Funk IS Back

great lyrics from Mark Ronson
"Ride to Harlem, Hollywood, Jackson, Mississippi
If we show up, we gon’ show out
Smoother than a fresh jar of skippy

I’m too hot (hot damn)
Called a police and a fireman
I’m too hot (hot damn)
Make a dragon wanna retire man"


When I first heard this Uptown Funk tune I thought to myself, "Did someone really cover Le Freak by Chic?"

Yes and No.

Because Funk is and will always be awesome artists are hoping a ride back to 1978 with rearrangements of classic funk tunes from Marvin Gaye and Chic. The performance by Bruno Mars also returns to mid career Michael Jackson, but I dig it. The same way The Rolling Stones modified Mississippi blues to their own devices, Bruno Mars is modernizing traditional funk. The modern arrangement is very good. I prefer it to the original because the horns in the modern version replaced the strings of the original and it's good.
I merely want to point out that recently the team who produced Blurred Lines got sued by Marvin Gaye's family for as much copyright infringement that is now being overlooked in the comparison of Uptown Funk and Le Freak. The producers actually reached a settlement with The Gap Band oversimilarities, but Uptown Funk is really a blending of several songs, layered on top of one another. It's an original rearrangement with cool lyrics. A song like this would have to be split so many ways that you might as well say it's the price of being in the music business, that whatever you do today may be rearranged down the line with much more success.
Even though Mars and crew still objectify women in the video when the lyrics aren't really related to objectifying women, I wish him well.

Love & Mercy