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Rufus Thomas led a storied life. He started in show business in the late 1930s with a traveling minstrel show. By the early ‘50s, he was a renowned DJ on WDIA Memphis and was also recording on Meteor, Chess, and Sun Records.  


“Bear Cat” - Sun Records 1953 

  His daughter, Carla, had one of the first hits on the fledgling Stax Records with “Gee Whiz.”  Two years later in 1963, Rufus had a monster crossover hit with “Walking The Dog.” Later he recorded “Jump Back,” which became a R&R standard. 

“Walking The Dog”

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If you love the funk, have some free time today, and are anywhere in SoCal you should drive over to the city of Long Beach (aka the LBC) for the third annual, all day, free Long Beach Funk Fest with a constant flow of performances starting at 1pm and running through til 11pm tonight from such acts as Steve Arrington (formerly of Slave and recently collaborating with Dam Funk), and Fred Wesley & The New JB's. And best of all the festival is a free event!

Other performers today will include Ronkat Spearman's Katdelic, Zigaboo Modeliste of the Meters, Str8 Fonk feat. Patryce 'Choc'let' Banks, Delta Nove, Pinot, Lil Big Ups feat. Lonnie 'Meganut' Marshall, and The Big Ol' Nasty Getdown. Additionally the Sea Funk Brass Band will be parading throughout the festival today, and there will also be several dance performances, Kid's Zone of Funkativity activities and drumming, vendors, and other activities to keep all occupied. And all day DJs will be spinning in both the DJ tent and at the Armadillo stage. Official after party funk jam session starts at 11:30pm in the Rhythm Lounge at 245 Pine Avenue in Long Beach and goes til closing time.

According to a post from about an hour ago by Bootsy Collins on the funkateer's official Facebook page, his brother in funk, George Clinton, has been hospitalized. Bootsy, who played with Clinton in Parliament-Funkadelic in the early seventies, wrote on his Facebook page early this afternoon (May 26th): "Okay funkateers, our Captain of the Mothership has been hospitalized. I need y'all to send up smoke signals, love vibes, prayers whatever you got, because our great Dr. Funkisien needs us all right now, so stop what you're doing and lay your hands on the radio and let the vibes flow through.The funk not only moves, it Re-Moves, Dig! Thanks! Bootsy!!!"

The famed funk bassist also wrote a similar update on Clinton on his Twitter account this afternoon. The cause for Clinton's hospitalization was not pinpointed but apparently Clinton is in a Los Angeles area hospital and likely will not be released in time to play the scheduled Parliament-Funkadelic show on Saturday (May 28th) at the B.O.M.B. FEST in Hartford, CT. Clinton and the group are also scheduled to play a series of Bay Area shows in early July at Yoshi's Oakland and SF. For updates on the well being of the "Godfather of Funk"  follow Bootsy Collins' Twitter & Facebook accounts.

Your first guess was Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia which makes you sound well-educated – even astute – but because he’s been dead since 877 AD, over one thousand years before the opening of Disneyland, it was ultimately a stupid, stupid guess – even more so when you learn that Charles II thought Donald Duck was “so retarded.”

Your second guess is that I was at Disneyland with my boyfriend, two of my sisters, and some of their children. Now that’s using your noggin’! (Nice, noggin’, BTW.)

It wasn’t long ago that I was at Disneyland with rock superstar Micayla Grace (currently playing with Rachel Fannan) for her first time. I told you about that, right? No? Well, it was super. Micayla and I got high on rainbow-swirled lollipops (if you cut them into a powder and snort it you’ll hallucinate so hard that the blood gushing from your nose looks like juicy, red licorice whips [but will taste awful]) and had our picture taken with Goofy (or someone we thought was Goofy but turned out to be a soft-spoken teenage boy with neuropathic heredofamilial amyloidosis and very grumpy parents) before being given a tour of the infamous Disney "jail" after a botched assassination attempt on the animatronic Abraham Lincoln during the Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln show on Main Street, USA.

Special thanks to my man Rickey "Uhuru Maggot" Vincent for supplying the Amoeblog with his enlightening Top Ten Funk Sessions of 2010 list that includes the likes of Bernie Worrell's SociaLybrium, Nick Rosen, and Punk Funk Mob. In addition to his Top Ten, Vincent has included some "also digging" additional picks.

Rickey Vincent, who was interviewed about his favorite topic here last year, literally wrote the book on funk music.
Vincent's acclaimed music history book Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of The One (St. Martin's Press), which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, is the ultimate guide to funk music and its rich history.

Rickey Vincent, who many know from his long-running, popular KPFA 94.1FM radio show The History of Funk (10pm-midnight Fridays) knows more about funk than anyone I know. Not surprisingly, as well as being an author & journalist, he is also an educator on the subject and has taught classes at both City College of San Francisco and SF State University.

Vincent's 2010 Top Ten follows:



Another year and another wide ranging collection of funky discs have come my way, and I’m going to share my favorite ones from the year. The best criteria I can give is that these discs have been playing in my iPod nonstop since they came out. Simple as that.