Funk 49
| "Funk 49" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by James Gang | ||||
| from the album James Gang Rides Again | ||||
| Released | 1970 | |||
| Format | 7" vinyl | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, funk rock | |||
| Length | 3:54 | |||
| Label | ABC | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Joe Walsh, Jim Fox, Dale Peters | |||
| Producer(s) | James Gang, Bill Szymczyk | |||
| James Gang singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Funk #49" is a song written by Joe Walsh, Jim Fox, and Dale Peters, and recorded by American hard rock band The James Gang, being featured as the first single off the group's second studio album James Gang Rides Again (1971). The song was a moderate success upon release, peaking at #59 on the Billboard Hot 100, but has since become a "classic rock standard", and still gets constant airplay on classic rock radio stations.[1]
Composition
"Funk #49" is 3:35 in length, though it only has two verses. Much of the song is instrumental, drawing from Joe Walsh's guitar and Dale Peters drumming. The lyrics focus on a wild girlfriend the singer cannot tame. Most of the song is a vehicle for Walsh's guitar performance. The song got its title as a sequel to Funk #48, a song from the previous album.[2]
Walsh explained the writing of the song, ""I came up with the basic guitar lick, and the words never really impressed me intellectually, but they seemed to fit somehow. It was a real good example of how we put things together, bearing in mind that it was a three piece group, and I don't think that there was any overdubbing. The only thing we really added was the percussion middle part, which the three of us actually played, putting some parts on top of the drums, but that's the three piece James Gang, and that's the energy and kind of the symmetry we were all about."[2]
Release and reception
The song peaked at #59 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.[1] The song was well-received by music critics. George Starostin called it "a terrific number that has almost immediately managed to occupy an honourable spot on my "best white funk of all time" table - the rhythm section pounds away like mad, and Joe's swingin' shakin' guitar lines totally make the grade."[3]
In popular culture
"Funk #49" has been used in many films,television series,and video games since the 1970s.
The song was used in the film Rounders (1998), and was featured in the classic rock-themed comedy film Detroit Rock City in 1999.
It was featured during the end-credits of the film Joe Dirt (2001).
It appeared in the 2002 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys.
It appeared in the season 1 finale of Entourage and in an episode of The Sopranos titled "Soprano Home Movies", as well as the film Artie Lange's Beer League (2006).
The song was featured in the video games Rock Band, Rocksmith, Test Drive Unlimited, and Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned; as downloadable content.
It was featured in a commercial for Fox Sports 1.
The song was featured in two episodes of the television series Caught in 2018.
It also appeared in the films Can't Hardly Wait (1998), Out Cold (2001), The Girl Next Door (2004), The House of D (2004), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Invincible (2006), Sleepwalking (2008), Straw Dogs (2011), and War Dogs (2016).
It also appeared in Hawaii Five-0, Supernatural, and Cold Case, as well as the Telltale video game Guardians of the Galaxy (2015).
It also appeared in trailers for the films Grown Ups (2010) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).
References
- 1 2 James Gang Funk # 49 Chart History | Billboard
- 1 2 "Funk #49 by James Gang". Songfacts. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
- ↑ Starostin, George. "Rides Again". Only Solitaire. Retrieved September 12, 2018.