from the 7” single, Seaside Records, 1973Without a doubt, the Bay Area funk scene has always been prone to many other musical influences, fashioning a healthy range of performers who like(d) to color outside the lines but sought the groove above all things: Sly & the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, Tower of Power, et al. Out of this heady stew came many musicians that never gained the kind of notoriety those listed above got to enjoy, perhaps most unfairly so in the case of the guitarist heard here, one Eugene Blacknell. Now it’s true, I could listen to those four measures after the intro (between 18 & 28 seconds into the track) on a loop for days, probably not even get hungry of suffer from malnutrition thanks to the elephantine levels of FATness resisding in those dank-ass breaks, but unlike many other breaks-tracks that leave much to be desired when it comes to the rest of the song, this funky instrumental number brings some hot shit care of Blacknell’s searing, fuzzed-out soloing (the likes of which sound almost similar to some of Carlos Santana’s bluesier riffing from back then, especially when taken as a whole with the percussion & organ). In the proper, ahem, “state of mind”, this one can really take you there…
