Atlanta’s Wolf Creek Amphitheater housed a trip back to the 80s on Sept. 6 with a lively show starring some of the most feel-good acts of the decade.
The Funk Party headlined The Time lead singer and Prince’s former creative partner, Morris Day. Con Funk Shun, Lakeside and Zapp were also featured. The performers delivered old-school hit songs for a crowd of funk fans.
Although the lineup’s music was mostly popular in the 80s, interest in the sound that they were instrumental in popularizing obviously hasn’t died. In fact, with the success of modern songs like “Uptown Funk” that were inspired by 80s music, fascination with tunes from that era is growing.
Producer Mark Ronson and singer Bruno Mars came together to create “Uptown Funk,” a song that shot to number one on multiple music charts and was dubbed “the greatest song of all time” by Mike Mullaney, the music director and assitant program director at CBS Radio/WBMX.
The single credited rapper Trinidad James as a writer for using a phrase from his song “All Gold Everything.” The Gap Band were later added on as writers to the song after proving similarities to their 1979 single “Oops Upside Your Head,” but Day and Zapp are also said to have inspired the tune’s classic sound.
But Day remains modest about his influence of the smash hit.
“I never felt it was close like that,” Day told Chicago Tribune. “I know that the influence was there, I know that Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson are both pretty big fans. … To be honest, I was happy that it happened.”
Check out shots from the funk fest below.
