Mix Tape Friday: Let's Get Funky

While dining at the Scriveners this weekend, my bragging about Stevie Wonder tickets led to a discourse about music (surprising, huh?). The table's consensus: Red Hot Chili Peppers should spend all their studio time covering ‘70s funk songs since Flea is one of the best funk bassists playing today (and because those ballads are crap). Mrs. S., who happens to be a fan of the Mix Tape series, declared:

I must have some funk in my bass!

and thus inspired this week’s mix tape. Funk and R&B from the 1970s is one of my favorite genres. I’ll do a mix tape of originals sometime this fall, but our chat about Flea and his bass put me in that covers mood again.

Here’s to you, Catherine.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Love Rollercoaster

Van Halen: Dancing in the Street

Rolling Stones: Ain't too Proud to Beg

English Beat: Tears of a Clown

Slits: I Heard It Through the Grapevine

The Strokes: Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)

R.E.M.: Smiling Faces Sometimes

Soft Cell: Where Did Our Love Go

Afghan Whigs: Come See About Me

Roxy Music: In the Midnight Hour

Talking Heads: Take Me to the River

Graham Parker: I Want You Back *

General Public: I'll Take You There

David Bowie: Knock on Wood

Elvis Costello: From Head to Toe

Joan Osborne: Everybody Is a Star

Jack Black: Let's Get It On

Foo Fighters: Darling Nikki

Hindu Love Gods: Raspberry Beret

Fishbone: Freddie's Dead

Red Hot Chili Peppers: If You Want Me to Stay

R.E.M.: Skin Tight

Pete Yorn: Just My Imagination

Pearl Jam: Dock of the Bay

The Replacements: I'll Be There

Yo La Tengo: I’m Your Puppet

Can you name the original artists?

Hindu Love Gods was an aural wet dream for me back in 1990: Warren Zevon with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry, taped while jamming during a drunken recording session. Damn, to be a fly on that wall … or on the shoulder of Zevon’s gray Ralph Lauren T-shirt. The songs aren’t the best, but they’re a helluva lot of fun to listen to; think of it as jamming with your pals after a few brews.

* Thank you, Johnny Yen!


Bonus Tracks!

A handful of tunes honoring some of R&B’s greatest artists:

Van Morrison: Jackie Wilson Said

ABC: When Smokey Sings

Scritti Politti: Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)

Billy Bragg: Levi Stubbs' Tears

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