Like the Amen drum break documented in the first of the Classic Break Beats series  the “Funky drummer” by James Brown has also had a huge imprint on popular music. The drum break has been sampled, chopped up and incorporate in to musical creations across genres now for generations. From classic Hip Hop artists like Public Enemy, Ultamagnetic MCs, and N.W.A, to pop artists like George Michael, Kylie Minogue and in recent times Emili Sande, the familiar sound of the Funky drummer can be heard throughout the musical spectrum.

Below is an insert of the Funky drummer bonus beat reprise in case you are not familiar with this particular break beat:

James Brown “Funky drummer bonus beat reprise”

Now you are familiar with the Funky drummer break beat we are going to look at the influence it has had on modern music.

The song Funky drummer was recorded in 1969 and released in March 1970 on King Records as a double sided 7″ vinyl Single. The single contains two extracts entitled as parts 1 & 2 taken from a full length version of the recording that is 9 minutes 13 seconds long. Because of the length of the recording it would not have been possible to cut it to a 7” Record which can only hold about three and a half minutes of sound per side at optimum recording quality. Releasing extracts of long compositions was a popular method at the time especially with Funk music that would often be created on the fly by musicians jamming together. The Jam sessions were then edited to a suitable length within the parameters of the record (In the case of a 7″ 3.5 minutes or less) Continue reading →