Grootna – I’m Funky
Grootna, juxtaposed with the jacket of their sole LP
Listen/Download Grootna – I’m Funky
Greetings all
The end of the week is upon us, and so I thought I would whip something a little different on you all.
But first a message from our sponsor….that being a reminder that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this Friday evening at 9PM on Viva Radio. As always, we endeavor to bring you the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl. If you cannot join me at the time of broadcast, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in the iTunes store, or fall by this very blog to grab an MP3.
That said, it was a while back, whilst out a-digging, that I happened upon a 45 by a group that while jammed securely in my consciousness since childhood, I had never heard before.
That band, Grootna was familiar to me via their many appearances on psychedelic-era San Francisco concert posters, so much so that (thanks to the hypnotic power of one particular poster) it is almost impossible for me to think of their name without also appending that of another down-bill band – Stoneground – to it.
The 45 I found – ‘Full Time Woman’ – was the very first actual Grootna record I had ever seen in person, and while interesting, is not in any way Funky16Corners material.
That said, all roads lead to Rome (or at least to funk).
While I was a-Google-ating in search of Grootna info, I happened upon a Harmless collection entitled ‘Kaleidoscopic Funk’, in which the compilers brought together a wide range of funky rock, trippy funk and all points in between by artists like Sly and the Family Stone, Rotary Connection, Ruth Copeland, Larry Williams and Johnny Guitar Watson, and – as it turns out – Grootna.
I had never heard the song ‘I’m Funky’, so I Youtubed it, dug it a lot, and set out in search of my own copy.
As it turns out, the album on which the song appeared (self-titled, natch) which was produced by none other than Marty Balin (of the Jefferson Airplane/Starship/Roachclip) is fairly hard to come by and expensive, so I dug a little but more and found a vinyl copy of the song in a much more economical package.
This is the part of the post where we take a little detour and extoll the virtues of ‘loss leader” records.
Though I figure a lot of you are too young to remember, back in the olden days, when I was a kid, you would often open up a major label album and the inner sleeve would contain an ad (or two) for what were known as “loss leaders” i.e. cheap compilations intended to draw the consumer in to the deep recesses of a label’s catalog. They would do this by including a couple of familiar tracks by the bigger names on the roster, maybe an interesting rarity or two, and then a huge heap of stuff by new artists, back-benchers and old timers hanging on for dear life.
The hope was, that you would get this home (they were often very inexpensive considering that they were two or three album sets) dig something unfamiliar and then rush out and buy something by one or more of the artists at full price.
While I don’t recall actually buying any of these comps back in the day, I have spent the last 20 years picking them up wherever I see them because in addition to all of the crud, they often contain hidden gems.
‘The Music People’ is one such collection, which – as it turns out – also contains the song I bring you today, ‘I’m Funky’.
A fantastic example of stoned out, tie-dyed, hippie funk, ‘I’m Funky’ is especially groovy, with the flanged guitar, piano, drums and (slightly fuzzed out) bass and a fine vocal by Anna Rizzo.
Grootna released their sole album in 1971 and broke up a year later.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Themocracy
You can’t beat a bit of fusion! Long as it’s funky…
🙂
Thanks for finding this one. Had all but forgotten. Hope you and family are well.
yeah, that’s an interesting cut . . .
the loss leaders were great. i had a few from OG, and like you, have acquired some. I think Warner Bros. were best known, and well done. the guy who did the ad copy for these became well-known and went on to be fairly big-time on mad. ave. . . .
the first of the Warners’ loss leaders was The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook, which i picked up a few yrs. ago. what a wild menagerie of music! :
Wild Man Fischer:Songs for Sale
Jethro Tull: My Sunday Feeling
The Pentangle: Sweet Child
Van Morrison: Slim Slo Slider
Family: Second Generation Woman
Tom Northcott: Sunny Goodge Street
The Everly Brothers: T for Texas; Lord of the Manor
Van Dyke Parks: The All Golden; Music for a Datsun TV commercial
Sal Valentino: Alligator Man
The Beau Brummels: Deep Water
Randy Newman: Davy the Fat Boy
Tiny Tim: Mr Tim Laughs
The Mothers of Invention: The Voice of Cheese; Louie Louie; Our Bizarre Relationship; The Air
The Fugs: The Divine Toe; Grope Need; Tuli, Visited by the Ghost of Plotinus; Robinson Crusoe; The National Haiku Contest; Wide, Wide River
Arlo Guthrie: The Pause of Mr Claus
Sweetwater: Why Oh Why
Joni Mitchell: Nathan La Franeer
Eric Andersen: So Good to Be With You
The Electric Prunes: Finders Keepers
The Kinks: Picture Book
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Red House
Miriam Makeba: I Shall Be Released