Funky Friday – Episode 82: Motor City Funk

🎧 Quick Links:

🎧 Listen live on KDOG 9 AM Pacific Time→ Here

🎧 Listen live on KCSM HD2 9 PM Pacific Time→ Here

📆 Add to Calendar — Funky Friday (Weekly):

• 9 AM KDOG

Add to Google Calendar

• 9 PM KCSM HD2

Add to Google Calendar

🎶 Catch the Replay  → Here

📖 Full Episode Recaps + Setlists → Here

📻 Renegade Radio Site → Here

Airdate: 8.28.26 - 9 AM Pacific Time on KDOG & 9 PM Pacific Time on KCSM HD2

Funky Friday – Episode 82: Motor City Funk

Happy Friday and welcome to Funky Friday Episode 82: Motor City Funk

Detroit built things.

Cars. Engines. Assembly lines.

And inside a small house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, one of the most extraordinary musical machines America ever produced.

They called it Hitsville U.S.A.

Behind many of Motown’s biggest stars was an extraordinary collection of Detroit session musicians known as The Funk Brothers.

You know their music.

You may just not know their names.

That’s where Motor City Funk begins.

We start underneath a familiar Stevie Wonder song with the Funk Brothers’ instrumental backing track to “I Was Made to Love Her.”

Take away the lead vocal and suddenly the machinery is exposed.

Bass. Drums. Guitar. Keyboards. Percussion.

Parts locking together with the precision of an assembly line.

From there, we follow that Detroit engine as it evolves.

The rhythms get harder. The bass gets heavier. Psychedelia creeps into the studio. Wah-wah and fuzz guitars begin tearing at the edges. The tightly constructed soul machine starts producing something increasingly difficult to contain.

By the early 1970s, Detroit is no longer producing one sound.

Motown.

Psychedelic soul.

Underground funk.

Heavy guitars.

Electronic keyboards.

Independent labels and studios creating their own variations on the Motor City groove.

And somewhere along the way, the assembly line starts throwing sparks.

Five years after recording “I Was Made to Love Her,” Stevie Wonder provides one of the great examples of that transformation with “Superstition.”

That unmistakable clavinet riff sounds almost mechanical.

The kid who once stood in front of Motown’s musical machine is now redesigning it.

And eventually, there is only one place left to go.

Outer space.

By the middle of the 1970s, Parliament-Funkadelic had transformed Detroit funk into an entire universe of sound, characters, mythology, and spaceships.

Our journey ends aboard the Mothership.

Signal Discovery

This week’s Signal Discovery takes us back to where we started.

The 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown  tells the story of the Funk Brothers and finally puts faces and names to musicians millions of people had been hearing for decades.

Before the fuzz pedals.

Before the clavinet.

Before the Mothership.

There was a room full of musicians in Detroit figuring out how all the pieces fit together.

They built the engine.

I’m Noah McDonough.

Welcome to Detroit.

Welcome to Motor City Funk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL9fF4Jtovc

Funky Friday – Episode 82: Motor City Funk

🔥 SETLIST + RENEGADE NOTES

The Funk Brothers - “I Was Made to Love Her (Instrumental)”

Personnel: James Jamerson - bass; Benny Benjamin - drums; Eddie Willis - guitar; additional instrumentation by the Funk Brothers. Original session produced by Henry Cosby.

Renegade Note: We begin by removing one of the most recognizable elements from a Stevie Wonder hit: Stevie Wonder. Recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit in 1967, the backing track to “I Was Made to Love Her” exposes the Motown machinery underneath the song. The instrumental was later released under the Funk Brothers’ name, giving the musicians who powered countless Motown sessions a rare opportunity to stand in the foreground.

Jr. Walker & The All Stars - “Shotgun”

Personnel: Jr. Walker - lead vocals, tenor saxophone; with the All Stars and Motown session musicians.

Renegade Note: Released in 1965, “Shotgun” demonstrates how funky Detroit could sound before funk had fully established itself as a genre. Walker’s screaming saxophone rides a hard, repetitive groove that is considerably rawer than the polished pop-soul sound often associated with mid-1960s Motown. It is an early glimpse of the rhythmic ingredients Detroit would spend the next decade pushing further.

Edwin Starr - “Twenty-Five Miles”

Personnel: Edwin Starr - lead vocals; instrumentation by Detroit/Motown session musicians. Produced by Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua.

Renegade Note: Released in 1969 on Motown’s Gordy label, “Twenty-Five Miles” turns a long walk into a relentless rhythmic workout. Starr co-wrote the song with Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua; Bert Berns and Jerry Wexler later received writing credit because of its similarities to the earlier “32 Miles Out of Waycross.” The stomping rhythm makes this a perfect example of Detroit soul becoming increasingly physical and groove-centered.

8th Day - “She’s Not Just Another Woman”

Personnel: Steve Mancha - lead vocals; with musicians associated with the Detroit Hot Wax/Invictus studio operation.

Renegade Note: Motown was not Detroit’s only musical assembly line. After Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown, their Invictus and Hot Wax labels created another home for Detroit soul and funk. “She’s Not Just Another Woman” became a major 1971 hit and gives us a glimpse of the musical ecosystem developing outside Berry Gordy’s operation.

The Temptations - “Cloud Nine”

Personnel: Dennis Edwards, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams - vocals; James Jamerson - bass; Dennis Coffey - lead guitar; Spider Webb and Uriel Jones - drums; Greg Reeves - tambourine; additional instrumentation by the Funk Brothers.

Renegade Note: “Cloud Nine” marks one of the crucial turns in the Motor City story. Producer Norman Whitfield was searching for a more psychedelic sound when Detroit guitarist Dennis Coffey brought his wah-wah pedal into a Motown workshop session. The resulting 1968 song pushed the Temptations decisively away from their earlier sound and helped open Motown’s psychedelic-soul era. It was also Coffey’s first Motown recording date.

Black Merda - “Cynthy-Ruth”

Personnel: Anthony Hawkins - guitar, vocals; VC L. Veasey - bass, vocals; Charles Hawkins - guitar, vocals; Tyrone Hite - drums, vocals.

Renegade Note: Detroit’s musical experimentation extended far beyond Hitsville. Black Merda combined blues, soul, psychedelic rock, and emerging funk into something considerably heavier and stranger. “Cynthy-Ruth,” from the group’s 1970 debut, brings the Detroit underground into our story and demonstrates just how wide the city’s musical vocabulary had become.

Funkadelic - “I’ll Bet You”

Personnel: Eddie Hazel - vocals, guitar; Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins, Calvin Simon and Ray Davis - vocals; Billy “Bass” Nelson - bass; Lucius “Tawl” Ross - guitar; Tiki Fulwood - drums; with musicians from the early Funkadelic/Parliaments orbit.

Renegade Note: George Clinton’s story began in New Jersey, but Detroit became essential to what Funkadelic became. The group’s 1970 debut was released by Detroit’s Westbound Records, and “I’ll Bet You” captures P-Funk before the spaceships and mythology took over. The vocal-group tradition is still audible, but underneath it the guitars, rhythm section, and production are already pulling the music somewhere considerably stranger.

Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band - “Scorpio”

Personnel: Dennis Coffey - guitar; with Detroit session musicians assembled for the Detroit Guitar Band.

Renegade Note: Dennis Coffey provides one of the clearest bridges between Motown’s studio machine and Detroit’s psychedelic funk. James Jamerson helped bring Coffey into the Motown orbit, and Norman Whitfield quickly recognized what his wah-wah, fuzz, and effects could add to the label’s changing sound. By the time Coffey stepped out front with “Scorpio,” the session guitarist had become the featured attraction.

The Undisputed Truth - “Smiling Faces Sometimes”

Personnel: Joe Harris - lead vocals; Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce - vocals; instrumentation by Motown session musicians. Produced by Norman Whitfield.

Renegade Note: Norman Whitfield originally developed “Smiling Faces Sometimes” within the Temptations’ psychedelic-soul world, but the Undisputed Truth turned it into a major hit in 1971. Dark, hypnotic, and suspicious, the song demonstrates how far Whitfield had moved from Motown’s earlier romantic optimism. By now, atmosphere and repetition were becoming as important as melody.

The Temptations - “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”

Personnel: Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street and Damon Harris - lead vocals; Otis Williams - background vocals; Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin and Paul Warren - guitars; Earl Van Dyke - electric piano; Johnny Griffith - organ; Maurice Davis - trumpet; Aaron Smith - drums; bass credited in sources to members of the Detroit session-player pool; Detroit Symphony Orchestra; arranged and conducted by Paul Riser.

Renegade Note: By 1972, Norman Whitfield had taken the experiment to monumental scale. The extended “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” lets the instrumental arrangement unfold for minutes before the vocal story takes command. Bass, percussion, wah-wah guitar, keyboards, trumpet, and strings enter piece by piece until the groove itself feels like the composition. Even the instrumental B-side received a Grammy, an extraordinary acknowledgement of the machinery underneath the Temptations.

Stevie Wonder - “Superstition”

Personnel: Stevie Wonder - lead vocals, Hohner Clavinet, drums, Moog bass; Trevor Lawrence - tenor saxophone; Steve Madaio - trumpet, horn arrangements; Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff - Moog synthesizer programming.

Renegade Note: Five years after the Funk Brothers backed him on “I Was Made to Love Her,” Stevie Wonder had become increasingly capable of building the machine himself. “Superstition” grew out of a studio collaboration with guitarist Jeff Beck, who began playing the song’s distinctive drum groove while Stevie improvised the now-famous clavinet riff over it. Wonder originally intended the song for Beck, but Motown recognized its hit potential and released Stevie’s version first. Beck, Bogert & Appice later recorded their own version. The story makes “Superstition” an especially fitting stop in Motor City Funk: Detroit precision, individual experimentation, and a spontaneous studio groove combining to create something entirely new.

Parliament - “Mothership Connection (Star Child)”

Personnel: George Clinton - lead vocals; Bootsy Collins - bass, vocals; Bernie Worrell - keyboards and synthesizers; Garry Shider, Michael Hampton and Glenn Goins - guitars; Tiki Fulwood and Jerome Brailey - drums and percussion; Fred Wesley - trombone; Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker and Joe Farrell - horns; additional P-Funk musicians and vocalists.

Renegade Note: We started this episode inside a small Detroit studio with the Funk Brothers building grooves one part at a time. We end in outer space. By 1975’s Mothership Connection, George Clinton and the P-Funk collective had transformed funk into an Afrofuturist universe of characters, mythology, costumes, synthesizers, horns, and the Mothership itself. Detroit’s assembly line had officially left the planet.

🔗 Quick Links:

🎧 Listen live on KDOG 9 AM Pacific Time→ Here

🎧 Listen live on KCSM HD2 9 PM Pacific Time→ Here

📆 Add to Calendar — Funky Friday (Weekly):

• 9 AM KDOG

Add to Google Calendar

• 9 PM KCSM HD2

Add to Google Calendar

🎶 Catch the Replay  → Here

📖 Full Episode Recaps + Setlists → Here

📻 Renegade Radio Site → Here

Funk Facts

---

THE FUNK BROTHERS - I Was Made to Love Her (Instrumental)

Built around James Jamerson’s extraordinarily active bass line, Benny Benjamin’s disciplined drums, clipped guitar, keyboards, tambourine, and tightly interlocking percussion. With Stevie Wonder’s lead vocal removed, the arrangement exposes the Motown rhythm machine almost like an exploded engineering diagram: individual parts remain remarkably economical while their interaction creates constant motion. Jamerson’s bass is especially revealing, functioning as a melodic voice without ever surrendering its role as the foundation of the groove.

JR. WALKER & THE ALL STARS - Shotgun

Driven by Jr. Walker’s explosive tenor saxophone, pounding drums, organ, guitar, bass, handclaps, and shouted vocals. The arrangement is unusually raw by mid-1960s Motown standards, relying on repetition and rhythmic attack more than elaborate orchestration. Walker’s saxophone behaves almost like another percussion instrument, stabbing into a groove that already points toward funk before the genre had fully acquired its name.

EDWIN STARR - Twenty-Five Miles

Built around a stomping rhythmic pulse, muscular bass, clipped guitar, percussion, horns, backing vocals, and Edwin Starr’s increasingly urgent lead performance. The arrangement translates the song’s story of physical movement directly into rhythm: repeated accents mimic footsteps while Starr’s vocal intensity increases as the destination gets closer. Rather than decorating the song, the rhythm section becomes part of the narrative.

8TH DAY - She’s Not Just Another Woman

Driven by a deep bass line, tight drums, guitar, keyboards, horns, strings, backing vocals, and Steve Mancha’s forceful lead performance. The arrangement carries the polished orchestration associated with Detroit soul while placing considerably more weight on the rhythm section. Horn and string accents move around the central groove rather than overwhelming it, illustrating how the Hot Wax/Invictus operation developed its own variation on the Motor City sound.

THE TEMPTATIONS - Cloud Nine

Constructed around a heavy bass-and-drum foundation, wah-wah guitar, percussion, keyboards, layered vocals, and Norman Whitfield’s increasingly adventurous production. The guitar supplies texture as much as harmony, while the rhythm section maintains a repetitive foundation beneath constantly shifting vocal and instrumental colors. It represents Motown precision being deliberately stretched toward psychedelic soul without sacrificing the pocket underneath it.

BLACK MERDA - Cynthy-Ruth

Built around distorted electric guitar, thick bass, stripped-down drums, and raw vocals, with considerably more open space than the densely arranged Motown productions surrounding it in our Detroit story. The guitar and bass carry much of the song’s weight, combining blues phrasing with psychedelic distortion and a repetitive funk pulse. The result feels simultaneously primitive, heavy, and remarkably modern.

FUNKADELIC - I’ll Bet You

Driven by Billy “Bass” Nelson’s bass, Eddie Hazel and Tawl Ross’ guitars, Tiki Fulwood’s drums, layered vocals, and the loose interplay that characterized early Funkadelic. Vocal-group harmonies reveal the musicians’ soul and doo-wop ancestry while distorted guitars and a heavier rhythm section continually pull the song toward psychedelic funk-rock. You can practically hear one musical language mutating into another in real time.

DENNIS COFFEY & THE DETROIT GUITAR BAND - Scorpio

Built around Dennis Coffey’s wah-wah and effects-heavy guitar, a relentlessly repeating rhythm section, percussion, keyboards, and layered instrumental textures. Rather than treating guitar as accompaniment, the arrangement makes Coffey’s effects part of the groove itself. Wah-wah sweeps, rhythmic picking, and psychedelic studio textures transform the guitar into something halfway between a lead instrument and another component of the rhythm section.

THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH - Smiling Faces Sometimes

Constructed from a hypnotic bass foundation, drums, percussion, wah-wah guitar, keyboards, strings, and layered vocals. Norman Whitfield allows the instrumental atmosphere to establish the song’s uneasy mood before the vocal arrangement fully takes command. Repetition creates tension rather than release, demonstrating how psychedelic soul could use the groove not simply to make people move, but to make them uncomfortable.

THE TEMPTATIONS - Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone

Built from one of popular music’s great exercises in accumulation: bass establishes the foundation, followed by hi-hat and percussion, wah-wah guitar, electric piano, organ, trumpet, strings, and eventually vocals. Norman Whitfield and arranger Paul Riser allow enormous amounts of space between those elements, making each new entrance significant. Instead of supporting the song, the extended instrumental groove becomes the world in which the song takes place.

STEVIE WONDER - Superstition

Built around Stevie Wonder’s instantly recognizable Hohner Clavinet riff, a drum pattern whose origins trace back to his studio collaboration with Jeff Beck, Moog bass, and tightly arranged horns. Wonder layers multiple clavinet parts to create the song’s churning rhythmic engine, with the instrument functioning almost simultaneously as keyboard, rhythm guitar, and percussion. The groove demonstrates just how far Stevie had moved from the Motown house-band model heard at the beginning of this episode: much of the rhythmic machinery is now being constructed by Wonder himself.

PARLIAMENT - Mothership Connection (Star Child)

Built around Bootsy Collins’ elastic bass, Bernie Worrell’s keyboards and synthesizers, layered guitars, drums, horns, overlapping vocals, and George Clinton’s increasingly theatrical lead performance. The arrangement combines the discipline of a deep funk groove with an enormous sonic environment in which chants, synthesizers, horn figures, and vocal characters appear and disappear. By this point in our Detroit journey, the tightly interlocking rhythmic machinery heard at the beginning of the episode has not disappeared—it has been launched into outer space.