Welcome To The Beginning Of The End

The Beginning Of The End: Come On Down and When She Made Me Promise
From: Funky Nassau [Atlantic, 1971]

It’s been a minute since I put up some straight down the line funk fire for you so what better time to give you the righteous funk of a group called ,somewhat topically, the Beginning Of The End.

Beginning Of The End only ever recorded the single longplayer but it’s a dancefloor stormer through and through. The band, comprised of the three Munnings brothers and Fred Hedfield, kept their sound tight throughout the set, aided by the production skills of Steve Alaimo, the producer behind artists ranging from Clarence Reid to Timmy Thomas to Betty Wright. By far their most famous (and compiled track) is Funky Nassau pt. 1 but don’t sleep on the rest of the album which is dripping with quality funk.

Come Down is a sweet roller with more than a touch of the JBs about it, the Funky Nassau horn section adding their flavour to the funky African influenced riff and bassy vibrations. Protip: The louder you can play The Beginning…….. the better they sound.

When She Made Me A Promise takes the band’s sound to an even greater height as the highly recognisable introduction brings the track in at a high tempo before the band take what at first seems like an extended jam and turn it into a superbly composed instrumental stormer . Particularly check out the heavy organ chords that phase in for the final section as the band tear it up. This is pure, unadulterated, funky goodness.