Tower of Power

The Bay Area funk-fest that is the Tower of Power was a regular at the San Francisco Fillmore in the late 1960s. The band's signature horn section and enigmatic stage presence made them a sight to be seen and heard. The band went through several lineups, hitting a commercial and critical highpoint from '73 to '75 with bootie-shaking hits like "What is Hip" and "You're Still a Young Man." Following these successes, however, TOP vanished abruptly from the charts although other funk bands continued to thrive. Despite a drought in their own album output, TOP remained a backup group for musicians including Elton John, Santana and Aerosmith and continues to tour, issuing Soul Vaccination Live in 1999 and many compilations.