(Not Just) Knee Deep
Funkadelic
Begins as a brief funk sketch, then slowly reveals itself as an architecture. The opening section has that classic tightly-wound groove, but around the four-minute mark something shifts and the song expands, becomes more instrumental, more meditative. The bass takes on a conversational quality, stating themes and waiting for response. There's a looseness to the arrangement that sounds like improvisation but is almost certainly structural — the messiness is designed. Vocally it ranges from full-throated funk delivery to near-spoken passages, the voice becoming just another instrument in a conversation the whole band is having. Emotionally it moves from urgency to something closer to trance, the groove working its way past the conscious listening mind into somewhere more instinctual. This is music that rewards patience and punishes distraction — you have to let it take you somewhere rather than trying to follow it analytically. It belongs to late nights, to the part of a gathering where the agenda has been abandoned and people are simply present with each other. The extended form was a statement in itself: we will not be compressed into radio time.
medium
1970s
loose, warm, expansive
American P-Funk, late 1970s
Funk, Soul. extended P-Funk. hypnotic, meditative. Begins as tight funk urgency then expands around the four-minute mark into instrumental meditation, moving from conscious listening into instinct.. energy 6. medium. danceability 7. valence 7. vocals: varied male delivery, full-throated to near-spoken, voice as instrument. production: conversational bass, designed-loose arrangement, minimal accents, extended instrumental passages. texture: loose, warm, expansive. acousticness 2. era: 1970s. American P-Funk, late 1970s. Late-night gatherings where the agenda has dissolved and people are simply present with each other.