The QC Weekender: Get PHOUNKY!!!

Man oh man! The work week’s done and it’s time to have fun! So let’s take the weekend off to kick back, unwind with a man friend or two (or five or eight), and groove. This installment of the Weekender has four ultra-funky tunes to keep you moving and grooving past your worries and into the new week!

Let’s Groove by Earth, Wind, and Fire: This video has everthing you could possibly want: vocal synthesizers, computerized space effects, glittery costumes, psychedelic tracers, a woman dancing on a rainbow, and a heck of a lot of funk! No sirs, they don’t make videos like this anymore… well, maybe in France, but nowhere else, we assure you. Also, did you know that this is one of Barack Obama’s favorite bands? Thank goodness America elected a hip president this time.

Make Me Smile (cover) by Erasure: Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel recorded the original version of this in 1975 and it was later covered by Duran Duran featured on the ultra-gay glam rock Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. Erasure’s version makes it sound like the bonus round music to some high-energy video game. And to make it double weird, someone made a video for it featuring five multi-colored Santas advertising a German website for free classified ads. Odd.
Two fun and funky songs from different Michaels after the jump!

Michael Jackson singing You Can’t Win: Sadly, YouTube just took down the clip from the Broadway musical The Wiz where Michael Jackson sings this song as the Scarecrow. In it, four jive-turkey Jim Crows dance and strut around the crucified scarecrow as he painfully accepts his position as someone deserving of torment. It’s an anthem for self-defeatism, but still funk, Funk, FUNKY all the same!

I Keep Forgetting by Michael McDonald: You may recall that this song was most recently sampled in Warren G’s Regulate, but the original came from this guy and he’s a muthafuckin’ pimp with his Grizzly Adam’s beard, his Baby Grand and silky smooth voice. And check out the date he treats his fine lady to. They’re drinking champagne in the Korakova Milk Bar where the damned table is lit from underneath and she’s so crippled by adoration that she can’t even look up!… then comes the sweet lovin’, oh yeah! When the background vocals kick in at 2:05, is it any wonder that a woman literally comes billowing through his window? Hell no, it aint.