The Guardian's requiem for James Brown or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate The Guardian

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Funk did this by John Harris
Friday January 5, 2007
The Guardian

"Farewell then, James Brown: King Dancer, Godfather of Soul and a man so important that his passing was enough to make Michael Jackson speak in a slightly deeper voice. Not that anyone will truly miss the kind of performances he put in towards the end of his life - hired hands churning out the hits while Mr Brown issued the odd encouraging shriek. But fair play: in coming up with the essential formula for funk music, he surely made a contribution to human development that could never be adequately repaid.

Article continues
Or then again, perhaps not. Before writing this, I was momentarily frozen by fear of speaking ill of the dead and blaming JB for something that might not have been his fault. The feeling, thankfully, didn't linger - so, by way of backhandedly honouring his memory, let's say it loud: funk is the worst musical genre ever invented, a big old stain on Brown's CV and the cause of at least four decades of grinding misery.

This, I will allow, is less a matter of such trailblazing proto-funk Brown pieces as Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Sex Machine and I Got the Feelin', as the ongoing nightmare of chronic indulgence and musical slop they undoubtedly spawned. If you doubt this, listen to the supposed high points of the genre: anything by the likes of Tower of Power, pre-disco Kool and the Gang, Cameo before they discovered pop music, or the woeful Ohio Players. And before anyone mentions the peak-period work of George Clinton, I say only this: hats off for the UFO, onstage fancy dress and occasional pearling tune, but did everything have to be so long? (I have a friend who saw Funkadelic in Manchester in 1975 - a six-hour performance, he says, that amounted to an experiment involving the limits of human endurance.)

All that said, funk's acme of unbearability was only reached thanks to two developments: 1) its decisive hybridisation into jazz-funk, surely as awful an invention as, say, the thumbscrews; and 2) as with so many things, its wholesale appropriation by a certain kind of white person. On the latter count, I speak on the basis of experience: though the totemically funksome technique known as slap-bass was probably the invention of the sometime Sly & the Family Stone bass man Larry Graham, I will always associate it with a teenage acquaintance named Steve. He would occasionally drop in on my mod band and borrow our bassist's instrument, using his well-trained right hand to give it the old bink-bap-dip-dup, to nobody's great benefit.

Twenty-five years later, I saw decisive proof of funk's utter evil. On a trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi - one-time home of the blues, now home to a small blues industry - a friend and I were taken on a tour of a part of town that seemed to have been suddenly deserted in around 1975, leaving empty buildings and grass growing through the cracks in the road. Though I naively assumed this was probably down to the mechanisation of the cotton industry, our guide put us right: "Funk did this," he said (really, he did), claiming that, in killing the last traces of the blues, the nightmare genre had also done for his community. Just for a moment, my mind was filled with the image of a bass player dressed up like a BacoFoil model of a partridge, standing at the top of one of the town's taller buildings and blitzing all in front of him with every miserable thwack of his thumb.:

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

Alexis On Fire

― jimn (jimnaseum), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

All that said, music journalism's acme of unbearability was only reached thanks to two developments: 1) its decisive hybridisation into idiot thinkpieces, surely as awful an invention as, say, the thumbscrews; and 2) as with so many things, its wholesale appropriation by a certain kind of white person.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:41 (nineteen years ago)

That piece really did disgust me. Petridis might right a load of pish but nothing coming close to that level of offensiveness. I was sorely tempted to write in a vitriolic, philippic to the Graun because of it. Newspaper so full of hand-wringing, namby-pamby liberalism and they publish that piece of racist shit.

― jimn (jimnaseum), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:46 (nineteen years ago)

...as with so many things, its wholesale appropriation by a certain kind of white person. On the latter count, I speak on the basis of experience: though the totemically funksome technique known as slap-bass was probably the invention of the sometime Sly & the Family Stone bass man Larry Graham, I will always associate it with a teenage acquaintance named Steve.

by the same logic, Wh Shakespeare Chas Dickens and Rudyard Kipling ruined the English language by inspiring this douchebag to print his rancid patronizing opinions in a once-respected newspaper.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

Jesus fucking Christ.

Let we forget, he also wrote this:

Remember, though: in the dark days of 1991-93, it looked like the guitar really was extinct, but rock bit back and eventually won. Who now listens to such rave milestones as the Prodigy's 1992 hit Charly, the entire oeuvre of Altern 8 (two blokes who essentially released the same record over and over again - what cards!) and Shaft's 1992 smash Roobarb and Custard? Only very strange people.

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

jimn, I doubt from your comments that you've even picked up a hard copy of The Guardian in the last few years, because if you had, you likely wouldn't have bothered commenting so breathlessly.

The piece in question is an opinion column printed in the corner of p2 of the Film & Music supplement. Also, it's by John Harris. Both of these signify 'ignore'.

― MacDara Conroy (MacDara), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

not racist, just silly. he has an obvious point about poor appropriation of Funk and the negative aspects of it's Prog side but is only blaming this on Brown to provoke.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

that six-hour funkadelic gig sounds mindblowing!

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

No matter how spoiled, vengeful or self-indulgent any supposedly titanic talent may be, the true geniuses - Lennon, Dylan, Tom from Kasabian - always exhibit some thread of empathetic humanity.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

"If black people are so good, how come Paul Weller's not black, huh?"

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

I actually just realized he's the same guy who wrote that Dark Side of the Moon book I liked. I had no idea this man was such a philistine.

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

"I have a friend who saw Funkadelic in Manchester in 1975 - a six-hour performance, he says, that amounted to an experiment involving the limits of human endurance."

Funkadelic's were always jerks like that, never letting people leave.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 7 January 2007 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

maybe john harris decried the influence of robt johnson during the 60s british blues boom too but I bet not.

and it's stealth-racist in the condescending tone of guilty white liberalism i.e. don't these poor misguided negroes realize the cultural importance of the blues? what's wrong w/em?

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

On a trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi - one-time home of the blues, now home to a small blues industry - a friend and I were taken on a tour of a part of town that seemed to have been suddenly deserted in around 1975, leaving empty buildings and grass growing through the cracks in the road. Though I naively assumed this was probably down to the mechanisation of the cotton industry, our guide put us right: "Funk did this," he said (really, he did), claiming that, in killing the last traces of the blues, the nightmare genre had also done for his community.

And grunge rock really killed Styx, too!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:05 (nineteen years ago)

Also very very very telling: nowhere in the world of this article does hip-hop exist.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

On a trip to Flint, Michigan - one-time home of the Grand Funk Railroad, now home to a small bar band industry - a friend and I were taken on a tour of a part of town that seemed to have been suddenly deserted in around 1975, leaving empty buildings and grass growing through the cracks in the road. Though I naively assumed this was probably down to the decline of the automobile industry, our guide put us right: "The Ramones did this," he said (really, he did), claiming that, in killing the last traces of grunty arena rock, the nightmare genre had also done for his community.

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

Klosterman is EVERYWHERE.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

On a trip to Camden, London - one-time home of Placebo, now home to a lot of Spanish exchange students - a friend and I were taken on a tour of a part of town that seemed to have been suddenly deserted in around 1999, leaving empty buildings and grass growing through the cracks in the road. Though I naively assumed this was probably down to the decline of the snakebite and black industry, our guide put us right: "The Libertines did this," he said (really, he did), claiming that, in killing the last traces of grunty arena rock, the nightmare genre had also done for his community.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

On a trip to Bridgeton, Glasgow - one-time home of Lonnie Donegan, now fro-yo capital of the world - a friend and I were taken on a tour of a part of town that seemed to have been suddenly deserted in around 1975, leaving empty buildings and grass growing through the cracks in the road. Though I naively assumed this was probably down to the decline of shipbuilding, our guide put us right: "Pink Floyd did this," he said (really, he did), claiming that, in killing the last traces of hiccupy skiffle, the nightmare genre had also done for his community.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

I guess the point of the article was to demonstrate that he's listened to Tower of Power and Ohio Players and Kool and the Gang albums? No expert on the genre, but it seems to me that even if funk was not at its peak around 1975 or so, at least disco was right around the corner.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

I guess the point of the article was to demonstrate that he's listened to Tower of Power and Ohio Players and Kool and the Gang albums?

"listened"

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

= "saw once somewhere and got scared by the covers"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I think any normal heterosexual dude might be a little skeeved by bald and naked women fucking and stabbing people.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

Sexist.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:22 (nineteen years ago)

haha ned I came back to post a kloster-joke after nate's parody

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:24 (nineteen years ago)

*bows*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:25 (nineteen years ago)

xp Daddino: Oh there's gotta be some Evey Hammond slashfic around somewhere

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:25 (nineteen years ago)

his position on reggae is that it is NO GOOD bcz only public schoolboys like it -- so i think we can work out his "line" on the blues

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

But yeah, that quote, it still... hey, uh, I don't think funk caused the massive nationwide agricultural/rural economic decline of the mid 1970s.

xp mark oh man I almost posted that too, holy crap

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:28 (nineteen years ago)

Elsewhere, Mr. Daddino discovered this good man's website.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

From the looks of it, he may be another one of those "why do you have to be on my side" guys I was complaining about on my J'P thread. Minus the gayishness.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:34 (nineteen years ago)

So, Ned...has NRO-world weighed in on the Godfather of Soul?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:36 (nineteen years ago)

You know, that's a good question -- but if so I believe I avoided it since that was during my time home for the holidays and I pretty much was only checking e-mail and a couple of boards then.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

Apparently Goldberg gave him a one-line mention on the Corner and then they all went back to saying "Should we kill everyone in Iran and Iraq or just Iraq?"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

From the looks of it, he may be another one of those "why do you have to be on my side" guys I was complaining about on my J'P thread. Minus the gayishness.

minus also the being-on-my-sideishness

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, this man is not a good eulogizer.

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:46 (nineteen years ago)

among the kind of people who flag up their interestingness by augmenting their Robbie Williams and Oasis singles with the odd "challenging" CD (Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, say, or the inevitable three Nick Drake albums)

Pretty good self-description there, I'd say.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

Between this and the videogame thread posted in ILE, I am no longer certain that the USA has cornered the worldwide market on idiots with a beef and a megaphone.

― Candy: tastes like chicken, if chicken was a candy. (Austin, Still), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

Hoooooleee Shit: "Before you get all dewy-eyed and pretend you've always been a Johnny Cash fan, remember this: he got a lot of help and made a lot of crap."

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 7 January 2007 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

Geir writes for the Guardian now???

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Sunday, 7 January 2007 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

hahahaha

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Sunday, 7 January 2007 21:58 (nineteen years ago)

that six-hour funkadelic gig sounds mindblowing!

and so unusual for Funkadelic. don’t worry Louis, long song times remained the domain of light-skinned people outside of this isolated 1975 incident!

can we get "(2007 rolling Petridish and Worzel thread)" added to Dom's title so this stuff stays in one place in future?

― nu-mongrel (kit brash), Monday, 8 January 2007 01:09 (nineteen years ago)

erm, didn't most Funkadelic albums feature at least one 9-minute+ track, and several over 6?

plus, one of my favourite songs of the 60's, 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) is 13:39 and by someone who definitely wasn't white.

i would keep searching for examples, but hey, semantics kinda suck... :P

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 8 January 2007 01:17 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, but they were only ever allowed to play four songs at a show

― nu-mongrel (kit brash), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:21 (nineteen years ago)

Also very very very telling: nowhere in the world of this article does hip-hop exist.

Judging by his line on jazz fusion, it'll be at least another seven or eight years before he gets around to "this rap stuff is just shouting"

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:32 (nineteen years ago)

The Harris article was just appalling, but The Guardian then ran a very similarly awful article in Saturday's The Guide (this time by one Andy Capper): http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/music/story/0,,1982677,00.html

― M Carty (mj_c), Monday, 8 January 2007 05:32 (nineteen years ago)

"i want to change views. maybe if i'm a lil bitch.."

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:03 (nineteen years ago)

YES EVERYTHING IS ABOUT PUNK ROCK jesus christ these people

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:08 (nineteen years ago)

Everything is about Ambrosia and Leo Sayer.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:10 (nineteen years ago)

Ghandi: Original Rudeboy

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:14 (nineteen years ago)

Ok , John Harris really is a wanker isn't he?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:24 (nineteen years ago)

Idiocy aside, this is an extremely funny story.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:29 (nineteen years ago)

dude was probably just fucking with him

― friday on the porch (lfam), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:29 (nineteen years ago)

"Twas the funk killed your father, I tell ye! The funk! Now go and leave me be!"

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:30 (nineteen years ago)

everything is about being white and male, feeling momentary guilt and goofines about it, but still not having to pay respect so you're your own man and rather punkrock even. (err. atleat i think i'm somewhat getting there)

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:33 (nineteen years ago)

who fucks these guys?

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:33 (nineteen years ago)

sorry i am drunkness

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:33 (nineteen years ago)

btw susan u r very drunk

― friday on the porch (lfam), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:42 (nineteen years ago)

Susan, cf the work of PEW:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=66316956&blogID=209878916&MyToken=0e926e42-2fe2-4d83-8e7d-d6456c033bdc

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:43 (nineteen years ago)

haha the ARREST picture! we arn't subtle are we?

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:51 (nineteen years ago)

The real magic happens in the comments as he tries to reframe the whole thing as a commentary on institutional racism!

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:53 (nineteen years ago)

all wise-asses

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 07:36 (nineteen years ago)

All that said, funk's acme of unbearability was only reached thanks to two developments: 1) its decisive hybridisation into jazz-funk, surely as awful an invention as, say, the thumbscrews;

Maybe I shouldn't even bother to comment, but didn't jazz-funk develop almost simultaneously with funk proper? And I think it was mostly done by jazz musicians, so putting the blame on funk is kinda like blaming rap for nu-metal. Besides, a lot of it was great.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 8 January 2007 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

harris's article was as tediously mundane as usual (seriously, why does this man have a column?), but what was your problem with the andy capper piece?

for a lot of british kids of his and my generation, it's true that our first exposure to JB was not through 'live at the apollo', but via 'rocky IV'. strange as it may seem, rocky was a big, big deal at the time, even inspiring riots at the local cinema. it was a shit film, but it directly led to me buying a 'james brown live!' album the following saturday.

and isn't he right to assert that there's a major difference between the funk music of james brown and the 'funk' music of jamiroquai/brand new heavies et al, in terms of fire, passion, energy, personality, conviction? agreed, the peripheral stuff (guns, balls, drugs) is a trivial, sensationalist distraction. but surely it can't be denied that mr brown was a far more musical powerful force than 99.9% of other funk artists (or artists in general, for that matter).

so what do you object to, exactly? how andy capper discovered james brown, or how he related to him?

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis are such cunts.

X-post.

I think objections to the Capper piece are founded in the incessent need of a certain kind of music journalist to frame everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in the contexct of punk; the idea that music can ONLY be any good at all whatsoever if you can run it parrallel to the spirit of 76. Or 77. Or 84. Or whenever the hell your personal history of punk began.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:15 (nineteen years ago)

I object to the existence of "Andy Capper." What's his real name then?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:19 (nineteen years ago)

john harris hasn't done a 'rock music is shit' article because razorlight aren't as good as whoever (i couldn't think of anyone). nick how is jimi hendrix a cunt?

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

Because he was an American living in London, qed.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

I'm just picking another seminal black musician who deserves to be slated, or something.

Blaming James Brown, and indeed funk, for the Brand New Heavies or Jamiroquia is like blaming Miles Davis for Jamie Cullum and Jimi Hendrix for Keane. It's ever so slightly missing the point.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:25 (nineteen years ago)

Gummidge's "TAKE THAT SACRED COW" essays are _really_ fucking weird, because he mainly picks artists that haven't been venerated by a single critic in 30 odd years (James Brown, The Doors, Captain Beefheart). A "The Eagles, they sucked a bit, amirite?" piece must be forthcoming.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:27 (nineteen years ago)

it's just shorthand. for punk read rock'n'roll or techno or hip-hop or free jazz or whatever passionate, incendiary, ostensibly revolutionary music that deeply affects you as a teenager and sparks your obsessive lifelong interest in powerful music. I have no problem with that.

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:29 (nineteen years ago)

brand new heavies >>>>>>>>>>> all punk music ever

(i will not defend jamiroquai though)

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:30 (nineteen years ago)

Brand New Heavies I think are more soul than funk, and Jamiroquai is pretty much a modern day Curtis Mayfield follower (who, despite his influence to funk, remained a soul man). I think the Capper article makes a kind of stupid distinction between the Brown style edginess and the smoother sound of soul; personally I don't see why the former should be valued above the latter, but of course he has a right to his aesthetic choice.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

It is shorthand, yes, but when was the last time a piece about rock'n'roll or techno or free jazz or whatever opening musical worlds up got comissioned in a daily paper?

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:32 (nineteen years ago)

passionate, incendiary, ostensibly revolutionary

why are these things only valid when they're HEAVILY SIGNIFIED? sure, i wouldn't describe the brand new heavies' music (which i enjoy, if not love) as these things, but neither do i think that n'dea davenport's voice lacks passion or fire, just because she doesn't SHOUT at you or get all up in yr face with how SUBVERSIVE she is/isn't.

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:34 (nineteen years ago)

When will music critics get over punk?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:34 (nineteen years ago)

Capper uses punk as shorthand like that because he is a punk rock dude by (musical) upbringing, I think. It's hardly his fault that the Guardian sub chose to highlight it by making it the headline of the piece

― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:37 (nineteen years ago)

Jamiroquai is pretty much a modern day Curtis Mayfield follower

um ok.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:38 (nineteen years ago)

hang on, this elephant over in the corner is saying something about 'innervisions'...

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:38 (nineteen years ago)

passionate, incendiary, ostensibly revolutionary
-why are these things only valid when they're HEAVILY SIGNIFIED?

'signified' is a useful word sometimes but quite inappropriate here. by saying things can be x without sgnifying their x-iness yr just opening the door to boringly subjective interpretation. so: no, the brand new heavies were never incendiary, i'm sorry.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

Hannah Pool appears to have stolen Lex's log-in details.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

passionate, incendiary, ostensibly revolutionary
-why are these things only valid when they're HEAVILY SIGNIFIED?

because in the throes of passion you tend to raise your voice. no? maybe it's just me.

agreed, shouting does not equal passion. but passion often leads to shouting.

but if the brand new heavies are so subversive and fiery, why do they work so hard to heavily disguise it as anaemic coffee-table dinner-party nonsense?

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

I like these articles anyway because it's just another opportunity to point and laugh at the evident inadequacies of the (white middle class) funkophobes.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

i'm not saying that BNH were subversive or fiery! christ. n'dea has a lovely soulful voice but yes they ARE polite coffee table funk.

why should being in the "throes of passion", or being subversive or fiery, be a requirement for good music at all? you should read the kate bush aerial thread for some good discussion on why 'bland' (or 'polite' or 'coffee table') is such a lazy criticism, and why the strength of some music is their supposed blandness...

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

(altho it does seem wrong to mention their race/class because of the popularity of the genre generally among many other people of exactly the same stock) xpost

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

you should read the kate bush aerial thread for some good discussion on why 'bland' (or 'polite' or 'coffee table') is such a lazy criticism

or "earnest"

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

earnest can be good, yes

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

these things can obv all be bad, i feel like i'm spelling things out to 5-yr-olds here but dom's capacity for misreading, deliberate or otherwise, can never be underestimated

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

why should being in the "throes of passion", or being subversive or fiery, be a requirement for good music at all?

no-one said it was the sole criterion, lex. 'all these things can be bad'. or good.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

sorry, but life is far, far too bloody short for spending time on bland.

I can appreciate the value of love and horror, agony and bliss, monstrous ugliness and celestial beauty, but bland? drab? fair-to-middling? no. no thanks. I want ambition, force, innovation, sensuality, personality, emotion, audacity and physicality from music, not a vague sense of mild pleasantness.

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

girl put your records on

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

One of the things I enjoy about music is a sense of emotional self-recognition, and since some days I feel mildly pleasant, I can like it when I find this in a song or band.

Similarly, I can often relate to records where it sounds like the singer is struggling against emotional restraint better than I can records where the singer is fully expressing themselves (this is a root cause of my enjoying indie, when I do).

(There's also, of course, more room for a subtext when the erm 'supertext' isn't quite as blaring.)

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

for some reason i often like 'bland' music when i'm depressed or anxious.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

HEADS UP FELLAS

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

i threw it out. but only after hearing first 2 tracks.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

"If, as they imply, their taste is flawless and their intellect mighty, then perhaps they could find a better use for these prodigious gifts than taking potshots on websites. Just a thought."

ZING

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

xpost to me: wrong thread

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

they get paid thousands of pounds every week, they should be able to handle a bit of stick

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

Many of the people who post on blogs appear to be annoyed not by what the writers say so much as the fact that they're in a position to say it. You can spot this type because they write things like: "You've only written this to provoke a reaction." Or: "Why did you even write this? What a waste of time." As if writing to complain about a waste of time were not, in fact, a bigger waste of time.

Ha, I think Lynskey is wrong on both counts here.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

Oh good, we're rattling their cages.

Yes I'm deeply envious about not earning £175 a month recycling other people's blog posts and press releases for copyright-retaining broadsheet newspapers.

Next time get the organ grinder to write the piece, not the monkey.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

For younger readers: the NME and Melody Maker used to say exactly the same thing about Sniffin' Glue et al back in the Golden Age of Punk which Worzel adores so adherently.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

xxpst: yeah he is pretty much not getting it

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:40 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I haven't had it either for a few months.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

But yes, how does writing one sentence waste more time than writing a useless newspaper article?

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

TRUE!

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

The fact that the Guardian chooses publicly to attack opinions which do not appear in another newspaper of equal international stature, or in a recognised peer publication or trade journal, but in a workaday message board and in workaday blogs - the parish pump, as it were - suggests a degree of insecurity on their part which I find quite reassuring.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:49 (nineteen years ago)

to be fair he's talking about their own comments section.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:50 (nineteen years ago)

A newspaper slagging off their own readers! That's the way to solve your circulation problem!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

actually the gn has followed up the implications of the "comment is free" blog discussion more than most papers, hasn't it? where official columnists actually engage with spirited and (better) informed listeners -- i've mainly encountered this development in the blog-echoes of it in re politics tho (so may be over-estimating it), and plus i'm not surprised their "arts" columnists are a long way behind their own curve

also (judging by all other messages boards ever) ilm is not a "workaday message board"!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:55 (nineteen years ago)

As I read it, Dorian was referring specifically to the Guardian blogs where people can comment on the articles (the Comment is Free thing), which are awful. So really he's slagging off his own readership rather than the online world in general.

They really are terrible, too. There's never any sense of the discussion moving on, jut reams of tedious, pompous comment directed at the original article or writer (invariably described as Mr ____).

(The John Harris article is terrible. Heavy Rhyme Experience is quite good. Jamiroquai's main debt is to Stevie Wonder. I liked When You Gonna Learn.)

― Jamie T Smith (Jamie T Smith), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:55 (nineteen years ago)

i like 'High Times'

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

also (judging by all other messages boards ever) ilm is not a "workaday message board"!!

errr...yes it is.

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

i haven't seen a guardian columnist engage people on cif but i have heard rumours of it happening. i can't say from my experience of cif that the readers are better informed -- some are, but generally its troll city. praps when a columnist goes on the boards the mods there wake up a bit?

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

BUT WE DON'T DO ANY WORK xpost

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

Tedious, pompous comment begets tedious, pompous comment I would have thought.

The NME used to make a sport out of slagging off their readers throughout the eighties, and this is partly how and why Q came through and pwned the world.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

"Comments (0)".

and it's staying that way!

(wonder why?)

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

there isn't a comments board out there that isn't troll city.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:59 (nineteen years ago)

at least if not actually then potentially...

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 11:59 (nineteen years ago)

cif users are v self-important coz it's a prestige platform; also except for a few menks there's no 'community spirit'. it lacks the in-jokery and dead-meme-floggage that makes this place great :D

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:01 (nineteen years ago)

Troll and/or spam city. That's why I don't have them on my blogs (xpost).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:01 (nineteen years ago)

Spam isn't too much of a problem with the right software. And nor are trolls really: I think I've had a better-than-average experience with comments boxes tho.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

"Comments (0)".
and it's staying that way!

(wonder why?)

Um, because there's no comments box?

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:08 (nineteen years ago)

ok my experience of cif is entirely two-degrees-of-separation

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:09 (nineteen years ago)

and i think i am always a menk when it comes to "community spirit"! rah rah ilm :/

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

xpost back 2:

exactly. This is an "I have the final word as I am a paid crit and you are hahaha not!" article.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:17 (nineteen years ago)

But I could say exactly the same thing since "I have the final word of say on my blog as I have no comments box so sit down and absorb the teachings of my scripture. No fidgeting at the back!"

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:20 (nineteen years ago)

In neither case does such a stance preclude comments actually appearing elsewhere, so any "power" is entirely illusory.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

But isn't that how Nazi Germany started?

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1985049,00.html#article_continue

An alternative view.

This thread has been derailed.

― Jamie T Smith (Jamie T Smith), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I have little idea about what the last 20+ posts are about. Let's talk about funk again.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:25 (nineteen years ago)

haha is there printed evidence of p.bradshaw's wits being kept sharp?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:25 (nineteen years ago)

Only when Alan Clark threatened to sue him.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

Anyhow - I like the way Harris takes potshots at funk from the impregnable aesthetic fortress of his mod band.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

I played Live at the Apollo the other day, and the reissue I have has sleeve notes by the NME's soul correspondent, which I'd never noticed before. The NME had a soul correspondent? Cool.

― Jamie T Smith (Jamie T Smith), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:30 (nineteen years ago)

for a second i thought jamie t smith had played live, at the apollo!

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

that wd be cliff white possibly!?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

Stuart Cosgrove

― White Socks On Dope (Jaap Schip), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

oh ok! that is a somewhat cheeky appellation on SC's part -- he is an expert, but at the time he was on-staff he was BY NO MEANS the only expert

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:40 (nineteen years ago)

Paolo Hewitt?
Dele Fadele?

― Wild Guess On Dope (Jaap Schip), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:55 (nineteen years ago)

I have the original UK issue on HMV with sleevenotes by BENNY GREEN!!!????!?!?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

in the mid-late 70s, cliff white was the nme's designated "soul correspondent"

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 8 January 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

Who slagged off "Anarchy In The UK" in the NME singles column.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

Bambi

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

Benny Green, related to James Brown (the NME/Loaded one, of course, oh.. nevermind.)?

― Live At The IPC (Jaap Schip), Monday, 8 January 2007 13:03 (nineteen years ago)

????

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 13:05 (nineteen years ago)

new issue of NME has James Brown on the front cover

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

fnk u, i mean funk, was so indulgent. then the funk crawled down to bluesville and got them all hooked on crack in the delta. instead of playing blues they chose jazz-funk. and then the white people began to slappin'.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 02:50 (nineteen years ago)

Hey guys, remember in 1975 when funk killed the blues which made Clarksdale, Mississippi explode?

― Period period period (Period period period), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 03:10 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Cartoon-James-Brown.jpg

― the killfire konspiracy (Haberdager), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 03:45 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.chhomc.free-online.co.uk/purple/explhoofd.gif

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 04:05 (nineteen years ago)

Touchdown, Onion.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 04:13 (nineteen years ago)

That little editor guy on the Onion cartoons is the best shit ever.

― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:45 (nineteen years ago)

brand new heavies >>>>>>>>>>> all punk music ever
(i will not defend jamiroquai though)

-- lex pretend (lexusjee...), January 8th, 2007. (lex pretend)

that's retarded.

stupid article (the one orig. posted), but man, anyone whose ever sat thru a modern "funk" bar band knows that slap n' poppin' bass in the wrong hands is absolutely horrible. not the fault of james or larry g. but still...

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

anyone whose ever sat thru a modern "funk" bar band

Or one episode of Seinfeld.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:09 (nineteen years ago)

i think this

that's retarded.

should be a standard response to any similar posts in the future

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:10 (nineteen years ago)

the original article makes me want to hit people

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

anyone whose ever sat thru a modern "funk" bar band
Or one episode of Seinfeld.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), January 17th, 2007. (Ned)

"night court"'s funkin lesson was so much better

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

TWO TIMES

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

argh x-post my joke is ruined

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

...And the "Barney Miller" theme was better than that!

― Myonga Von BarneyFan (M. Agony Von Bontee), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

(x-post - Don't worry Shakey, it's still a great little joke!)

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:00 (nineteen years ago)

who fucks these guys?

-- Susan Douglas (SusanisDougla...), January 8th, 2007.

I know you were drunk Susan but that was honestly the best post on this thread.

― Period period period (Period period period), Thursday, 18 January 2007 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

I could give you an answer to that as far as Worzel is concerned, but it would have to be strictly off the record.

No doubt in tomorrow's Grauniad there will be a topical column explaining why Indian music is evil.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 January 2007 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

plus, what the guard-een is talking about, funk, they're kind of wrong about that, since jb hardly invented a lot of the stuff they're talking about, outright. commercial funk of the sort that the english dude is inveighing against comes from all the funk stuff in the '60s, and while jb is the prime mover in a lot of it, i mean those early-'60s new orleans hits are "funk," and by ten years later you had sly stone, who is probably the more immediate "influence" on that later funk shit of the '70s, like prime e, w & f, cameo, the later barkays music, tower of power...for that matter, why not blame horn bands, like the fat guy in b, s & t, whose "spinning wheel" jb did a version of.

motown and all the commercial black music of the era went into the mix as well, not to mention just straight dee-troit rock and roll and guitar insanity a la hendrix (funkadelic), plus george clinton was already a version of himself when he did those great '60s parliaments hits like "testify" and so forth, he was already weird. so it's the usual reductive social-crit/rock-crit bullshit, that guardian thing. james brown certainly invented a way of playing, a super-groove, but what about the harmony vocals on george clinton records, or the whole super-slick aspect of much "funk" music. it's hard not to laugh, but at heart I fear that this kind of "thinking" about "music" is straight racist.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

I fear that this kind of "thinking" about "music" is straight racist.

what makes you think that?

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Thursday, 18 January 2007 16:35 (nineteen years ago)

Is thinking this kind of thinking about music is racist in itself racist?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 January 2007 16:50 (nineteen years ago)

is thinking that this kind of thinking about music is in itself racist racist?

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 18 January 2007 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

On balance, no.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 January 2007 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

1) The Harris piece isn't racist. What's up with you? Oh yeah, of course, the whole UK's racist now, sorry I forgot

2) The Andy Capper piece is actually pretty good. And better than anything on 'Church of Me' - which is presumably why the man has a career as a journo. And makes money writing about music.

You really need to stop being bitter, the lot of you. Try actually reading what people write.

― Maurice Furvert (Maurice Furvert), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

Hi John.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

More likely to be the guy who's been impersonating me on the Viceland forum. Andy C got in touch with me about that; nice guy actually, which just goes to show the folly of rushing to judgements about folk.

However, is Worzel the Jade of music journalists?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

Maurice you'll note that I wrote the piece was racist on the 7th of January, i.e. not subsequent to Jadegate which I know little or nothing about, you bawsack. I'm quite confused as to what I'm supposed to be bitter about as well. Bitter that the only British newspaper I read semi-regularly contains such pathetic pieces of "journalism" as the above? Aye, I'll admit to that.

― jimn (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 14:08 (nineteen years ago)

The racist part of the article for me is this: "...[funk is] the cause of at least four decades of grinding misery."

Four decades of grinding misery? I.e. from the 60s to the present day. I.e. for the latter part of this period - hip-hop. I.e. black folks topping the my chart instead of Oasis. This is "misery". Only to twunts like Hongroe and Harris.

― jimn (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

I doubt very much Andy Capper makes any more than beer money writing about music

― Hell Hath No Furry (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 14:19 (nineteen years ago)

There is no way that Funkadelic played a 6 hour show in Manchester, especially in 1975. I bought "Let's Take It To The Stage" the day it came out but the first Bootsy album came out that year too and Bootsy's Rubber Band toured to support it (I was one of about 6 white people to witness it at Chicago Stadium) and AFAIK there WAS NO Funkadelic tour that year as such. (They were already trending towards doing P-Funk tours by then anyway, they did some separate Parliament shows but none as Funkadelic that I was aware of. All of this is from memory, so I guess I could be wrong...) Anyway, even if there had been, they simply did not do six hour shows (way too lazy and cynical to bother) and even if they had, I seriously doubt that they would have chosen Manchester as the place to do one (or that enough interested people would have even turned up there in 1975 to make it worth their while). And honestly, with the crap sound system that they used back then, even a three hour show would have been quite trying.

Although that is far from the most egregious thing about that article.

― Saxby D. Elder (Saxby D. Elder), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

There has been an article in The Guardian that is Not about Islam or Gordon Brown?

Daily Mail = For people who like to feel frightened
Guardian = For people who like to feel guilty

― Phil Knight (PhilK), Sunday, 4 February 2007 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

How has this not been linked in the worst music writing of 2007 thread?

― Candy: tastes like chicken, if chicken was a candy. (Austin, Still), Sunday, 4 February 2007 23:50 (nineteen years ago)

Fusion is in fact the only good thing to come out of funk. Funk is to blame for disco, hip-hop and today's awful R&B, but at least it spawned some good fusion music.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 5 February 2007 00:17 (eighteen years ago)

"occasional pearling tune" -- what does this mean?

― Paul Eater (eater), Monday, 5 February 2007 00:25 (eighteen years ago)

Funk is to blame for disco, hip-hop and today's awful R&B

You don't think soul, jazz, pop, gospel, electronica, latin, dance and, uh, r n b might have roles to play here

― Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Monday, 5 February 2007 00:34 (eighteen years ago)

have had

― Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Monday, 5 February 2007 00:35 (eighteen years ago)

Paul I think "pearling" is a verb used almost exclusively in soccer writing. (I think to describe a powerful pass or strike that's spun so it curves towards its target. cf. "rasping")

― Elsa Svitborg (tracerhand), Monday, 5 February 2007 00:43 (eighteen years ago)

Interesting! Wikipedia had a very different suggestion.

― Paul Eater (eater), Monday, 5 February 2007 00:58 (eighteen years ago)

You don't think soul, jazz, pop, gospel, electronica, latin, dance and, uh, r n b might have roles to play here

Sure. At least in sounded been different without funk - more like 60s Motown. Which would have been way better.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 5 February 2007 02:11 (eighteen years ago)

Actually Paul I realize that I may have completely made that up.

― Elsa Svitborg (tracerhand), Monday, 5 February 2007 03:08 (eighteen years ago)

From : Paul Eater
To : film&music@guardian.co.uk
Subject : "pearling"
----- Message Text -----
Hello -

As a U.S. reader and appreciator of the Guardian, I occasionally have to look up an unfamiliar piece of terminology. But one is entirely eluding me -- "pearling," as used by John Harris in his January 5 article "Funk did this". He says "...hats off for the UFO, onstage fancy dress and occasional pearling tune..."
( http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1982573,00.html )

On December 15, 2006, he mentions "a pearling selection of music by Waterson Carthy"
( http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1972036,00.html ).

And on July 17, he calls the Spice Girls' hit Wannabe "a pearling
record"
( http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1822156,00.html ).

Can you cast any light on this usage?

Thank you!

― Paul Eater (eater), Monday, 5 February 2007 03:25 (eighteen years ago)

he should listen to the ohio players 'honey' album - its a masterpiece. i hate revisionists who talk as if all the best funk is only the lesser known obscure/curio stuff that that gets reissued on labels like stones throw, like what ohio players, the commodores, slave, confunkshun etc did was dire.

― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Monday, 5 February 2007 17:23 (eighteen years ago)

To roll a blunt extremely well and tight, and sometimes used to denote the twist of the tobacco when rolling.

"Props on that pearled blunt."

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 5 February 2007 17:27 (eighteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

John Harris in the new MOJO: The Abyssinians couldn't possibly have made a better album than Sgt. Pepper. . . .

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 00:35 (eighteen years ago)

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