Funk vs. Disco

[The Bear Jew]

At least "Disco Duck" was supposed to be funny (and failed.) "I Was Made For Loving You" wound up being funny, but it was probably the band's biggest hit. I'm not sure what this means about society in general, but it can't be good.

[jcadmus]

Actually, I think everything KISS did was meant to be funny -- it was sort of like watching Saturday morning cartoons.

 

And I mean that in a good way.

[The Bear Jew]

I agree... but that song was funny in a sad way--like watching a clown take a beating from a gang of toddlers.

[jcadmus]

But THAT WOULD BE funny.

 

[Groove Mama]

But THAT WOULD BE funny.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.

[Juancarlin]

Sorry I arrived late at this conversation (have been QUITE busy lately and spent very little time online...).

 

Disco? Funk? I grew up listening to both... I definitely LOVE both... I would't say one is better than the other.. there are real gems, specially bass-playing gems, in Disco.. Bernard Edwards was living proof of it, and the awful lot of fine jazz/fusion players who were involved in Disco projects...

 

Comes to mind Mongo Santamaria's version of "Watermelon Man", on his 1979 "Red Hot" album. Or some of the work done by whoever might have been Donna Summer's bass player on the "Live and more" album. Certainly not all Disco music was eight-note octave playing.

 

Out of curiosity... would you say "Rock the Boat" qualifies as Disco? That's James Jamerson in there, by the way.

 

(*) Oh, and CHAKA!! She walked BOTH roads! I definitely LOVE the bass playing in "I'm every woman"... any idea who it was? My vinyl record had no credits... I love everything Chaka has done anyway.

 

I have the luck (or so I think) of being playing Disco again nowadays since two years ago, along with a lovely bunch of tunes I grew up listening to (and which I liked... there were another lot of tunes I disliked back then, I would play them now for money, but that would be about it). It has paid very well, and I gig with it quite regularly. It brings me a big smile to my face, and it makes me feel good. As with any other dance music I've played in the past. It makes people feel good, and i'd say there are little things related to playing music that would be better than playing in front of a happy audience. That, a nice sounding, tight and well paid band, and some nice food on our backstage's table to go with it makes it for me.

 

Oh, and Jeremy... please don't accuse the band I'm playing in of stealing half of your 1977's playlist. The other half I either want to play too, or am curious enough to want to know how does it merge with the Disco tunes. A nice sounding band, with a BIG, varied repertoire, able to play anything, anytime, is one of my ideas of happiness.

[Groove Mama]

there are real gems, specially bass-playing gems, in Disco..

 

Yeah, this is the hard part for me. I don't seem to like the "disco sound," but I can't deny that there's a lot of similarity between the two genres. I'm just trying to figure out why I like one but am not so hot about the other.

 

Out of curiosity... would you say "Rock the Boat" qualifies as Disco? That's James Jamerson in there, by the way.

 

This blows my mind.

 

(*) Oh, and CHAKA!! She walked BOTH roads! I definitely LOVE the bass playing in "I'm every woman"... I love everything Chaka has done anyway.

 

I'm in total agreement with you there, brother.

 

It brings me a big smile to my face, and it makes me feel good.

 

This is probably the best barometer of all for judging music.

[picker]

there are real gems, specially bass-playing gems, in Disco..

 

There's good, edible food in the dumpsters behind every grocery store, but what you have to crawl through to find it guarantees I'll be going through the front door instead, at least for as long as I can afford it...

[Groove Mama]

there are real gems, specially bass-playing gems, in Disco..

 

There's good, edible food in the dumpsters behind every grocery store, but what you have to crawl through to find it guarantees I'll be going through the front door instead, at least for as long as I can afford it...

 

Wow, that's quite the vivid analogy!

[butcherNburn]

I find "Disco Duck" less offensive than "I Was Made For Loving You" by Kiss.

 

Yeah, I'm gonna call "Potato, Tomato" on that one.

 

The Kinks hit a low point around then too.

 

I never cared for Kiss, but man could Gene sell stuff.

[Groove Mama]

I never cared for Kiss, but man could Gene sell stuff.

 

Ewww. That guy totally skeeves me out. (shudder)

[The Bear Jew]

Yeah, I'm pretty embarrassed by Gene these days.

 

But, back on topic, I can see what you're saying about finding bass gems in a genre of music you don't particularly dig--in this case, disco. There have been times when I would listen to some bands or genres of music because the guitar/bass/drummer/vocalist was really talented, and I can't say I haven't gained some knowledge from the experience of absorbing that music, but as much as I may appreciate virtuoso talent, I don't have the patience to slog through a song (or songs) I dislike in order to hear some kind of amazing bit of wizardry. This practice just frustrates me... I wind up thinking, "Wow, great bass (or guitar/drum/vocal) part.... too bad it's in a wretchedly awful song!"

 

I guess my point is that, for me, enjoyable musical experiences come from listening to music that feels like the whole thing (not just one instrument) is kick-ass and inspiring.

[Chad Thorne]

You're kick-ass and inspiring.

[The Bear Jew]

Awww.

[Chad Thorne]

Sorry I arrived late at this conversation (have been QUITE busy lately and spent very little time online...).

 

Disco? Funk? I grew up listening to both... I definitely LOVE both... I would't say one is better than the other.. there are real gems, specially bass-playing gems, in Disco.. Bernard Edwards was living proof of it, and the awful lot of fine jazz/fusion players who were involved in Disco projects...

 

Comes to mind Mongo Santamaria's version of "Watermelon Man", on his 1979 "Red Hot" album. Or some of the work done by whoever might have been Donna Summer's bass player on the "Live and more" album. Certainly not all Disco music was eight-note octave playing.

 

Out of curiosity... would you say "Rock the Boat" qualifies as Disco? That's James Jamerson in there, by the way.

 

(*) Oh, and CHAKA!! She walked BOTH roads! I definitely LOVE the bass playing in "I'm every woman"... any idea who it was? My vinyl record had no credits... I love everything Chaka has done anyway.

That's what I'M talkin' about!

 

Jamerson was on "Rock The Boat?" No wonder it grooves - I've always loved that recording!

[Griffinator]

You're that recording.

[davio]

There's good, edible food in the dumpsters behind every grocery store, but what you have to crawl through to find it guarantees I'll be going through the front door instead, at least for as long as I can afford it...

I call Shenanigans on you for this one. How much "classic rock" do I have to sift through in a random playlist of the genre before I come to something that interests me? In my particular case, almost all of it...but that's not what I'm getting at. I can name countless songs in any genre that are full of crap. It's not just disco.

[davio]

Or some of the work done by whoever might have been Donna Summer's bass player on the "Live and more" album.

Sal Guglielmi

 

Out of curiosity... would you say "Rock the Boat" qualifies as Disco?

I think most critics call(ed) it disco.

 

Oh, and CHAKA!! She walked BOTH roads! I definitely LOVE the bass playing in "I'm every woman"... any idea who it was? My vinyl record had no credits... I love everything Chaka has done anyway.

Will Lee

[jeremy c]

The Donna Summer Live and More record is excellent. It is not what I would call a disco record even though it was recorded when she had big disco hits.

[Juancarlin]

So... it is Sal Guglielmi on Donna Summer's, huh? Time to do my homework on him.

 

Will Lee on Chaka's... no wonder, that album sounds awesome. As my other favourite "What'cha gonna do for me"... love the title track, and the KILLER versions of both "Night in Tunisia" (Had the pleasure of playing that exact version some years ago with a nice quintet I played in), and "We can work it out"... definitely killin'.

 

 

I guess it all depends. I grew up listening and loving these songs, so I know exactly where to look (or which names to look for first) when I want "My" Disco served, and I don't have to wade through rivers of repetitive pointless Disco mixes. I also grew up amidst a local heyday of fast-food joints (comes to mind our very local "Tropi Burger", some kind of local version of Burger King BEFORE Burger King and McDo ever came to my country, unfortunately it does not longer exists since at least a couple decades ago), and I somehow liked them as part of my environment, and I can eventually enjoy a burger or two, although nowadays I'd rather have any other kind of healthier, more satisfactory, not-so-fast kind of food. Disco (And most of commercial/dance music anyway) is generally like fast-food: it delivers something that pleases the masses, quickly and without much compromise, but it does not guarantees you QUALITY. If you want to jump and shake (Or feel your stomach is not empty) you can order the "fast" option. If you want a more satisfactory feeling, which (in both cases, at least here in my country) does not necessarily means one is cheaper than the other, you should resort to the "slower" option.

 

That does not means you cannot enjoy a fast burger every once in a while. After all, that's what guilty pleasures are all about. So YMMV.

 

PS: I also have some musical "guilty pleasures" that are quite "slow to cook". After all, arranging a song for a 25-piece orchestra and chorus isn't THAT easy. Ray Conniff comes to mind first... and fast.

 

[Eric VB]

The first version I heard of "Knock on Wood" was by Amii Stewart, "a disco version of the song which reached #1 in the U.S. charts in April 1979".

 

I respect the original recording by Eddie Floyd from '66 (#28 on Hot 100, #1 on Soul Singles), but it always seems a bit tepid to me in comparison.

 

Eddie's take is perhaps more musical with more attention to dynamics and such, while Amii's is just bursting with energy.

 

To paraphrase Tina Turner, sometimes we like to dance "nice and easy" and sometimes we like to dance "rough". Fortunately music comes in enough variety to support all kinds of dancing.

[jeremy c]

...Eddie's take is perhaps more musical with more attention to dynamics and such, while Amii's is just bursting with energy...

 

Blasphemy!

[Tone Taster]

As far as rhythm section, Disco definitely seemed more "four on the floor". Instrumentation-wise the disco tunes had little variation in parts between the bass-keys-gtr. The beats in funk are certainly more syncopated, and the way the instruments were stacked w/each instrument filling in their own little pocket is what makes the music more textured than disco.

 

Further disco had copious amounts of strings

while funk was more horn section based

 

Pop song structuring was more evident in disco while in funk, there were alot of vamps

 

The tempos in disco were at medium-up such as 116 on the low end and would surpass 120 bpms, while funk would be about 104-110 on the high end

 

ok - finished my coffee . . .

 

 

 

 

[Groove Mama]

As far as rhythm section, Disco definitely seemed more "four on the floor". Instrumentation-wise the disco tunes had little variation in parts between the bass-keys-gtr. The beats in funk are certainly more syncopated, and the way the instruments were stacked w/each instrument filling in their own little pocket is what makes the music more textured than disco.

 

Further disco had copious amounts of strings

while funk was more horn section based

 

Pop song structuring was more evident in disco while in funk, there were alot of vamps

 

The tempos in disco were at medium-up such as 116 on the low end and would surpass 120 bpms, while funk would be about 104-110 on the high end

 

ok - finished my coffee . . .

Wow, that's quite the definitive comparison. Must be ~some~ coffee! Thanks, yZe.