The Definitive Use of the Funky Drummer

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Spin ofm of this thread. Your favorite song to make use of the Clyde Stubblefield break.

― Mark, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

urban shakedown - some justice. there can be no other contender

― gareth, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mantronix 'Got To Have Your Love'

― David, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You know how to use the Funky Drummer was George Michael. My track is "Waiting For That Day/You can't Always Get What You Want."

― Mark, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hands down, Eric B. & Rakim's "Lyrics of Fury." Simple, nearly unadorned, totally effective.

― Douglas, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sinead O'Connor - I Am Stretched On Your Grave (does nothing interesting with the sample, but the song and the arrangement is just great).

― Jeff W, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I find it deeply disturbing that the first thing I thought of was Sinead O'Connor. Anyhow: P.E. - "Bring the Noise" barely over "Lyrics of Fury" with Run DMC's "Beats to the Rhyme" and LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" trailing behind and Sinead tying Wagon Christ's "Filthy Drummer" in the 'best use, non-hip-hop' division.

― J Blount, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Being Boring," Pet Shop Boys (used in intro to LP version)

― s woods, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to go with "Rebel without a Pause" for this one: the original is still the greatest (relatively speaking)...unless someone else got there first, in case oops (oh my)

― M Matos, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Um...I think the best use of the Funky Drummer was in a James Brown tune...which I can't recall the name of...

― Lord Custos v2.3, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

On BoomSelector there's a great bootleg that puts it on top of the Star Wars Imperial March

― phil, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeeeeassss! I just downloaded it and it is awesome.

― Lord Custos v2.3, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"I have Seen the Future, and its name is Vader."

― Lord Custos v2.3, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to go with Rebel Without a Pause. What Beastie Boys song do they cheekily toss it in the last bar on?

― Jordan, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

shadrach

― Keith McD, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yes. i was hearing ask for janice in my head after it...

― Ron, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

six years pass...

some background I came across looking for bugalu and Joe Cuba...

Brown’s change to a funkier brand of soul required 4/4 metre and a different style
of drumming. Alfred ‘Pee Wee’ Ellis, Brown’s bandleader and arranger after 1965,
credited Clyde Stubblefield’s adoption of New Orleans drumming techniques

from Funky Drummer:New Orleans, James Brown and the Rhythmic transformation of Alerican popular music

by Alexander Stewart 2000

― curmudgeon, Monday, 16 February 2009 21:37 (seventeen years ago)

big ol pdf

http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2F662A6E01F7B06DA91D75CC4CA9F13D03_tomcat1__PMU_PMU19_03_S0261143000000180a.pdf&ftype=9&code=72e889230529db67ae713db408d36660#xml=http://journals.cambridge.org/data/userPdf/

― curmudgeon, Monday, 16 February 2009 21:38 (seventeen years ago)

The initial question is a great one.

Whereas I think the answer for Synthetic Substitution is clear to me (O.P.P., despite Ego Trippin' beating it to the punch by years), I really can't pinpoint one definitive use of FD.

I might go with 1987's Rebel w/o a Pause.

Also, the first break to really get broken down into individual drums and canonized on their own (well before D&B's use of Amen, of course).

― awesome was amazing (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 16 February 2009 21:42 (seventeen years ago)

"File not found." But I googled it and found it.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 16 February 2009 21:48 (seventeen years ago)

This looks like the article I always wanted to read. Thanks, Steve.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 February 2009 01:34 (seventeen years ago)

I say "Rebel Without a Pause" as definitive "Funky Drummer" usage, but wasn't "The Bridge" the first track to sample individual drums?

― I would much rather listen to hard bop jazz and stfu (The Reverend), Tuesday, 17 February 2009 02:17 (seventeen years ago)

DJ Marley Marl, producer of MC Shan's "The Bridge", was one of the first to sample drums

Displeased with the corny sounds of most drum machines, he began mixing elements from the likes of James Brown and Parliament with the technology of the time. Marl found his power in the Roland TR-808 and his signature sampler, an SDD-series Korg Digital Delay (of which he had three). "I was sampling a vocal snippet, but the snare was in there, too," Marl says. "I noticed it sounded better than the snare I had on the drum machine, so I started to play around with kick and snare sampling."

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 17 February 2009 03:30 (seventeen years ago)

I find it deeply disturbing that the first thing I thought of was Sinead O'Connor - ain't no shame in this.

― 2 ears + 1 ❤ (Pillbox), Tuesday, 17 February 2009 03:34 (seventeen years ago)

Marley Marl interviewing Clyde, with examples!

― zappi, Monday, 2 March 2009 13:46 (seventeen years ago)

Thanks for this Steve. (It comes up right away on Google.)

― Matos W.K., Tuesday, 3 March 2009 00:01 (seventeen years ago)

thanks for that!

― 51 things I hate about you (The Reverend), Tuesday, 3 March 2009 01:12 (seventeen years ago)

Mark was OTM in the fourth post already

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 3 March 2009 22:06 (seventeen years ago)

How is Justify My Love not mentioned here?

― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 4 March 2009 05:20 (seventeen years ago)

With redone high hats and so forth.

― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 4 March 2009 05:21 (seventeen years ago)

i think you meant this

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 06:58 (seventeen years ago)

Was In The Jungle Groove released at the exact perfect moment in pop history or what? This shoulda been a poll!

I gotta go with the super female that's called Shanté.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 4 March 2009 08:46 (seventeen years ago)

I'm pretty sure In the Jungle Groove was released with the express intent of capitalizing on that perfect moment, already in progress.

― ilx has drained my soul (The Reverend), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 08:49 (seventeen years ago)

yeah it was. danny krivit didnt do the funky drummer edit for no reason.

really tho, this is the comp you all need:
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-440277-1172472021.jpeg

― Yellow Carded (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 10:55 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-440277-1172472021.jpeg

― Yellow Carded (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 10:55 (seventeen years ago)

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