“We Want the Funk” starts just as a documentary about funk music should – with musician Marcus Miller slapping that bass.
Miller’s bass solo sets the tone for the rest of “We Want the Funk,” which is just as full of musical moments as it is talking head interviews (in some cases, there are literal Talking Heads – David Byrne makes an appearance). Directed by Stanley Nelson and Nicole London, the documentary traces the history of funk, both musically and culturally, through the eyes of some of its most influential players. It takes a closer look at funk’s connections to other genres like Motown and gospel, as well as its place within the Black liberation movement.
Nelson and London have the unenviable position of having to summarize years of political and cultural context for a film that comes in at just over one hour and 20 minutes, but their work is efficient and clear. Moving through the onset of the very popular (and very white) “American Bandstand” in the 1950s to the rise of Motown and artists like The Supremes and The Temptations in the 1960s, “We Want the Funk” paints a picture of the culture of assimilation that was forced onto Black Americans at the time.
Motown artists still had an underlying soul, as Miller puts it – but there was an undeniable attempt to make these artists palatable to white audiences. Detroit historian Jamon Jordan talks about Motown founder Berry Gordy’s reluctance to have his artists publicly participate in politics, such as Civil Rights or the anti-war movement, out of fear that it might alienate them from white audiences.
“Black people had to be concerned with white observation,” says Fredara Hadley, an ethnomusicology professor at The Julliard School. But, then along came funk, and more explicitly, along came James Brown.
“We Want the Funk” spends a lot of time on Brown and his influence. In 1968, he released the song “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud,” which would become associated with the Black Power movement.
Funk, then, becomes an expression of nonconformity, a way to move away from respectability politics and find something completely unique and influential, yet irrevocably tied to the musical history it sprouted from. “We Want the Funk” draws connections between funk and hip hop, funk and world music, and even funk and gospel; the way the musicians featured in the documentary tell it, Brown took the concept of “the vamp” – staying on one note and riffing for a long, long time – directly from gospel.
A whole slew of musical inventions came out of funk, such as Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham’s invention of “slapping” the bass, or Bernie Worrell using the synth to deliver a bass line. You get the sense not just of how popular funk was, but how innovative.
All of these anecdotes and historical contexts are delivered by musicians and music experts, but the interview moments that really stand out are the ones that feature instruments. When bassist Christian McBride describes how Larry Graham would play the bass, he doesn’t just talk about it – he shows you on his own instrument. “We Want the Funk” is both an exploration of the history of funk and picture proof of its lasting legacy at the same time.
