- Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm Stephen Henderson, your host.

A new documentary, titled "We Want the Funk," debuts on "Independent Lens" here on PBS on April 8th at 9:00 PM.

Now, the film, by director Stanley Nelson, chronicles the history and influence of funk music and features legends such as James Brown, George Clinton, and David Bowie.

It also examines the relationship between funk music and the political and racial dynamics in 1970s America.

Here's a preview.

- Two, three, and one.

- James Brown.

- George Clinton.

- Sly and the Family Stone.

- Funk is something that takes you over.

- A history that goes back to the spiritual.

- Funk got the whole world dancing.

You certainly couldn't contain it culturally, and you couldn't contain it geographically, either.

- Funk is the DNA for hip hop.

♪ Da, da, da, da, da, da - Just lose yourself in it, and that was the thing.

- Detroit PBS has teamed up with "Indie Lens Pop-Up" and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History to hold a free panel discussion and screening of "We Want the Funk" on April 3rd at the museum.

Joining me now is the moderator for that event, Satori Shakoor, who hosts "Detroit Performs," right here on PBS.

And she is also a member of The Brides of Funkenstein, who were the backup vocalists for George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, of course, one of the really pivotal funk bands.

Welcome back to "American Black Journal," Satori.

- Thank you for having me.

- I have to say, I didn't know this about you.

- Oh, you didn't?

- I didn't.

- Okay, all right.

- That's a really, really great detail about your very, very interesting and diverse life.

All right, so let's talk first about this documentary and the idea of chronicling this part of music history.

I think of funk as having had too short a life really in American music.

It gets kind of corrupted or curtailed, I guess, by lots of other things.

- Yes.

- But tell us about that period.

There's a lot going on, not just in music, but in America, while funk is the thing.

- Yeah, funk did have a short lifespan in its time, but there has been so much sampling- - Yeah.

Right.

- Of the music.

And George encouraged that sampling.

So when I watched "Straight Outta Compton," it opens up with them playing the funk, you know?

And having that live on through the music.

And, of course, "Atomic Dog-" - Yeah.

Right.

- Is in every- - Is everything.

- Everything.

So who knew, you know?

Who knew at the time.

- Yeah.

Talk about what your role was as a Bride of Funkenstein backup vocalist and the things that were propelling, I guess, that music.

It's all so on the edge, especially Parliament-Funkadelic and some of the other bands.

But, musically, it is pushing bounds that I think are really important still today.

- Yeah, well, my role as a Bride of Funkenstein was, I was a recording artist, singer on tour.

So we did double duty, we did our own album, "Never Buy Texas From a Cowboy," "Funk or Walk," and then we also sang backup for Parliament-Funkadelic.

So I guess our role was to be the female equal of the men.

It was so many men and us three girls.

And we provided that edge, that women.

But what I loved about it, while we weren't The Supremes, not that I didn't love The Supremes, but I'm saying we were more hard-edged.

The costumes, the vocals.

We tried to have a routine when we played the Pontiac Silverdome.

But when you walk out in front of 80,000 people, that energy hits you, and every routine you might've rehearsed flies out.

So we just did our thing.

- Yeah.

- At the time, I didn't really understand our role.

I just wanted to sing.

That's all I wanted to do from knee-high, "I wanna sing."

And so that's what I was doing.

- That's what you did, yeah.

- I didn't know we were making history.

I didn't know that history would land me at your table and in your presence talking about this documentary.

- Yes, you were just doing the work.

- Yeah, doing the work.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, it was hard work too.

- I'm sure it was.

Tell us what it was like to work with George Clinton, who is, of course, a pioneer in so many different ways in music.

- It was absolutely creatively satisfying, because George encouraged, quote, "mistakes."

So he would say, "Sing this," and people would get on the mic and they'd mess up.

But they'd mess up on purpose and George would go, "Mm, keep it."

So when you hear, "Ma-ma-ma-do, baby," with Bootsy, wasn't supposed to be there.

A lot of things that find itself to be iconic phrases were not really supposed to be there.

So I love that mistakes were a creative opportunity.

- Yeah.

- We spent long hours in the studio and we would clap down tracks that were 15 minutes long, that meant we would clap down tracks six times for six tracks.

- Wow.

- I remember "Atomic Dog."

I remember "Not Just Knee Deep."

We were totally, you know, that was all...

When George ordered a pizza, we knew we were gonna be there all night.

And, of course, touring is very, very hard.

- Yeah.

- We would go hit one town, and then get back on the bus and go to another town.

Sometimes we wouldn't get a hotel for three days, 'cause we were sleeping on the bus.

And when the guys would go out there and say, "What's the name of this town?"

it's because we really didn't know.

We had to look at the license plates to figure out where we were.

- Where you were.

- It was hard work, but it was work that a young person with dreams and excitement could handle, you know?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Let's talk about the event on April 3rd, what will people discover when they get there?

- You're gonna see the film, which I've seen, which you're gonna be very satisfied.

Things you didn't know.

Obviously, that's what film brings you, things you didn't know.

But then you're gonna hear from panelists such as Cheryl James, who was their stage manager, road manager, was there from almost the beginning.

You're gonna hear from David Lee Chong, who wrote "Atomic Dog" and who was on tour.

And you're gonna hear from Kevin Saunderson, a techno guy who was very, very much influenced by the funk.

And you'll hear some of my stories and experiences.

But it will be very entertaining.

- You mentioned Kevin Saunderson and the influence on techno.

The influence on techno and hip hop I think is the legacy that funk has.

But, you know, funk finds its roots in Detroit music and Black music, of course.

But the influence of Motown in particular, I feel like, on the explosion of funk is really interesting.

How much of that were you thinking about while doing it?

- Well, I'm a Detroit girl.

- Yeah.

Right.

- And Motown, you know, influenced me, but it also influenced George.

You'll hear in George's stories, matter of fact, when he was on my show at The Secret Society over at the DIA, he talks about trying to fit into the Motown mold of routines and looking the part in suits, and they just couldn't conform.

But they were very much influenced by that music, I think they just took it to another level.

Maybe they dropped some acid.

I think they talk about dropping some acid or some drug, and they went way left and they liked it.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I mean, I also think of bands like Sly and the Family Stone and the influence there.

I mean, there's kind of a direct line to funk from bands like that.

- Oh yeah.

- Which come out of the sixties and the Motown era, but they weren't as conformist as some of those bands were.

- No, when I watched the Sly documentary, I was very surprised at the diversity of bands that he produced.

- That he produced, right.

- And the writing that he afforded them.

And George was very much influenced by Sly.

Matter of fact, when I was on the road, Sly Stone came on the road with us, along with Philippe Wynne- - Really?

- And Jessica Cleaves.

- Wow.

- Sly was producing our third album before our contract was lost at Atlantic Records.

But I think George was very much influenced by the politics of the time.

- Yeah.

- The political environment, the Black Power.

And so when I came on in 1978, we were doing the One Nation Tour.

So we wore the fatigues, and we were very much about one nation and all people coming together, which was one of Sly's mantras and one of his missives.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Mhmm.

- All right, well, Satori Shakoor, it's always great to talk with you.

- You too.

- It is also great to learn about this detail of, again, your very storied life.

Thanks for being here on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you for having me.

- Yeah.