Week 10: Give Up The Funk

     


    This week, I listened to “Give Up The Funk” by Parliament. It was originally released under the name “Tear the Roof off. The Sucker” in 1975. The song reached number five on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart and number fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The song starts out with just a simple drum beat and a low voice repeating the phrase “ Tear the roof off We're gonna tear the roof off the mother sucker Tear the roof off the sucker“. It took me a few times of listening to the song to even figure out what he is saying at the beginning. This low, repeated phrase seems to act more as an instrument rather than main vocals. Then, the song begins to build with a funky baseline, brass, and synth. The singers come in at a much higher register than the beginning.

    “Give Up The Funk” has a very steady beat that is consistent throughout the song. I also noticed rather quickly that this is a very repetitive song. There is not much variation in the lyrics, which leads me to believe that this song is more about the overall funk sound and groove rather than the words. This song is longer than average being total of 5 minutes and 48 second long. In my opinion, that is way too long for the song and, if it were up to me, I would take out the last two minutes. It is basically the same thing over and over by that point with some slight instrumental variation. Overall, this is a fun, funky sounding song that is fun to listen too, but I don’t think it should drag on for as long as it does.

Comments

  1. Whitney23 November 2020 at 16:42

    I haven't heard this song before this class and totally hear where you're coming from! You honestly cannot hear what is being said at the beginning of the song and it really does sound like they were making it as more of an instrument rather than main vocals! I didn't know that they had changed the song title, do you know why they decided to change it?

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