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Bio:
This was a project of German producer Leo Muller.
In 1973, Thin Lizzy were based in London and their star was on the rise.
They were approached by Muller about recording an LP of Deep Purple covers.
Perhaps money was still scarce at this point
as the band accepted the offer.
They brought in singer Bennie White
of Dublin band Fudd (originally Elmer Fudd)
for the session as his voice was more suited to Ian Gillan's
material than Lynott, and Bennie brought Fudd's
keyboard player Dave Lennox (ex Uptown Band)
with him.
The Funky Junction LP is basically an exploitation album
designed to cash in on the recent success of Deep Purple.
It was released in the UK and USA with anonymous credits.
It was also released in Germany on the Sonic label in a different cover and under
a different name as "The Rock Machine Plays the Best of Deep Purple and Other Hits".
The band pictured on the front cover of the UK/USA edition is in fact Hard Stuff,
who coincidentally were signed to Deep Purple's
Purple Records label. Another coincidence is the fact that
Hard Stuff guitarist John DuCann was briefly a member of Thin Lizzy
during a German tour in 1973.
Besides the five Deep Purple covers, the albums also contains four Leo Muller
"originals" which are in fact re-titled public domain songs. It's certainly not bad but
it's nothing special either. It was a bargain bin perennial until the Thin Lizzy connection
became more widely known. It is now a (very) minor collectable.
There are more Funky Junction tracks (some uncredited) on two other Leo Muller
productions but these are thought to have been recorded by a completely different,
unknown lineup.
Despite it's misleading title, this album consists of eight Gladys Knight & The Pips covers recorded by an uncredited group, plus two funky instrumental tracks credited to Funky Junction, "Roads End" (funky drum breaks) and "Talkin Trash" (a slow funk). Both are Leo Muller originals. It seems very unlikely that these tracks were recorded by the Thin Lizzy version of Funky Junction. Lizzy's career had really taken off by 1975 and it's unlikely they'd have needed the work. More importantly, it is likely that both these tracks already appeared on another Stereo Gold Award LP released back in 1971 (see below).
This album consists of covers of Tamla Motown hits plus four Leo Muller originals¹. Two of these "Roads End" and "Talkin' Trash" are most probably the same tracks that turned up on the Gladys Knight LP listed above and have no Thin Lizzy connection.
Help!: We need your help to complete this entry. If you can tell us more about this band then please do! We welcome any corrections, missing details, connections to other bands, where are they now, etc. We also need photos, scans, copies of releases or live or demo recordings, and any other memorabilia gathering dust in the attic. If you can help, then please get in touch.