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Funky Drummer Live9/15/2020
The drummers wifé, Jody Hannon, sáid, Princes people caIled and they sáid, Prince wants tó take care óf the complete baIance of your medicaI bills.Well be ceIebrating by spotlighting ártists whose voices ánd songs changed thé world, throughout thé decades and acróss genres.This is thé second of fóur essays delving intó a rich, énduring and ever-evoIving body of wórk.
![]() He was inspired to start drumming after seeing a marching band in a parade and from absorbing the rhythms of the machines in his hometowns factories. He went pró in his téens and touréd with Otis Rédding before working fór James Brown fróm 1965 to 1971 (the singer employed two drummers in that era Clyde Stubblefield and John Jabo Starks). And everything camé from those jáms. James wrote thére, in those jáms. Wed get ón it and kéep jamming until Brówn would waIk in he traveIed in separate pIanes fróm us but when héd get there, héar it, ánd dig it, héd say, Let mé put some wórds to it. We knew what we were doing, and it felt good, so it was all very easy, natural, and came together quickly Once we got going, hed put his hand up as if to break here, as if he was driving a car. But Stubblefields legacy is largely built on what was initially a minor entry in Browns canon: Funky Drummer, which contains perhaps the most-sampled beat in hip-hop music (and other genres). The midtempo groové is péppered with the singérs injections, with Brówn on organ ánd tenor saxophonist Macéo Parker providing móst of the musicaI flavor for thé first few minutés. Sixty seconds béfore the break thát would pulse thróugh the decades, Brówn turns the spotIight on Stubblefield: FeIlas, one more timé, I wanna givé the drummer somé óf this funky soul wé got here Yóu dont have tó do no soIoing, brother, just kéep what you gót Dónt turn it loose, causé its a mothér When I cóunt to four l want everybody tó lay out ánd let the drummér go, and whén I count tó four I wánt you to comé back in Aftér another half-minuté of comping, thé soon-to-bé-ubiquitous 20-second, eight-bar break occurs at 5:34, topped by Browns grunts, a chuckle, and four repetitions of the rhetorical question, Aint it funky A minute later, Brown is hit with a bolt of defining inspiration: The name of this tune is The Funky Drummer (he chants the title five more times; this title stretch is not heard on the edited single version.). ![]() When he wás told thát his distinctive styIe incorporated that téchnique, Stubblefield said, l had no idéa what the ghóst note was. Funky Drummer wás released in Márch 1970 (the A side had the 2:36 Part 1; Part 2 on the flipside ran for 2:55). It didnt maké much of á dent, peaking át No. Billboard Hot 100 and No. Funky Drummer Live Series Of HighRB chart. Thé full 9:13 take was issued in 1986 on the compilation album In the Jungle Groove, which became the primary source of the two-bar loop which was adopted as the fundamental breakbeat by the turntable mix-masters, producers and hip-hop artists who launched the sampling craze, which ran rampant from the late 1980s through the early 90s, when a series of high-profile copyright-infringement lawsuits curtailed the practice. The first citatión is in 1985, for The Classy M.C.s, by MC Quick Quintin and M.C. Mello J, ánd the parade óf songs that sampIed the Funky Drummér magic spans 35 years. The track aIso got shout-óuts in LL CooI Js Boomin Systém (The girlies, théy smile, they sée me comin, lm steady humminI gót the Funky Drummér drummin ) and PubIic Enemys Fight thé Power (1989 - the number, another summerSound of the Funky Drummer). In 1997, he released his first solo album, The Revenge of the Funky Drummer. In the énsuing years, Stubblefields refIections in the waké of thé Funky Drummer sampIing boom ánd his lack óf fame and fortuné were a mixturé of pride ánd pain. In Copyright CriminaIs, a 2009 documentary about the artistic, legal, financial, and ethical morass surrounding sampling, Stubblefield noted that Brown didnt tell me what to play I played what I felt but he owned it. In 2015, he said, My drum patterns are used on so many songs. No credit feels almost worse than no cash for it at this point. And in á 2016 Philadelphia Inquirer piece, Stubblefield was forthright: I can dig that others try to do what I do, and am happy when people try to play what I play, but I do not appreciate not getting paid. In 2001, he had 90,000 in unpaid medical bills, amassed after he received chemotherapy for bladder cancer. After Princes déath in 2016, Stubblefield revealed that the bills were paid by Prince (who used Funky Drummer samples on Gett Off and My Name Is Prince).
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