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Early Soul/Funk Song Memories

Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
edited January 2013 in Strut Central
Hey Strutters,

I was thinking about soul/funk records that were my joints as a little kid that still love today. I used to hear this first joint as a little tyke back in Aberdeen, MD. It would be always blaring through the window of a neighbor's house while I played outside:





Once we returned home, I had pop take me to the record store to buy the 45. I still have both records to this very day. So, what are your early soul/funk song memories from childhood? Please add on.

Peace,

Big Stacks from Kakalak

  Comments

  • strataspherestratasphere Blastin' the Nasty 1,035 Posts
    Believe it or not, It's this one. Whenever grandma was in the mood to fire up the big floor model Montgomery Ward joint this always got played, along with Al Green's Right Now Right Now, Soul Train by the Ramrods, Mary Jane/Chicken Heads by Bobby Rush, Crazy Legs/Nanzee by Donald Austin and a gang of James Brown joints.



  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    Does Brown-Eyed Soul count?





  • SnappingSnapping 995 Posts
    When I was in elementary school the gym teachers would play music out the window that we could hear on the playground during recess. These two were songs I knew and loved long before I knew what they were:



  • LoopDreamsLoopDreams 1,195 Posts
    I was brought up on the ultimate made for white man soul funk OST: The Big Chill

    Had some classics:

    Marvin Gaye (1968): "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (extended version) (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong) ??? 5:03
    The Temptations (1965): "My Girl" (Smokey Robinson, Ronald White) ??? 2:55
    The Miracles (1965): "The Tracks of My Tears" (Robinson, Warren Moore, Marvin Tarplin) ??? 2:53
    Aretha Franklin (1968): "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Jerry Wexler) ??? 2:41
    Smokey Robinson and The Miracles (1967): "I Second That Emotion" (Robinson, Al Clevland) ??? 2:46

    As a kid I'd demand this tape be played on road trips over and over. My folks had a Zep/hendrix/Joplin/Dylan/Doors/Band/Young type of collection, soul and funk did not feature.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    saw some footage similar to this when I was in the 2nd grade
  • DanteDante 371 Posts
    growing up here i wasn't really exposed to soul music before i got actively interested in it. that being said, my mum lived in chicago from 1971 to 1986, so she had a decent grasp of it. i remember she had Aretha's Greatest Hits (the first Atlantic one) on cassette, and it got heavy plays on the car on the way back from school. i specifically remember i say a little prayer and natural woman from that one.

    she was also very fond of billie holiday, but i wouldn't class that as soul...

    after that, i remember hearing Alton Ellis' version of My Girl and loving it. then i discovered the original and the Temps became my favorite male group. then, when i started to get into 60s soul (and other sounds from the era) i used to listen the 60s programming in the oldies station every weekday at 9PM. eventually, My Girl and other Motown and soul hits would get played...
  • DanteDante 371 Posts
    Shamelessly bumping this one as I think it could be a pretty nice thread if more people contribute.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I got my first record player at the age of five, in the early seventies. I wasn't listening to kiddie music, either - I was a soul/funk fan early on. I think I might have been more of a teenager at six than at sixteen. The AM radio era of 1971-75 will always have nostalgic resonance for me. I could look at any "Soul Brothers Top 20" list from the back pages of Jet magazine during those years and find a gang of hits that I never stopped listening to.

    That said, here are a few memories that stand out:
    1) "Mr. Big Stuff," Jean Knight/"Want Ads," Honey Cone, 1971
    2) "Walking In The Rain With The One I Love," Love Unlimited/"Day Dreaming," Aretha Franklin, 1972
    3) "Stormy Monday," Latimore/"Cheaper To Keep Her," Johnnie Taylor, 1973

    The significance is that both songs in each grouping were out around the same time and reminded me of each other. Still associate these songs together to this day. (3) are both "old man" blues songs that sounded really distinct from everything else on the soul charts at that time. (2) both deal with women fantasizing about their boyfriends in the middle of the day. (1) is a little trickier...neither "Mr. Big Stuff" nor "Want Ads" appear to have much in common, besides complaining about no-good men, but the combination of female sass and the fact that they were hits around the same time always linked them together to me.
  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    EDIT
  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts






    It was all about Mardi Gras music where I come from. And Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and the Meters were definitely the Big 3. As far back as I could remember, we'd hear these artists everywhere, like elevator music to some.

    Then there were the songs from other places that managed to fit right in with the NOLA parade music, like:







    Grew up on this stuff the same way I grew up on gumbo and red beans and rice.
  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Man I'm so glad I had no exposure to j, f & s as a kid.
    I'd have had to rebel against the norm and now be into doom metal or some such.

    As it was, familial taste ran to Mud, Showaddywaddy, the Shadows.
    Discovering soul and jazz and funk was of my own doing, and all the sweeter for it.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    skel said:
    Man I'm so glad I had no exposure to j, f & s as a kid.
    I'd have had to rebel against the norm and now be into doom metal or some such.

    As it was, familial taste ran to Mud, Showaddywaddy, the Shadows.
    Discovering soul and jazz and funk was of my own doing, and all the sweeter for it.

    If the shit is good, you don't have to "rebel against the norm" in the first place!

    (sez the man who actually likes the Shadows in addition to funk and soul, but that's another story)
  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    It is the duty of youth to rebel against the previous generation, and the previous generation's duty to be outraged by it. Or at least roll their eyes with a "that's nice, dear".
  • leonleon 883 Posts
    Did you listen to alternative music when you were twelve years old? And did you get rebellious during puberty? There???s a good chance you have the same answer to both questions.
    ...
    Children that listened to top-40 songs or even classical and jazz music often reported little or no criminal behavior at 16. But this was different with kids that preferred non-mainstream music, like heavy-metal, punk, hiphop, gothic, techno or hard-house. They reported significantly more minor offenses at a later age, even when taken into account personality and social-economic differences.
    ...
    http://www.united-academics.org/magazine/31884/alternative-music-taste-in-teens-predicts-criminal-behavior/

    b/w how's jazz not alternative when you're 12?

    b/b/w we're all a bunch of criminals
  • waxjunkywaxjunky 1,850 Posts
    Being almost 40 and growing up in suburban California, my initial exposure to soul music began with a cassette tape of "Thriller."
  • mrmatthewmrmatthew 1,575 Posts
    One of the first tunes i ever remember humming as a child

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