#the decoding society

[funkpunkandpunkfunk]

Ronald Shannon Jackson & The Decoding Society - Nasty 5.0

(The track on the original release was about 5 min long, so this is extended and a little wilder.)

Featuring Vernon Reid, Melvin Gibbs, Byard Lancaster, Charles Brackeen, and Khan Jamal on free funk vibraphone!

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Vernon Reid & The Black Rock Coalition

"If you asked any ten people off the street," he explains, "black or white, Puerto Rican, Chinese— 'What's a rock band look like?,' they'd probably say blond, long hair, white. That to most people is a rock band. Our organization is a direct challenge to that mentality: the Black Rock Coalition. Part of our goal is to attack that imagery. Because first, rock is Black music. Rock is everyone's music, but the origins of rock are Black. And there's no way you can get around that."

The coalition draws its inspiration from the music of Chuck Berry, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and P-Funk. But like all stories of rock and racism, this one begins with an Elvis rap. "Take Elvis, right?" obliges Reid, a London-born Brooklynite with inch-long braids rising to a flattop on his head. "Rock 'n' roll took off in the country when Elvis presented it. Like a lot of the rock artists from the '60s, the Beatles, Stones, and in the early '70s, Led Zeppelin, got a lot from blues artists.

Recently, what you see is white artists doing things that are very rap-and funk-influenced crossing over into black markets and doing very well. Like you see Tears for Fears not even really doing a record that's funky, 'Shout!,' but the record was huge in black markets.  

"But that kind of thing is not happening for black artists that are doing rock. It hasn't translated back the other way. Looking at Prince— that's the single example. There's a feeling that Prince did it, so you should be satisfied." The Black Rock Coalition manifesto calls this cultural borrowing "pimping," but doesn't condemn it, to the group's credit. Instead, the coalition claims "the right to do the same."

[funkpunkandpunkfunk]

Ronald Shannon Jackson & The Decoding Society - Spanking

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Ronald Shannon Jackson & Decoding Society - Zane’s Fangs

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

The Decoding Society - The Beast (1987)