Month: September 2025

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Episode 333 – Funky Junction

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History:

  • This band was put together for the express purpose of recording this one album.
  • The man behind the idea was a German businessman, Leo Muller. The name was actually an alias used by Dave Miller who was a record producer who ran a number of budget music companies. He was actually an American.
  • His budget label was called Stereo Gold Award and he also did an album called “Tribute to Jimi Hendrix by The Purple Fox.”
  • Muller got in touch with Thin Lizzy to do the project.
  • The group did not want to do the project as they were trying to make Thin Lizzy their own thing but they were also desperately in need of money.
  • Phil Lynott decided that he wasn’t able to sing like Gillan and decided to only play bass and do backing vocals.
  • The result was that they recruited a singer, Benny White, from the Dublin-based group Elmer Fudd as they were known for doing Deep Purple covers at their shows.
  • Brian Downey called Benny White “an Ian Gillan clone.”
  • Thin Lizzy had no keyboard player so Elmer Fudd’s keyboard player Dave “Mojo” Lennox  jumped in.
  • The band members were paid 60 pounds a day to travel in to De Lane Lea in London to record the album.
  • Brian Downey recalls that the rehearsals for recording took about “Two or three hours” before the full day recording session.
  • Thin Lizzy were paid 1000 pounds for the recording but their names were not included on the album.

Core Band:

Album Art & Booklet Review

  • The band pictured on the cover is not Funky Junction as they never played live. Instead they used a concert photo of the band Hard Stuff featuring John Gustafson.
  • In Germany the album was called “The Rock Machine Plays the Best of Deep Purple.
  • The album was sold at Woolworths for 50p.

Notes

MER373 seen on sleeve and spine, MER 373 seen on labels. Yellow labels – on this version the ‘Made in England’ is directly below the publisher credits (there is another UK version where the text is at the label rim).

Text on back cover of LP:

Funky Junction are an exciting new group that has the pulse of today. In this tribute to Deep Purple, they play many of Purple’s hits. UK and world wide audiences are acclaiming them for the great group they are.

FUNKY JUNCTION – THE SOUND OF TODAY!

Both disc and sleeve made in UK/England.

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Picture of Ian Paice and Roger Glover looking at the Funky Junction album with Pace Ashton Lord in the bin in front of them. Is it real? Is it fake? Who knows!

Album Tracks:

Side One:

  1. Fireball
  2. Dan (Leo Muller)
    • A take on the Irish traditional “Danny Boy.”
  3. Black Night
  4. Palamatoon (Leo Muller)

Side Two:

  1. Strange Kind of Woman
  2. Hush
  3. Rising Sun (Muller)
    • Instrumental version of “House of the Rising Sun.”
  4. Speed King
  5. Corina (Muller)
    • Based on traditional Irish tune “Corrina, Corinna.”

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Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

Reception and Charts:

  • Muller would go on to use the name Funky Junction as a band name for another album in 1973: “Especially for You… credited to Gladys Knight & the Pips featuring Funky Junction.

Reviews

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