rock scene. ("True men don't kill Coyotes") Extreme was, for the most part, a Hard Rock band. There was the likelihood that Hard Rock fans would begin to think and believe that Extreme 's version of "Funk", was definitive - that it was Funk - just as they had previously grown to believe that Pat Boone and Elvis were the definitions of Rock n Roll, leaving the originators such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard without an audience.

In short, there was a danger of the gentrification of the music, which would be followed by a mass exodus from that musical form by the community which had created and supported it, just as had previously occurred with Jazz music during the 50's and Rock during the 70's.

More than being an issue of professional jealously, the perspective and comments of Fishbone and the Peppers spoke to this fear. The fear that the music would be destroyed by assimilation and dilution.

That view might seem to be an exaggeration, but the issue was large enough for Parliament , in their heyday to coin a phrase describing it.

They called it "Faking the Funk"

During the 70's Parliament was competing for the dance floor essentially, with disco. They considered disco to be "Fake" Funk, and dedicated an entire album to it. "Funkentelechy Vs the Placebo Syndrome". They were saving dance music from the "blahhhs..". This sentiment was concurred a decade after Parliament made an issue out of it on their records, when The Time released the song "Skillet" (from the Pandemonium album. The song seemed to be specifically addressing the issue of how to play (and not play) Funk Rock...

"Too many cooks in the kitchen...don't know how to cook it right...if you got The Time...we got the Skillet".

In a way, this same dilution has occurred with Hard Rock in the 90's as "Grunge" Rock came in to supplant it as the "New Rock".

But is it realistic to expect that you can protect a form of music this way?

Protectionism Vs Progression

The Soundtrack of a Culture.

It is perfectly allowable for Hip-hop to change, but not for it to change in a way that emulates another already existent form of music. In order for Hip-hop to remain alive and vibrant, it has to progress into uncharted territory. It has to continually produce something new, something that no one has heard before or done before. If it emulates an existing form there will be static, (like Jazz - "Dream Warriors", or like Rock, which occurred during the aforementioned remake of Aerosmith 's "Walk This Way" by Run-DMC - many Aerosmith and Rock fans thought it was heresy), it is subject to criticism by purveyor of that form.

Progression into uncharted territory is what kept Funk alive as long as it did. The same was true of Metal... it may be that the incorporation of existing forms like Pop, and possibly even Funk, may have help bring Metal down.

The Bottom Line

This is why I believe that both Fishbone and the Peppers we're dead-on, in their basic criticism that Extreme was basically unfunky. (Even if they were wrong about who "ripped-off" who). But also why I feel that this criticism, though not irrelevant, has to be placed in proper context. Even though Extreme was not as funky as they believed or seem to be attempting, they were still very good band. Fantastic to be exact. As I've said, it could be argued that they were essentially trying to create something new, rather than emulate something old. But since what they were creating was so dependent on what other people had already done...(the idea of Funky Metal was NOT new, Hendrix and Funkadelic had done it over decade previously. Mother's Finest had made a career of it. Fishbone did it. So did the Peppers) they each were open to the criticism, and IMO they should have been more cognizant of what a huge and deep puddle they were stepping into, rather than be defensive or turn petulant about it. What their music was, and what it wasn't spoke for itself. They tended to get themselves in trouble when they pretended (via their interviews and such) that it was something else entirely.

Even they, as good as they were (and I think they were far better than Van Halen is, even with Gary Cherone), could have still learned something and become even better.

Maybe if they had, they would still be around. Although Heavy Rock has lost much of it's popularity during the 90's, Funk has not. The Chili Peppers achieved their greatest level of success (so far), after most Hard Rock and Metal bands had begun to decline.

But then again, maybe not. No one is protected from the changes in the music scene or from the changes in culture.

A culture that doesn't change and grow... dies.

So does a form of music.

Fin.

Copyright 1998 F.V. Walton

E-mail me.

There have been visits to this page since 07/02/98