[Ads-l] Antedating of "Funk" (Musical Genre)

[Shapiro, Fred]

I have long been puzzled by that question but never really looked into it.  My impression of their music back in the day was that they were a hard rock band.  Now I have looked into it, and it appears that Grand Funk Railroad was not a "funk" band in the usual sense, their name was some kind of wordplay on the word "trunk."

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Dan Goncharoff <00001bc983129c8b-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2026 9:51 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Funk" (Musical Genre)

How does Grand Funk Railroad come into this? They formed in 1969.

DanG

On Thu, Mar 5, 2026, 9:43 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> funk (OED, n2, 3.b., 1970 [21 Feb.])
>
> 1969 Billboard 15 Feb. 24/1 (ProQuest)  Honey-smooth soul, funk and
> electric blues are today's three faces of r & b, with gospel and Latin soul
> surfacing from the underground to give r & b as diversified a musical
> culture as the major (white) market.
>
> 1969 Billboard 11 Oct. 72/1 (ProQuest)  Missing is participation by the
> majors; by Atlantic, funk specialists.
>
> 1969 Omaha Star 20 Nov. 12/1 (Newspapers.com)  Jerry Wexler, the master of
> Southern funk.
>
> 1970 Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Mass.) 12 Feb. 8/5 (Newspapers.com)  A
> few additions to the longplay library are making some headway on the charts
> these days.  There is funk and soul music with Aretha Franklin's release of
> "This Girl's in Love with You" and James Brown's "Ain't It Funky."
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cb7494a641de541d3d1d508de7ac6aea4%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C639083190949303207%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=23dRfm7hjvIUQoGjspIUSPtQGYfa7eEMVT636SsR7eY%3D&reserved=0<http://www.americandialect.org/>
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cb7494a641de541d3d1d508de7ac6aea4%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C639083190949329805%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=BYtC2oKubgCRKj2hvX18nb7HwSekRklZ5PTviu4fzBY%3D&reserved=0<http://www.americandialect.org/>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org