If you ask people my age what music first really opened their mind, many of them would say funk – it was our gateway to punk. P-Funk Parliament-Funkadelic created a universe that molded our minds into young weirdos. After seeing George Clinton and his band of freaks perform in outlandish costumes, how the Sex Pistols looked was almost normal. Musically, funk was all about self-expression, just like the early punk scene in both England and the States. The P-Funk all stars did not give a fuck, and created a dance beat that would had you under their spell. You could hear the influence of the bouncy, rolling baselines of Funk in early Post Punk and certain 80’s hardcore bands. There would not have been the Gang of Four, Talking Heads, Bush Tetras, PYLON, ESG, Maximum Joy, Glaxo Babies, Minutemen, Big Boys, PIL and many more without this influence. Not all of these bands had a political message, but many of them did, which sounded cool against their driving back beats. So part of Post Punk’s foundation can be found in in the words of Mr Clinton – free your ass and your mind will follow! Today we celebrate the Funk // Post Punk connection with a huge video essay that will tell the story better than my words ever could…Part 2 of this story coming soon: Post Punk and the Dub connection!
Gang of Four
Taliking Heads
Bush Tetras
Pylon
ESG
Maximum Joy
Glaxo Babies
Minutemen
Big Boys
PIL
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