Farley "Jackmaster" Funk is an American musician, DJ and record producer of Chicago house and acid house music. He is notable for writing and producing a number of highly influential tracks in the mid and late 1980s. He has released records under various aliases like "Farley Funkin' Keith", "Rude Boy Farley Keith", "The Housemaster Boyz", "Jackmaster Dick" or "The Godfather of House".
Career
Farley got his start in the music industry in 1981 as one of the original members of the Hot Mix 5, a DJ team at WBMX-FM 102.7 FM, Oak Park, Illinois. He was a guest DJ at the Warehouse nightclub, and was a resident DJ at The Playground, which later became The Candy Store and later La Mirage. In 1985, together with Chip E., he started a record label named House Records whose first release was "Jack Trax" by Mirage & Chip E. Farley's own debut single, and catalogue number 2, was "Aw Shucks " in 1985, followed by "Funkin With the Drums" in the same year. The latter contained stripped down "beat tracks" composed with drums alone. After that followed a series of influential house and acid house records on Chicago's Trax Records: In 1985, Farley's single "Jack the Bass" ushered in the popular "jacking" dance craze in Chicago house. Also in 1985, he released "Funkin' with the Drums Again", followed in 1986 by "Give Yourself to Me" with vocals by Kevin "Jack N House" Irving and gospel singerRicky Dillard. In 1986, his roommate at the time, Steve "Silk" Hurley, who was an important house pioneer himself, had produced a cover of "I Can't Turn Around" by Isaac Hayes selling well in the Chicago area. Hearing Hurley's version of the song, Farley teamed up with Jesse Saunders to make his own version of the track. Keeping much of Hurley's instrumental arrangement, he changed the hook from "I Can't Turn Around" to "Love Can't Turn Around" and dropped the rest of Hayes' original lyrics, substituting new words by author Vince Lawrence. The lead vocals were performed by church singer Darryl Pandy who also performed the song on the British TV showTop of the Pops. The new version, "Love Can't Turn Around", reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart in 1986. It holds an important place in the history of house music as the first record in that genre to make it into the UK Singles Chart and to popularize house music overseas. Farley had several other follow-up hits during the late 1980s, most notably "House Nation" in 1986, credited to The House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House, which followed "Love Can't Turn Around" into the UK top ten. The album No Vocals Necessary contained a 303 driven instrumental acid house track named "The Acid Life" that was successfully covered by Technotronic as "Pump Up the Jam". Apart from his own works, he did some remixing, producing and editing for other artists during this time. He also DJed and performed at many parties in the Chicago suburbs, and is still playing venues as a DJ today.
