This week’s Theme Thursday is my suggestion, so of course I can’t be late on *this* one.  The theme is “funky”.  Funky has lots of different usages, but this week I’m going to talk about one in particular.

In the household of my youth, my parents listened to several different kinds of music.  Dad listened to Irish folk music (The Clancey Brothers and The Dubliners and the like), classical music (Beethoven’s 5th in C minor is my all-time favorite classical piece, courtesy of my father), and on the rare occasion Bob Dylan, at TOP volume.  Mom, on the other hand, introduced her children to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, and this…

James Brown, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Joe Tex, Archie Bell and the Drells, etc.

Motown, where Funky started.

The above two-album (long play 33s, for you youngsters out there) set came out usually when Mom had a couple, and sister Megan and I would dance like a couple of nutbars.  Later, Tom and Ann would likewise get into the act.  I’m not exactly sure why Mom picked me to be the inheritor of the set, but I’m glad I got it.  I’ve been meaning to get the stereo hooked up to a computer for years to get the thing digitized, and it’s only been in the last couple of weeks that this project has started moving forward.

Compact discs are higher quality than digital downloads or L.P.s, but there’s something about the familiarity of albums.  When you own records and play them routinely, they develop idiosyncracies that nobody else’s copy of the album has.  The hiss on one track and the pop of a physical mar on another trigger a personalized memory.  Listening to the album is different from listening to a digital recording, for those of us who are old enough to have had them.  I owe my siblings at least tape recordings of this set.  Here’s what’s on ’em

Record One, Side A

1. Sweet Soul Music, Arthur Conley
2. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, Otis Redding
3. Funky Broadway, Wilson Pickett
4. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, Sam and Dave
5. Knock On Wood, Eddie Floyd

Record One, Side B

1. When A Man Loves A Woman, Percy Sledge
2. Shake, Sam Cooke
3. Slip Away, Clarence Carter
4. Tighten Up, Archie Bell and the Drells
5. Soul Man, Sam and Dave

Record Two, Side A

1. I’ll Be Doggone, Marvin Gaye
2. Skinny Legs And All, Joe Tex
3. Have You Seen Her, Chi-Lites
4. Hold On! I’m Comin’, Sam and Dave
5. In The Midnight Hour, Wilson Pickett

Record Two, Side B

1. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, Jackie Wilson
2. Hold On To What You’ve Got, Joe Tex
3. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag, Otis Redding (better than James Brown’s version, IMO)
4. Show Me, Joe Tex
5. Going To A Go Go, The Miracles

Now, if you’ll excuse me, in honor of Theme Thursday, I have to go put on Funky Broadway.

Every town I go in
There’s a street, uh, huh
Name of the street, uh, huh
Funky funky Broadway

Down on Broadway, huh
There’s a nightclub, now, now
Name of the nightclub, now baby
Funky Funky Broadway

Down on Broadway
There’s a crowd, now, huh
Name of the crowd, baby
Broadway crowd

Down on Broadway, yeah
There’s a dancestep, huh
Name of the dance,
Funky Funky Broadway, hey! huh

Wiggle your legs now, baby
Shake your head, ooh, huh
Do the shing-a-ling now baby, now
Shake, shake, shake now
You don’t know, huh, baby, now
You don’t know, now woman, owww!
Doin’ the funky Broadway, hey!
Lord have mercy

Oh, you got me feelin’ alright

Dirty filthy Broadway
Don’t I like the Broadway, huh
That Broadway, lookit here

Down on Broadway
There’s a woman
Name of the woman, huh
Broadway woman, hey!

Down on Broadway, yeah
There’s a man, huh
Name of the man…