Week Thirty: Jesse Sample’s Freak of the Week “Everybody Funky”

Jesse Sample’s Freak of the Week airs EVERY WEDNESDAY at 6pm EASTERN only on RadioRadioX.com

This is Jesse Sample. What do you think of when you think of funk music? What kind of space does that represent for you? As I write this, I’m listening to Funkadelic’s 1971 “Maggot Brain.” The opening track, which is the namesake of the album, features a weeping reverb guitar over simple minor chord arpeggios. The guitarist is not coloring in the lines. In this space, I feel like I’m experiencing the sadness and the beauty that is quintessential in the playing of John Frusciante, the great Chili Peppers Guitarist. Funk isn’t just fat bass lines to fat drumbeats. There’s a lot more to it.

The funk genre is a place to allow the weird sides of yourself to breath. You can let those spazzy emotions run amuck and fuck the place up. And in that, you allow yourself a profound freedom. It’s a space to bring the parts of yourself that you might not bring to job interview but probably should. The great funk artists aren’t worried about fitting their expressions in to 3 minute pop songs, even though they can and sometimes they do.

Funk shows up in Rock and HipHop and even jazz…hell…especially in Jazz. Funk is the kissing cousin of R&B and Soul that shows up to the family reunion with a Stratocaster, a pack of smokes and a pocket full of Angel Dust. Funk is still hanging off the rafters long after everyone else is asleep

This week I set out to make a space for me to be myself.

Thanks to all of you tuned into RadioRadioX. This is the Freak of the Week, “Everybody Funky.”