Before funk was a genre, it was a word polite radio wouldn't touch. Arlester "Dyke" Christian changed that. His 1966 record "Funky Broadway" was among the very first hits to put "funky" in a song title — and the raw, stripped-to-the-bone groove behind it helped invent the music that James Brown, Sly Stone, and eventually all of hip-hop would build into an empire. He was killed at 27, just as funk was conquering the world he helped create.
From Buffalo to Phoenix
Christian was born June 13, 1943, in Buffalo, New York, and cut his teeth playing bass on the city's R&B circuit — including on Broadway, the gritty strip that would later give his biggest song its name. In the mid-1960s a touring gig stranded him in Phoenix, Arizona, of all places, and it was there that he assembled Dyke and the Blazers, stepping out front as singer and bandleader.
"Funky Broadway"
Recorded in Phoenix in 1966, "Funky Broadway" was unlike almost anything on the radio: a lurching, hypnotic vamp with Christian growling and shouting over the top — less a song than a groove with an attitude. Released on the tiny Artco label and picked up by Original Sound, it crawled onto the national charts in 1967 and stayed there for months.
Then Wilson Pickett got hold of it. The Wicked Pickett's polished Muscle Shoals version rocketed to #1 on the R&B chart and into the pop Top 10 in 1967, making "Funky Broadway" a standard and making the word "funky" — which some stations had actually resisted saying on air — unavoidable. Christian, the song's writer, had changed American music's vocabulary from a Phoenix club stage.
More soul
Dyke and the Blazers kept mining the groove with a string of late-60s hits: the anthemic "We Got More Soul" and "Let a Woman Be a Woman – Let a Man Be a Man," both R&B smashes in 1969. Recording often in Los Angeles with musicians who would later form the core of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Christian's records grew heavier and funkier — raw proto-funk that sample-hungry hip-hop producers would rediscover decades later, chopping his breaks and shouts into countless tracks.
March 13, 1971
On March 13, 1971, Christian was shot and killed on the street in Phoenix. He was 27. His killer claimed self-defense and never faced trial — a murky, bitter end for an artist whose influence was still expanding. Funk's golden age arrived within months of his death, built on a foundation he'd helped pour.
Legacy
Say the word "funky" and you're speaking a language Dyke Christian helped legalize. Crate-diggers prize Dyke and the Blazers records as founding documents of funk, his grooves live on in decades of hip-hop samples, and "Funky Broadway" remains a two-sided monument — Pickett's hit version and Christian's raw original, the sound of the future being invented in real time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote "Funky Broadway"? Arlester "Dyke" Christian wrote and first recorded "Funky Broadway" with his band Dyke and the Blazers in 1966. Wilson Pickett's 1967 cover took it to #1 on the R&B chart.
How did Dyke Christian die? He was shot and killed in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 13, 1971, at age 27. His killer claimed self-defense and was never convicted.
What does "Broadway" refer to in "Funky Broadway"? Both of Christian's Broadways — the street he came up on in Buffalo, New York, and the Broadway strip in Phoenix where the Blazers played.
Why is Dyke Christian important to funk? His mid-60s records were among the first funk hits, predating much of the genre, and his raw grooves became foundational samples for hip-hop producers.