Top 10 songs to play at a funky chicken fry or BBQ

With the calendar turning to May, those of us in the Northeast (this is the Princeton Record Exchange’s blog after all) actually have warm weather on the horizon! I thought of this as I was sitting in the bleachers at the Phillies the other night, ‘enjoying’ the 48-degree windswept baseball - and let me tell you, a heat-soaked barbecue was one hell of an idea to have.  So as you’re prepping your burgers with Montreal Steakhouse seasoning, getting the hot dogs & chicken ready and exchanging your busted Propane tank for a fresh new one, don’t forget the tunes. I’m not going to LET you forget the tunes!

And the tunes we’re talking about are BBQ jawns, the dead-on-the-heavy-heavy funk.  Did you know funk was first created to give people something to listen to at BBQs? Okay, I made that up.  But given how good funk sounds during a BBQ, who’s to say it isn’t true?  So with that, let’s talk about some music that will keep your cookout poppin’ like Lil Mama’s Lip gloss.  Oh, and one more thing - I did my best to keep it to songs that are readily available. At least five of these songs are right there on iTunes waiting for you, and most of the others are easily attainable. Happy BBQing!

1. Rufus Thomas - Do the Funky Chicken
2. The New Mastersounds - Drop it Down
3. The Budos Band - Ride or Die
4. Osaka Monaurail - Pick up the Pieces One by One (parts 1 and 2)
5. The JB’s - Pass The Peas (or anything by the JB’s)
6. James Brown - Hot (I need to be Loved). This song is inspired by ’Fame’ by David Bowie - Fame came first.  But people’s eyes may widen a bit when they hear it, with that ‘Do I know this song?’ look.
7. The Meters - Just Kissed my Baby. This may be the fonkiest song ever made. Funk Thunder.
8. Shirlean Williams & the Tempo’s Band - Ease it to Me. This is on the Carolina Funk compilation.
9. Galactic - Black Eyed Pea
10. The Hen - Louis Chachere. This is an insanely rare record, like $100 for the 45.  If you want to hear it, check out my man at this site ( http://funky16corners.wordpress.com/ ) and look for volume 12 of the radio podcast. You can thank me later!

Keep the funk,

Keith