Edited by Azizi Powell
In 1972, R&B singer/composer Rufus Thomas performed two songs at the Los Angeles, California concert, Wattstax. Those songs were "Breakdown" and "Do The Funky Chicken". During his rendition of "Breakdown", a number of concert attendees danced in the stands. But during his rendition of "Do The Funky Chicken", with Thomas' encouragement, a very large crowd of young African Americans came down from their seats in the stands and danced in the football field. Most videos of this event are only 4 minutes or so since they end at the conclusion of Rufus Thomas' performance. However the video embedded in this post includes Rufus Thomas talking the crowd back to their seats.
I'm very impressed by Thomas' ability to get the dancers' to return back to the stands. He did so by appealing to Black unity with chanted instructions, humorous asides to those persons moving off the field and to those persons who had remained seated during the impromptu dance off. Rufus Thomas also used other rhyming & unrhymed folk sayings that succeeded in peacefully moving the crowd back to the stands.
"Do The Funky Chicken" is an instruction dance song. Perhaps part of Rufus Thomas' successful "crowd control" was that his encouraging people to return to their seats might have been viewed as an extension of the instructions that he gave throughout that dance song.
A person posted this comment on that video's viewer comment thread offered another reason why the crowd listened to Rufus Thomas & peacefully left the football field:
"it's amazing how these young folks respected Rufus...well not amazing..this generation respected their elders
-bluesgirl4real; February 2012.
-snip-
Maybe part of the reason the concert attendees listened to Rufus Thomas and returned to their seats in the stands was out of respect for his age. Rufus Thomas was certainly older than most R&B performers. But I believe that it was more to it than that. I think that a central reason why the crowd listened to Rufus Thomas & returned to their seats was that he talked to them in a respectful manner, and they gave him respect back. Besides, the crowd knew that there were more concert performers to come once the football field was cleared.
Here's that featured video:
Note: The Rufus Thomas part of the concert ends at 8:09. Right afterwards comedian Richard Pryor is interviewed & tells a joke that includes the "n word". I regret that portion of this video, but I'm sure the readers here are mature enough to ignore that word if they want to in order to view the video of Rufus Thomas, the dancers, and his remarkable crowd control.
Rufus Thomas Do the Funky Chicken
Here's my transcription of Rufus Thomas' successful effort of talking the large crowd back to their seats after he encouraged them to come down & dance on the football field:
[This transcription begins at 4.45 of the video. My explanatory comments are given in brackets. This transcription doesn't include the audiences laughter and cheers in response to Rufus Thomas' words, elements that I also think were critical to his success in moving the crowd off the field.]
Rufus Thomas:
"Now wait ah minute.
Wait a minute!
We all together out here.
We allll gonna have some FUN.
But you ain't supposed to have your fun in the ground-you supposed to be in the stands.
More power to the folks. Let's go to the stand.
MORE POWER TO THE FOLKS. LET'S GO TO THE STAND.
MORE POWER TO THE FOLKS. LET'S GO TO THE STAND.
MORE POWER TO THE FOLKS. LET'S GO TO THE STAND.
And I wish the mic cord was long enough. I'd go to the stands wit ya.
More power to the folks. Let's go to the stand.
Ain't no problem at'tall fellows [said to the security guards off camera]?
See it ain't what you got, but what you know what to do with what you got.
So all of you - Would you please...All of you people right in there PLEASE go to the stands. Please. Please with ah capital..PP.
Come on y'all. Please go to the stands.
That's right. It might be ah little slow. But you jest got to go.
How, how 'bout it brother.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE. LET'S GO TO THE STAND.
POWER TO THE FOLKS. LET'S GO TO THE STAND.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE. LET'S GO TO THE STAND.
Please go to the...DON'T JUMP THE FENCE BECAUSE IT DON'T MAKE SENSE.
[The field is empty except for a few people. Rufus then directs his comments to those individuals who remain on the field]
You in that...You in that upside down umbrella. I'm talkin 'bout you, fella.
He don't mean to be mean. He just wants to be seen.
Look, you ain't no Indian, lady. But you gonna have to get off the field too.
[There is now only one person who remains on the field]
Now...whatever you do now, please. Now would you please hold what you got? [This said in response to a man holding a white cloth or something in his hands & then putting it down on the field. The man stands facing Rufus Thomas and puts his hands on his hips, and then does a split. This is the same man who had the "upside down umbrella".]
Yeah, that's a brother alright.
Yeah, that's a brother alright. But I'll be dammed if he's my brother.
Somebody told him that he's cute, and he wants to show it off out there.
Standin out there lookin like the thing that eat up my grandpa's dog. [The man remains on the field, opening up his black umbrella].
See, the good part about it, the very good part about all of that...Now he KNOWS he's wrong. But if you go out there and try to tell him he's wrong, then he wanna try to woop EVERYBODY. See see he got his fists up now. See see what I'm talkin bout? [The man pretends to shadow box]
And that's what I call our Black brother.
Now, y'all get him off. Y'all go out there and get him off. [A number of people come back on to the field and remove the man]
Get'em off, y'all. Get'em on off. Get'em on off.
Jest take him right on off. And everything will be alright."
-snip-
It's remarkable to me that that entire scene happened with no violence. It's doubtful that any performer nowadays would dare to encourage fans to come down to the football field and dance. Even if the performer wanted to do so, I very much doubt that the concert's producers and security let the performer do so.
I can image that scene ending much differently today than it did in the early seventies. Times have changed, and not always for the better. But one thing is still true, as Rufus Thomas said when he got the crowd to return to their seats, "It ain't what you got. It's what you know what to do with what you got."
-snip-
Here's a better video quality version of Rufus Thomas' performance of "Do The Funky Chicken". This video also includes Thomas performing "Breakdown".
RUFUS THOMAS - "Breakdown' & 'Funky Chicken' LIVE @ WATTSTAX 1973
Uploaded by ianwoodsman on Nov 25, 2011
...RUFUS THOMAS
"Breakdown' & 'Funky Chicken'
LIVE @ WATTSTAX 1973
- I do not claim ownership or copyright of the material in anyway. It just needs to be seen.
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RELATED INFORMATION & LINKS
These videos are clips of the 1973 film Wattstax. Here's some information about that film from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattstax:
"Wattstax is a 1973 documentary film by Mel Stuart that focused on the 1972 Wattstax music festival and the African American community of Watts in Los Angeles, California. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974. It was also screened at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition...
The concert was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum on August 20, 1972, and organized by Memphis's Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. Wattstax was seen by some as "the Afro-American answer to Woodstock". To enable as many members of the black community in L.A. to attend as possible, tickets were sold for only $1.00 each."...
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_Thomas:
"Rufus Thomas, Jr. (March 27, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian from Memphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the 1950s and on Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s."...
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The content of this post is presented for historical folkloric, educational, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. The copyrights remain with their owners.
My thanks to Rufus Thomas, the musicians, and the dancers featured on these videos. My thanks also to the film producers, and uploaders of these featured videos.
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