I thoroughly disagree with ... who compared this book to Rickey Vincent's book, which is also pretty good. Vincent's book is intended as a philosophical and historical book, pointing toward an Afrocentric view of funk as a philosophy/borderline religion. Very ambititous and worth reading. Thompson's book more than fulfills its intentions, which is to be a thorough reference for funk. It's got great biographical summaries on many groups, and it also gives balanced reviews of the key albums and shows evidence of being thoroughly researched. Also, you get a sense of the author's biases, which are inevitable in any CD review guide written by one or two authors [think Penguin Guide to Jazz for example]. After the classic funk bands [George Clinton, Kool & the Gang, James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire] Thompson's more likely to get heavy into electrofunk. This is cool, but was not as helpful for me as I'm more into acoustic funk after the biggies. Meaning that a lot of New Orleans funk compilations and soul funk compilations slip under the radar.

One of the biggest helpful things about this book, however, if you're into hip-hop is that it lists many of the key tracks with sampled singles by a particular artist. As someone growing from a love of The Funk to building a hip-hop collection, that aspect pointed me toward a lot of the great CDs from the glory age of hip-hop before the industry made sampling the classics prohibitively expensive.

All in all this is a great reference for funk, certainly the best out there on the market [better than All Music Guide] and worth picking up if you're looking for a thorough reference for funk.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, from beginning to the end. The writer goes into explicit chronological detail of the music, groups, solo artist, showcasing the creative icons that played a substanial role in the 70's 80's and 90's. I discovered I didn't know as much as I thought, viewing photo's that I had never seen. This is a must purchase, truly "Funk is it's own reward."

I am a 12 year old student who has listened to funk music as long as I can remember, Mr. Thompson's book is very informative. I especially liked the chapters on Chaka, Mother's Finest, and The Brides of Funkenstein. To my amazement I learned that Dawn Silva from the Brides has a new Cd??!

My Dad is a old school DJ and he has thousands of old vinyl, mostly of all females from back in the day. The best song I ever heard was a song called Never buy Texas from a cowboy, by the funk group The BRIDES. I was hoping to find in the book what the title of this song means? anyway it is still my all time favorite song. I was very thank-ful that Mr Thompson did this discography. Must have been very wonderful back in the 70's 80's cause I think this was when music was at its all time best.