The Meters are a funk band from New Orleans, who were most famous for their work in the 60’s and 70’s. They were one of the most influential bands of early funk music, with other artists such as James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone. They however took a down to earth and grounded approach to funk, which set them apart from the rest of funk. Their tracks were usually instrumental, so this put the emphasis on the grooves and rhythms of the tracks. Their songs were complex usually, with every member having an important role. They also had a big focus on percussion, with layered and complex percussion. The drumming is usually leading the song and being the vocal point for a lot of their songs. Which is very similar to what I’m going for in my track, as the drums are going to be the main focus. I will be analysing their most famous and iconic track, “Cissy Strut”.
This songs known to be one of the most groovy and influential funk tracks of all time. It’s known for it’s great drum beat and great guitar track.
The drum beat in this track is one of the most iconic in funk songs. A main thing in funk tracks is that there usually isn’t much change during the song. Where in a rock song, the chorus, verses and all the separate parts in one song can be wildly different. However in funk, the bassline and drums and all of the parts are relatively the same throughout the whole song. Where funk excels is when it builds upon these parts, the little licks and solo type parts are what make this song really good. A solid nice sounding track with little licks that make it even better. It’s especially important for these songs to have a really good rhythm section, as without them two the song wouldn’t work.
This song is in 4/4, and includes Art Neville on keyboard, Leo Nocentelli on guitar, George Porter Jr. on bass, Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste on drums and Cyril Neville on percussion. The drums and the guitar are the standouts in this song to me. They are both constant during the song, and are great parts that compliment each other and the rest of the song, while standing on their own. The percussion in this track and on a lot of tracks by The Meters is great and has it’s own purpose. It builds upon the drumming and accents what needs to be accented, and builds upon it in other interesting and rhythmic ways.
This song showed me the usual structure, instrumentation and basis for a funk song. Have a great drum beat and bass line for the backbone of the song, and that be more or less constant throughout the whole song. It also showed me how important percussion is to these songs. And how instruments all work with each other. How the guitars work with each other, how guitars and drum work together etc. It’s helped me understand funk tracks and it will help me make my song the best it can be.