Variations On A ‘Funky’ Theme…

As promised, here is the guest post from Larry from The Funky 16 Corners audioblog as he takes us deep into the world of exciting library music. Be sure to check out his site regularly. For my end of the swap, I reviewed The Equatics' reissue entitled "Doin It!!!"




Greetings all.

I was honored when Eric asked me to fall by Record Racks with a ‘guest’ post.

The tracks I bring you today are not only one of the grooviest examples of the ‘library’ music genre, but also represent a peak moment of what might be described as a’micro-genre’, that being reworkings of Keith Mansfield’s ‘Funky Fanfare’.

Keith Mansfield: Funky Fanfare
From KPM 1043 Beat Incidental (KPM, 1969)

Keith Mansfield: Funky Chase
From KPM 1043 Beat Incidental (KPM, 1969)

Keith Mansfield: Funky Flight
From KPM 1043 Beat Incidental (KPM, 1969)

Mansfield as both composer and pianist - often in collaboration with Hammond master Alan Hawkshaw (the man behind the Mohawks) – recorded some truly fantastic music in the late 60s and early 70s (and beyond that), some of it for UK sound libraries like KPM, and some under his own name for a variety of labels (some of which actually saw release in the US).

These ‘libraries’ created musical themes for a variety of uses with the music appearing in the background of motion picture and television soundtracks, behind commercials and public service announcements, and sometimes as just plain old ‘music for listening’.

The selections you’re hearing today are three variations of the ‘Funky Fanfare’ theme from KPM 1043 ‘Beat Incidental’ (from 1969). Though many beat diggers (and listeners in general) may be familiar with certain library themes, until you actually get your hands on one of the albums released by services like KPM or Bruton you don’t realize how brief many of these tunes are.

‘Beat Incidental’ includes more than 20 tracks, very few of them running in excess of two minutes, several – intended as transitional or interstitial themes, running less than ten seconds. The three tracks included here, ‘Funky Fanfare’, ‘Funky Chase’ and

‘Funky Flight’ all run between a minute and a minute and a half, and are all variations on the same instrumental theme.
‘Funky Flight’ is mainly percussion and guitar, ‘Funky Chase’ repeats that, adding vibes, and ‘Funky Fanfare’ the main theme - and no doubt the most familiar - leads with the Hammond (probably Mansfield himself, since Hawkshaw is not credited).

I’ve always found it interesting – at least since I discovered library music – how many of these pieces (including those by Mansfield, Hawkshaw, Syd Dale, John Dankworth and Johnny Pearson*) transcend their utilitarian roots and jump into another dimension entirely. Perhaps it has something to do with their original creation having to do with evocation of a particular mood, or more likely that having done so, they were appropriated by other sources where they entered the public imagination in an unforeseen way. Pearson’s ‘Heavy Action’ (from KPM1136 Industrial Panorama, go check it out on iTunes) entered a huge number of American homes in the 1970s as the theme to Monday Night Football.

If ‘Funky Fanfare’ is indeed familiar, it’s because the theme was reworked more than half a dozen times over the period of a few years, in a fairly wide variety of settings. If you take a close look at the label, there’s a reference to another version (under the ‘Funky Fanfare’ title) on KPM1038. This version was recorded with a much bigger band, includes slightly funkier drums and was used in (but not included on the soundtrack for) Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’, where it was used as I remember it from my childhood, as the background to a coming attractions interstitial from the movies.

Mansfield himself recorded the theme – retitled as ‘Soul Thing’ – on his 1969 ‘All You Need Is Keith Mansfield’ LP (released in a few different countries) with his piano in the lead, opening with a very tasty, very crisp drum break. The tune was recorded again as ‘Soul Thing’, in an arrangement approximating the KPM1038 version of ‘Funky Fanfare’ in 1970 under the name of drummer Tony Newman, with a Hammond lead that sounds a lot like Alan Hawkshaw.

Oddly enough there’s yet another instrumental version of the tune, a progressive/psyche interpretation by a Steve Hillage project called Arzachel. They take the tune at a very slow pace, renaming it ‘Queen Street Gang’.

There was also a vocal version of the song entitled ‘House of Jack’ with lyrics by R. Chris Murphy added to Mansfield’s music. As far as I can tell the original vocal version was recorded in the UK by James Royal, then again by Paul Raven* (later known as Gary Glitter) and yet again in the US (in 1971) by a largely anonymous group called The Establishment, released on the King label (probably the easiest of the three to find).

There’s also at least one other version (which may be the same as the KPM1038 recording) under the name of the Carnaby Street Pop Orchestra, which I understand to be basically repackaged (possibly remixed) Mansfield/ KPM content.

No matter how you cut it, Mansfield’s little creation has had a remarkably fruitful life, which is probably why it’s become an ear-worm of sorts, having come to represent a palpable slice of late period Swinging London (or anywhere else for that matter).

It’s interesting to hear Mansfield play with the basic theme in the three KPM1048 tracks. There are two more ‘Funky’ tracks on that album (‘Funky Link 1’ and Funky Link 2’), but neither one of them lasts more than seven seconds.

I hope you dig the sounds.

Peace

Larry

*I’ve never heard the Paul Raven version, but I have seen the label and the lyrics are credited to ‘Raven’, so it may in fact be yet another iteration of the tune

PS Make sure to check out the ‘World of Kane’ blog where Youtube clips of a number of the versions mentioned above are posted (and a few more in the comments) here.