Search - Various Artists :: History of Funk 2

Funked Up!

11/13/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This series of CDs are great. A friend of mine picked one up in the shop and we all laughed at him -- until he put it on. Now every one of my friends owns the whole set. Yeah, its a bit of a history lesson but more importantly, the songs are so damn funky and fun! My favourites are Vol. 2 and 4 but they're all funky!"

Your Rating Will Depend On What You are Looking For

KC | Northern CA | 06/27/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Funk" is when r&b essentially splintered into three camps in the late 1960's ... pop r&b (most Motown), soul (the Philly Sound plus others) and funk (James Brown, Stax, Southern musicians, etc ... eventually all over). Obviously I'm generalizing here as most great musicians could easily traverse from soul to funk and pop - sometimes in some song :-)

But this collection is obviously meant to give you a basic over-view of the best of FUNK ... and it mostly succeds. like many of Rhino's best packages - if you have 2,000 CD's, you probably already have all the tracks and more importantly, all the ones they could not license and keep the costs reasonable ... so you will still need some James Brown, some Tower of Power, and dozens more (I mean, who can live with a library of only 2 Earth, Wind & Fire songs?)... though you will have all the WILD CHERRY you will need ... is there a compilation of the 1970's that PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC is not on?

For beginners of casuals fans of Funk, this is a nice beginning but that's all it is ... I'm not sure any set can be comprehensive ... well, any set less than 20 volumes and need to include Motown, Atlantic, Philly, Stax, and a couple dozen other labels ...

You can't go wrong with any in the series as there are at least several MUST HAVE gems on each one but strangely, Volume 1 is the weakest of the set. You can actually pick up that one last if just can't do without it or better yet, skip it and pick up the 20 CD's you really need from James Brown, Sly & Family Stone, Parliment and of course later, Prince.

The sound quality is excellent - great job on remastering so these will replace a lot of weaker digital transfers."

Vol 2 proves to be a better sequel

KJ the Black Bandit | Ohio, Usa | 03/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you were piqued by the first volume of this series, you'd overdose on the better selection of music here. If you are a serious funk/ol skool maven, you'd be more likely to say "Thats better." This CD has more of the type of funk that is enjoyable and less filler.
There is some there to be sure. I have nothing at all against Tina Turner, but Ike is someone I could do without. The liner notes in the series is what makes this series good. I'd be willing to bet you'd find some nuggets of info that you didn't know (Check the reason behind Average White Band's name) This is clearly better than its predecssor and one to obtain if possible"