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

[Stephen Goranson]

Might "Waltz De Funk" be a word play on "defunct"? (Contra Valse triste...)
sg

On Thu, Mar 5, 2026 at 10:18 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
> >
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