This week’s feature is Etta James Sings Funk. This may be the rawest record I’ve ever featured for the AOTW. In 1969, Etta James was well-established. With one of the strongest, most easily recognizable, and performatively dominant voices of all time, James was the musical equivalent of the MLB’s steriod-era sluggers. She was comfortable in any ballad, could carry any song, and after a decade in music she was ready to extend those abilities to a new genre. Funk was the newest. Many trace the now-famous genre back to James Brown. His dynamo performative abilities and top-notch band paved the way for a whole new style of envigorated, high-pace soul in the mid-60s. Etta James couldn’t let that kind of innovation go unchecked, and so her search for the next stylistic horizon concluded with a natural choice: to sing the funk. The sometimes stangant instrumentals that are strewn across Etta James’ catalog are absent from this record. Bass, drums, and horns supply a backing powerful enough to hang with the matriarch of r&b. Strong lyrics are the standard, and while the style is not her own, Etta James is undeniable on the microphone. She tries her best to outsing the bolstered instrumentals, almost as if musical backing is an irritating requirement of song creation, something future funk legends would never attempt. In other words, Etta James caught ahold of an instrtumentally elevated genre, misunderstood the style, and recorded a ‘funk’ record unlike any that followed with brute force and unmatched vocal talent.

Enjoy!