A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from January 20, 2008
Funkytown or Funky Town (Fort Worth nickname)

“Funkytown” was a 1980 disco song by Lipps Inc., from Minnesota. The place called “Funkytown” wasn’t any particular city; it was, perhaps, a sexual reference.
 
Fort Worth begins with the letter “F,” and hip-hop slang called the place “Funkytown” (or “Funky Town”) by at least 1997. One hopes that “Funkytown” is not related to another Fort Worth nickname—“Cowtown.”
   
   
Wikipedia: Funkytown
“Funkytown” is a 1980 song by the disco band Lipps Inc. The song expresses the pinings for a metaphorical place that keeps “me movin’, keeps me groovin’ with some energy” and is considered to be one of the last hit songs of the disco era, as by the spring of 1980 disco’s popularity was fading. It was a number-one hit in many countries.
 
History
The song was written, produced and recorded in August 1979 by Steven Greenberg and engineered by David Z. An accomplished drummer, Greenberg played the percussion parts. Roger Dumas programmed the Oberheim and Moog synthesizers, and was responsible for suggesting and developing the Moog Vocoder voice effect that became the Funkytown signature sound. Dumas and Greenberg shared keyboard duties. Vocal tracks were performed by Cynthia Johnson and Greenberg (low Vocoder voice). The Minneapolis-based touring band ‘Lipps Inc.’ consisted of Cynthia Johnson (singer), Terry Grant (bass), Ivan Rafowitz (keyboards), Peter Johnson (keyboards), Bobby Vandell (drums), Tom Riopelle (guitar), and Steven Greenberg (producer/writer). “Funkytown” reached the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and went platinum the following year. Lipps Inc. continued to record until 1985 with a changing line-up but never saw the success of that first hit. The song quickly came to symbolize the energetic, experimental Twin Cities music scene.
 
Genius.com (Lyrics)
Funkytown
Lipps, Inc.
Track 1 on Mouth to Mouth
Produced by Steven Greenberg
Release Date November 1979
(...)
Gotta make a move to a
Town that’s right for me
Town to keep me movin’
Keep me groovin’ with some energy
 
Well, I talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about, Talk about
Talk about movin
 
Gotta move on
Gotta move on
Gotta move on
 
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown (...)
 
FUNKYTOWN - The Official Site
“Won’t You Take Me To…Funkytown,” 1980.
The original song talked about a place that didn’t exist. And then it evolved. 
   
Wikipedia: Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas, 18th-largest city in the United States, as well as the fastest growing large city in the nation from 2000-2006 and was voted one of “America’s Most Livable Communities.”
 
Situated in North Texas, Fort Worth covers nearly 300 square miles in Tarrant and Denton counties, serving as the county seat for Tarrant County. As of the 2006 U.S. Census estimate, Fort Worth had a population of 653,320. The city is the second-largest cultural and economic center of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (commonly called the Metroplex), the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with a population of 6 million in twelve counties. Fort Worth and the surrounding Metroplex area offer numerous business opportunities and a wide array of attractions.
 
Established originally in 1849 as a protective Army outpost at the foot of a bluff overlooking the Trinity River, the city of Fort Worth today still embraces and boasts of being more down-home, laid-back, and is proud of its traditionally old-fashioned ways when compared to its larger, more flashy eastern neighbor, Dallas. 
 
Urban Dictionary
funkytown
fort worth texas! a town thats better than dallas! fort worth is also known as panther city.
lets roll over to funkytown where the people are nicer and theres much less traffic than dallas.
by Chig817 funkytown! Nov 30, 2005
   
Urban Dictionary
1. Funky Town
The slang name for the city of Fort Worth Texas
Im gonna go smoke a fat blizunt in Funky Town cuzz
by Dirty Jezzy Apr 3, 2003
 
2. Funky Town
Funky town is the home of the players and pimps! where the funk dont stop! Funky town texas!
G Money $$ has hoes all over Funky Town!
by Garrett Dz La jolla Jun 19, 2007
       
OCLC WorldCat record
Funky town
Author: T-Bone Walker
Publisher: New York : BluesWay, [1968]
Edition/Format:   Music LP : English
     
Wikipedia: Funky Town (T-Bone Walker album)
Funky Town is an album by blues guitarist and vocalist T-Bone Walker, released by the BluesWay label in 1968.
(...)
Track listing
All compositions by T-Bone Walker except where noted
 
1. “Goin’ to Funky Town” – 5:02
 
OCLC WorldCat record 
Funkytown ; All night dancing
Author: Lipps, Inc. (Musical group)
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Casablanca, ℗1979.
Edition/Format:   Music : 45 rpm : English
 
Google Groups: rec.music.hip-hop
Newsgroups: rec.music.hip-hop
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (SlyneP)
Date: 1997/02/21
Subject: southern funk . the emergence of southern hip-hop
   
What’s up out there in information land.  Peep game, I was born in raised in Ft. Worth, Tx.(aka Funkytown) and I feel its my duty as a true product of hip-hop culture to let the world know that southern hip-hop is becoming a force in the music industry to reckon with.  It’s no longer a gang of semi-talented “homies” clinging on to this coast or that coast (I mean brothas in Funkytown used to wear Compton hats), hip-hop has now become a cultural expression of southern life and its selling. 
 
Google Groups: rec.music.hip-hop
Newsgroups: rec.music.hip-hop
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (OT)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 03:10:02 GMT
Local: Thurs, Jan 25 2001 10:10 pm
Subject: Re: Slanguage in your area… 
 
Dallas/Funkytown (Fort Worth) has a lot of gangs.
(...)
SaintTown (San Antonio) Dino (Dallas), FunkyTown (Fort Worth), H-Town (Houston), N-O (New Orleans)
     
13 May 2001, Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, “Handicapping the Field” by Jimmy Burch, pg. 23:
Fred Funk Envisions turning Fort Worth into “Funky Town” by Sunday night. Tim Herron “Lumpy” needs to smooth out a few rough edges. ...
     
Google Groups: alt.coffee
Newsgroups: alt.coffee
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Nucer)
Date: 19 Dec 2002 16:12:22 GMT
Local: Thurs, Dec 19 2002 11:12 am
Subject: Re: Z&D Question for those ahead of me
 
Ok Fort Worth is a funky town, whatcha point? 
 
Google Books
Mister Gumbo:
Down and Dirty with Black Men on Life, Sex, and Relationships
by Ursula Inga Kindred & Miranda Guerin Williams
New York, NY; St. Martin’s Press
2005
Pg. 17:
“I grew up right here in Funky Town aka Fort Worth, Texas.”
 
19 March 2007, Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, “N. Texas hip-hop gets love on 6th. St. (Austin)” by Cary Darling, pg. B3:
After all, we aren’t called Funkytown for nothing.

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Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Sunday, January 20, 2008 • Permalink


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