Article: Pop: Tales from the funky side of town In the Sixties and Seventies, the words `funk' and `soul' defined the spirit of black American music. The words still exist today, but can anyone rightfully claim them?

"You'd be surprised how time can change the meaning of a word," rasped the black comedian, Redd Foxx, during a performance at the Apollo Theatre in 1975, before adding: "When I was a kid `funky' didn't have nothing to do with music. See, `funky' was just plain `funky'. `Funky' was grandma's bloomers and grandpa's long drawers... That was funky!"

For centuries the word "funk" or "funky" was frequently connected with a rank, fetid smell. As early as 1623, a sailor used the term while describing the stench on board a ship: "Betwixt the decks there can hardlie a man catch his breathe by reason there ariseth such a funke in the night that it causes putrefaction of blood."

But from the 1950s ...

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