1967 was the year when 'Funk' seemed to be born, James Brown had a song Cold Sweat in this year. After when he released songs including it , he changed his style stressed on melodious singing into the style stressed on rhythmic rapping and stirring shouting. His best "Star Time" shows the transition of his music. Meanwhile, there was a person who performed at the same time and in the same style , and, in addition to it, who used the word 'Funky' in his song title before James Brown did. That was Dyke aka Arlester Christian.
When I first listened to his We Got More Soul, my first impression was "It's a borrowed tune and it takes advantage of big names too much", because he sang a James-Brown song with a more hoarse voice, and he read famous names just like 'Ray Charles', 'James Brown', 'Johnnie Taylor', 'Aretha Franklin', 'Nancy Wilson' in the song. But it kept intersting for me, because I listened to the other song Funky Broadway in the compilation album "Soul Shots" and I found it was the original of the famous Wilson Pickett song (you can hear on "A Man and a Half").
And then, I bought his best "The Funky Broadway". Its sleeve of a dancing girl is suited for the music better than a sleeve of the singer in person. It's sure that JB is so superior to him on the grounds of sales, talents of backing musicians and the appearance of stage acting including dancing. But Dyke & the Blazers have their own good taste. Many of their songs were said to be edited down from 15-to-20-minute jams, so the rhythms are looser and rougher than those of JB's, which were recorded in the strict direction of ensemble during hardest-working tours . Funky Bull knocks me out with the groove of falling down from its introduction into the following rhythm. Funky Broadway gives you looseness of organ and horn section. Funky Walk, So Sharp both hook you up. We Got More Soul, Let A Woman Be A Woman, Let A Man Be A Man deliver tight rhythms and breaks. All these songs can be said to be the origins of funk.
According to liner notes of "The Funky Broadway" and a compilation with some Dyke's photos "So Sharp", I got it later, it is said that Dyke was born not in Phoenix, Arizona, but in Buffalo, New York, where he had activities at first, and that he and his group moved to Phoenix as a backing band of O'Jays, the future successes as Philly soul men, and stayed there still. His local release Funky Broadway went nationally distributed by a L.A. record company Original Sound and became a hit, and his band had toured throughout U.S.. It is also said that Dyke sometimes went to L.A. for some recordings with competent musicians. Anyway, I think it was totally not too bad for him, because he had songs with one idea, sometimes became a little lucky like big shots with a help of national radio on-air and he could get some respect from somewhere he had never been to thanks to his own hit and its renditions. That's one of charms of a musician's life. (2004/06/15)(2005/03/09)