TIPOFF Magazine: Top 7 Funk Bands of The 70's

By Michael McCullough

As your Miami HEAT celebrate all that was groovy about the ABA’s Miami Floridians, it also gives us a moment to look back, or rather, listen in to what was happening on the music scene during the decade. While Disco closed out the decade, Funk ruled it like the fist on the end of an Afro pick, buried deep within the follicles. If you lived through the 70’s, you probably spent a lot of time getting your groove on in someone’s basement or house party. If you didn’t...sorry...but, no worries...cause we’re going to break it down for you right here. So let’s dust off those 8-Tracks and put the needle on the record...

	#7 TOWER OF POWER From Oakland, the gritty east side of the San Francisco Bay Area, Tower of Power blasted their California funk with the help of the hottest horn section in the business, the Tower of Power Horns. With Lenny Williams fronting the band on vocals, tracks like “What Is Hip” and the slow jam “You’re Still A Young Man” made it clear that TOP was on their JOB.
	#6 WAR Moving down to East LA, we find a band of brothers melding Soul, Funk and Latin rhythms. From the barrio to the boogie down, War threw down jams like “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, “The World Is A Ghetto” and “Low Rider.”
	#5 Average White Band Much better than average (and not all White, either), AWBinvaded the U.S. from Scotland, bringing their brand of funk across the pond. Their biggest hit, “Pick Up The Pieces” was a pop-lockers delight and goes down as the funkiest instrumental track ever (note for today’s youth...instrumental means real people playing real instruments to make real beats...if you don’t know, now you know).
	#4 Ohio Players When the leader of your band goes by the name of “Sugarfoot” and wears his Afro so that it covers one eye entirely, you know it’s got to be funky! In addition to introducing controversy to the funk world via their album artwork, the Ohio Players dropped bombs like “Skin Tight,” “Fire” and “Love Rollercoaster.”... listen carefully to see if you can hear the scream that led to the urban legend surrounding this track.
	#3 Kool and the Gang I’m talking about the “Hollywood Swinging,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Funky Stuff”and “Summer Madness” KATG. If you didn’t get hip to KATG until “Cherish,” you need to go back and start over.
	#2 The J.B.’s OK, so we’re cheating a little here. The J.B.’s were the backing band for James Brown. But they weren’t just any backing band...try the best backing band EVER! The J.B.’s laid down the groove for The Godfather of Soul. James Brown’s songs have proven to be a sampler’s paradise, in fact, hip-hop rose to prominence on the back of the J.B.’s beats. Hit me five times!
	#1 Parliament/ Funkadelic A funk supergroup...so funky they had to have two different names and distinctive styles. Equal parts theater and funk, Parliament tore the roof off the sucker with jams like “Dr. Funkenstein,” “Give Up The Funk” and “Flashlight,” while Funkadelic rocked the house with “One Nation Under A Groove” and the single funkiest song of all time, the 15:21 epic “Knee Deep.” Believe me, when that jam hit the sound system, you’d better make sure you had the right dance partner or the night could get long real fast. Let me sign off by leaving you with this ‘70’s Funk Quiz – What was the main difference between Parliament and Funkadelic? Google it...