Brothers In Funk

I went to see The Funk Brothers at Massey Hall Tuesday night. If you've seen the film "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown", then you know who The Funk Brothers are.

They were essentially the house band for Motown Records' Detroit era from the early í60s to the í70s, before Motown moved to LA. They supplied the music on just about every Motown hit you could name. Think of hits by The Temptations, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves, Smokey Robinson... They played on more #1 hits than the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Elvis and The Beatles combined.

And they were great! It was like an old-time Motown review. The six surviving membersótambourine genius and vibe-player Jack Ashford, keyboardist Joe Hunter, bassist Bob Babbitt, guitarists Joe Messina and Eddie Willis and drummer Uriel Jonesówore red blazers, and were augmented by other players, including a 4-piece horn section and three back-up singers, most of whose pedigrees were from the Philly Soul stable, MFSB, etc. Like the movie (and if you haven't seen the movie, go see it) they had guest singers along, including Joan Osborne, Maxi Priest, Darlene Love and various solo turns by each of the back-up singers. Unfortunately, Bootsy Collins had apparently fallen ill, so he had to cancel. Too bad.

But with a set list that included such songs as "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", "How Sweet It Is", "My Girl", "Stop In The Name Of Love" (both these last 2 songs featured members of the audience on stage), "What's Going On?", and many other hits, it was hard to complain. And let me tell you, these guys might be oldósome of them could barely walkóbut they can still play! They got the funk out all right!

But for my money, Joan Osborne gets highest marks, especially for her rendition of "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted". That song obviously means a great deal to her, ícos she sang the shit out of it. Talk about heart and soul. It was one of those transcendent moments in live music that just carries you along with itóup and up and up, and on to some place else entirely. It was magnificent.

The only moment to beat that was when they played "Heard It Through The Grapevine", which Osborne also sang. When they started with that ominous keyboard intro, that tribal beat, then the drums come tumbling in, the guitar slices on the 2 and the 4... it put a chill up my spine. It was quite surreal actually. I thought to myself, this isn't some band playing "Heard It Through The Grapevine"; it is the band that recorded that track. They created this song. They made it sound the way it sounds. And they're doing it again, right in front of me. I would pay the full ticket price again, if only just to go back in time to hear them play that song again. It was amazing.

If you get a chance to catch these guys on tour, do it. They're just getting the acclaim they deserve now, after 30 or 40 years. They are pop music history, and they won't be around much longer. And they are a great funking band.