Play that funky music.

Play that funky music, White Boy.

Play that funky music, white boy.

How could I be so foolish [How could I]
To not see I was the one behind?

Play that funky music.

Nowadays lyricists and singers,along with everyone else,have to watch every word that comes out in case it is viewed as racist.Songs like Black Betty and Play that funky music-white boy were on thin ice even decades back with their lyrics.A line in the former goes-Black Betty had a child.The damn thing gone wild.This was viewed in some quarters as not only highly racist,but also that things like the wording used for the second sentence were an added slight.However,it cuts both ways.Play that funky music came in for similar accusations of racism-The white boy reference.Some even felt that here was a tale of a white DJ finding himself in a disco with a black clientelle,and possibly the only way he's getting out of there alive is if he reverts to that funky music they all adore.Whatever the ramifications of all these sensitive issues,and I am totally anti-racist myself,from whatever quarter it spews from, I have long felt that this whole business of boogie,funky,hip-hop,get down groovy,get with the beat stuff is one irksome ten tons of baloney,and might even be some subconscious way of staving off the stark fact of the recognition of loneliness.-Slow dance music brings lonely people together more.Shuffling about like the world's greatest assholes tends to obstruct that need.This situation hasn't been helped in recent years either by a strange compulsion on the part of most DJs to constantly play fast dance numbers.Anyone can disagree with my views on such issues,but a man doesn't get to forty three without having been around the block a few times,observing what makes folks happy and what makes them feel blue or even stupid.Play that funky music is something of a case in point here.Check out lines like Movin' to the groovin' and I'm funkin' out in every way.Check out what could be a classic example of such silliness-The line I've specially picked out above.The bald fact of the matter is that this kind of waffle simply annoys me for the reasons I've given.We're told that it's started making a comeback,if indeed it ever fully disappeared.[Shades of my commentary on Hippy hippy shake in which I said that in view of the return to fame among all age groups of all manner of musical items,including Tony Christie's Amarillo,who knew what might be next.Even, heaven forbid,Hippy hippy shake.Even,heaven forbid even more,The Time Warp.]Get this,Play that funky music was a mega smash hit in 76,roaring in at number one in the charts,spawning accolades,awards and nominations.Get this too,the group split shortly afterwards.One minute everything in the garden is rosy,the next all you find are the weeds of discontent.Was it a sign this kind of funky stuff had begun to die a slow death,compounded by the fact that the AIDS-beset 80s lurked around the corner,with the angst-ridden 90s following on.Guys,I leave it up to you to decide for yourselves where your own feelings lie with fast dance music and lyrics.I trust I've made mine abundantly clear.As an addendum to all this I've also noticed that when he's prattling those words-Play that funky music-you'd almost swear,if you didn't know the number,that the word funky is something else entirely.