Lost Soul: Funky 8 Corners

This piece of street-corner funk from 1969 by Willie & the Mighty Magnificents is lively with chatter and raucous laughter. You can bet many bottles were opened during this recording, which features a string of jokes which aren’t bad by music standards (“Why didn’t you catch that bus?”; “What bus?”; “The bus that ran over your face!”) including what must be one of the earliest outings of a YOUR MOMMA insult in music.

In a little over two minutes, the house band of Sylvia and Joe Robinson’s All Platinum label scorch a tight groove with driving horns and chicken-scratching guitars that belies their New Jersey background. Funky 8 Corners doesn’t sound out of place next to Southern funk greats like Archie Bell and the Drells, The Meters and The Highlighters Band.