Ohio/Mid-west Funk of the 70s

It seems to me for all of the rock music scenes over the period of seems to me to be one of the more mysterious out there. There was a whole lot of pop hits that came out of those bands and musicians, but I've never really read that many articles or books that try to tie it all together. If you expand it into the soul period with Motown out of Detroit and consider that Prince came up in the same clubs in Minneapolis in the beginning of the 80s, there is a pretty significant sweep. It just seems that the shadow of Stax/Volt and Motown maybe shadow it all.

The thing I have always been curious about from growing up in the midwest was what was the touring and shows for these groups. Was there a circuit? What were the big clubs? There is a bit of that on this page, but there had to be clubs in the other cities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Ohio

Have you checked out http://www.numerogroup.com/? They dig deep, tell you all about it.

P-Funk

Ohio Players, Lakeside, Zapp - Dayton
Isley Brothers - Cincy
Bootsie & Catfish Collins - Cincy

James Brown recorded at King Records in Cincinnatti

You add in the whole Westbound connection with P-Funk in Michigan and that alone is a lot of key tunes. Pretty much a big part of the g-funk sound and some huge key samples.

Cincinnatti was such a fucking cool town & still is though it got hit hard by American industry exodus I think

Dayton is in far worse shape.

Cincy was definitely had a lot going on in the 70s. I have heard that Newport/Covington part from Kentucky was just absolutely wild in the late 60s early 70s. That was a tough town going back into prohibition, absolutely tons of illegal booze pouring out of Kentucky.

Can't forget Slave. And even Wild Cherry knew what was up.

From 1969 to 1971, Cincinnati also had its own tv show for dancing to touring r'n'b acts, "Soul Street"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP9JnoBkngY

I still need to read that Rickey Vincent book "Funk"