Last night I sat back and watched VH1’s Rock Docs episode of “Finding The Funk”. The documentary which was presented by Nelson George and Narrated by QuestLove, gave a road trip that touched on areas traveling into the 70s & 80s through the Bay Area to celebrate Sly & the Family Stone, then to Dayton the birthplace of so many of Funk’s originators, then onto Detroit where from the ashes of Motown, P-Funk’s Mothership arose, and then to LA where a new crop of musicians are creating their own Funk history.
They interviewed such legends as Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell, and Steve Arrington (of Slave) and even folks such as Mike D (of the Beasie Boys), Marcus Miller, D’Angelo, Sheila E, Shock G (of Digital Underground) Sade’s Stuart Matthewman, and many others. Basically, many of the musicians and showmen which have defined the lineage.
Needless to say, my watching this program was like a kid in a candy store. I was in heaven. Everything they talked about and documented I remembered clearly.
The only thing that did disappoint me about it was that there was no mentions of Go-Go music, which basically came into the picture coinciding along with Hip-Hop.
The above image is a picture of the map that was displayed in this program (click image for larger view). Notice the bands Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers, Trouble Funk and Rare Essence are showcased on the map (far right area of the map, next to the DC area). Although I was jive disappointed that Go-Go did not get mentioned the props in this program that it should have (especially knowing that it was done by Nelson George and Quest Love), I should at least be happy that they placed it on the map… I guess.
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