What’s in a title? well quite a bit of info when said title is Function Underground: The Black And Brown American Rock Sound 1969-1974. A RSD 2017 release of 2000 copies, I saw it, I bought it, I grooved.
The rationale behind this compilation* is to corral and celebrate African and Mexican American rockers, when in the popular mind, Hendrix (and the odd band with a black member) aside, the black scene was entirely soul/funk and the many variations thereof. Function Underground** argues that to cut folks of colour out of, let’s face it, a genre they created and enthusiastically practiced is far too simplistic at best and cultural appropriation on a grand scale at worst.
I get it but I am not sure I do agree with the thrust of the main argument – but more on that later. We came for the music and like the best compilations do Function Underground shines a strong love light into some long-unexplored quarters.
Most of the groups here released maybe a single at most, some not even that, during their active lifetime. Whilst not wishing to be unkind to anybody’s grandpa I can see why in a couple of cases, overall though there are some absolute sparklers right here. My favourites being:
- Ebony Rhythm Band Drugs Ain’t Cool: Man, I have to disagree on this evidence! Fully whacked-out frenetic soloing and superb drumming abounds. ‘I shot some smack and I can’t get back’ is a great hook line.
- Jimi Macon Jimi’s Guitar Raps With The Bass: Mr Macon’s unreleased single is instrumental dynamite, the guitaring really would not have disgraced that other Jimi.
- Creations Unlimited Corruption Is the Thing: Starts of in a half-baked fashion but picks up some terminal velocity, sounds like a War LP on 45RPM, with some scorching guitar virtuosity amidst all manner of wildly persuasive percussion.
- We The People Function Underground: Starts with the ‘Purple Haze’ riff and extrapolates spacewards from there. All manner of stoned honking brass and psychedelic guitar noodling. I love the way the rhythm falls apart at one point before righting itself.
- Blacklites BL Movement: A post-coital unfolding of a tune, with some top-notch Manzareking going on. A smoother treat than most here.
- 1984 There’s A Wrinkle In Our Time: I’ll have some of what these guys were on please, a fairly standard rock groove bookended by some serious psychedelic chops.
By far the best track here is the Revolution ‘The Siesta Is Over’, to be fair there aren’t that many LPs out there that it wouldn’t be the best track on. It sounds like a party in a bomb site to me, a raucous consciousness-raising slice of we’re-not-gonna-take-this-shit-so-let’s-dance. Blessed with some seriously heavy organ sounds and raw guitar ‘The Siesta Is Over’ burns into all sorts of interesting turf, the groove almost sounds reggaefied at one point. The Revolution really do want you to party for your right to fight. This is every bit as great as only dancing to the sound of police sirens can be. Mint.
Now let’s cut back to the central thesis behind Function Underground, that because of ethnicity all these rockers were not accorded their dues, denied access to a rock scene because of the myopic nature of US radio programming and were labelled soul or funk acts. I get it.
What strikes me listening to it in 2020 is that each and every cut here incorporates all manner of interesting rhythms, percussion and instrumentation and that no matter how much the guitars bite on Function Underground a lot of these tracks do sound like cousins of the harder-edged funk and psychedelic soul that I like best. Think about Eddie Hazel letting rip for Funkadelic, or the inescapable Jimi Hendrix blending it all together and bringing it on home.
The point is that there is a brilliant creative genre blurring/blending/warping going on in this music^ and that is what these acts should be duly celebrated for – a far more interesting prospect than just tagging them in as ‘rock’. Some of these guys are really letting their freak flags fly and stirring some of my underground functions as a result.
Siesta time is definitely over!
Bearing in mind that Function Underground must have been assembled from some pretty audio poor sources in some cases I have to really commend Now-Again Records for the great sound quality here. The whole release is exemplary quality, although I’d have gone for a gaudier cover than a collage of the various bands, but hey I’m not a very subtle beast.
1013 Down.
*as set out in the extensive booklet included.
**I’m saving pixels here, I’d bust a gasket typing up the whole title each time.
^which is always what gets me off musically when all these boundaries get blurred and folks start to get innovative.
