Fever in the Funk House

I would love to be a seated across the table from you to see your reaction when you read this title. We could have a conversation about what it means. Maybe you’ve never heard it before. Maybe you have. Maybe you think I'm nuts already for writing about it.

Used in different contexts, fever in the funk house means different things. Those darlings close to me know how I often mess with and mix up words and phrases. I have a tendency, very often, to put things in the wrong context. My mouth gets me twisted around all matters of mischief sometimes.

Consider this conversation. What I really meant to say was “unisex” pants, but my brain was breached in the seconds just before delivering that word to my mouth. Something stopped my thoughts, held my mouth hostage, and intercepted and twisted the message like a Facebook bot in an election year. And what came out next was a new word; bi-sexual pants.

For the record, the term bi-sexual pants can mean the same as unisex. Or at least it can in my world. Bi means two. A bicycle has two wheels. Man and woman equal two genders. Bi-sexual pants can be worn by both genders. I think it’s incredibly clear what I mean to convey.

I know. It’s a little risqué, and maybe inappropriate, to discuss my creative word art right here on the inner-webs where stuff lasts forever and where you may be curling an eyebrow at me. I'm transparent. Just keeping it real. I hear your church chat murmurs but I take no offense.

Fever in the funk house...

If you've ever watched anyone shoot craps, then you may have heard them shout "fever" ...or other words that we won't mention here. It’s a very intense game for sure and when the money gets high, those shooters will talk to the dice, blow on the dice, pray, or anything to avoid the sevens. It gets hot. It gets feverish.

Remember the song by the Rolling Stones called Tumbling Dice? (the music in my head plays: Baby. Baby. Fever in the funk house now.) That song is about shooting craps. Rolling dice.

Cause all you women is low down gamblers

Cheatin like I don’t know how

But baby, I go crazy, there’s fever in the funk house now

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote it and it became a big hit for them. Watch it here. The Rolling Stones Fever in the Funk House

For a long time, I knew the melody but never paid too much attention to the words because I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I listen again and still cannot make out the words, even with the lyrics in my face. I think that's because of their accents.

It wasn’t until I discovered Linda Ronstadt’s version that I began to appreciate the lyrics. Linda, like Dolly, could sing the phonebook and make it to stardom. To my younger readers, a phonebook was published and distributed annually to every home in America. It contained the names and telephone numbers of everyone in your geographical area. Back to Linda Ronstadt…what do you think of her version? Linda Ronstadt Fever in the Funk House

And then there is James Jamerson. In the Motown era of music, he created a song called Fever in the Funk House. It has way cool beats; check it out here. James Jamerson's Fever in the Funk House

Fever in the funk house also has some not so nice meanings. If you are one to read the urban dictionary, you will see themes such as prostitution and diseases in the houses of ill repute.

I am trying to make a point here. Regardless of what the title or the phrase "Fever in the Funk House" means to you, or even if it matters not, words have multiple meanings. Phrases have multiple meanings. Some of those may seem controversial. As a society these days we sit along the edge of offense waiting to pounce on someone for saying the wrong thing. We’ve gone mad, I say. Fever can cause this.

Can we take a chill pill? A pause? If we hear something that tickles our adversarial reaction, can we stop for a second? Is it too far for us to reach to a place to consider that the author may have been coming from a different angle?

Don't take offense to my bi-sexual pants terminology because I have nothing against bi-sexual people, or pants for that matter. Bi-sexual pants are awesome things.

We don’t have to agree with one another but be respectful. Don’t let the world’s fever bring the funk to a house near you. Give up the funk! Give it up and tear the roof off that sucker. Give up the Funk by Parliament

Give it a minute.

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