The word funky is not relatable only to a music genre. In effect, one of the most common meanings of it as an adjective is “with an offensive odor”, and “stinky” is a synonym. The lyrics of a classic of funky music, Lipps Inc – funky town (US 1979), contain the phrase “won’t you take me to funky town”. Well, it’s an invitation, and I have thought to accept it. However, I’m going to take my readers not to a music journey, but to a brief summary of a collection of opinions, present on some web pages, about what are the smelliest towns and cities all over the world. Of course, odors are largely extraneous to the virtual reality of computers and artificial intelligence, that can exclusively memorize linguistic definitions of odors themselves. Despite, a blog dedicated to Satan can’t ignore the topic of odors, because literary descriptions of hell have always been inclusive of bad smells, like sulfur, burnt flesh, rotten and disgusting matters, demonic farts, and so on.
As I usually do on similar pages, I have chosen to write a list, with some short comments, subject to updates, possibly depending on your suggestions at the e-mail address max.lookdj@alice.it. Given that I don’t want to hurt any sensibility, the list follows an alphabetical order, and there’s an attempt to avoid merely insulting expressions, especially the ones lacking of acceptable motivations. The list of the funkiest towns and cities, as follows:
Barcelona, Spain, where factory fumes are mixed with other rough odors;
Beijing, China, where odors are conditioned by thick smog, and by polluted, black waters;
Birmingham, UK, is said to be very smelly because of chemicals plants, garbage piles, rats poop, and so on;
Bogota, odors are made strange by altitude;
Dallas, many smells are mixed together, and the result is uncommon, particularly during rainy days;
Daruvar, Croatia, is the town of yellow ginkgo trees, that smell like vomit;
Edinburgh, Scotland, in the past was nicknamed “Auld Reekie”, and now has the problem of a pungent whiff of alcohol, coming from the beer factory, and from breweries;
Fes, Morocco, especially regarding Fes el-Bali, the walled old town, stinks of animal skins, ammonia, pigeon guano, and more, rather intensely;
In Cubatão, Brazil, biotech is Godzilla, because the city is one of the most polluted all over the world;
Koroni, Greece, it’s a municipality inclusive of Xigia Sulfur Beach, on the island of Zakynthos, that’s very smelly, because of the nearby caves;
La Rinconada, Peru, is considered the world’s highest town, and suffers from scarce urban hygiene, because of mud, garbage, and various consequences of poverty;
London, humidity and frequent precipitations provoke a “grey” scent;
Los Angeles, the ocean and the desert are responsible of local variations on common cities’ odors;
Mombasa, a hot sun amplifies odors coming from terrain and human activities;
Mumbai, the ocean and local spices make odors very intense;
Naples, Italy, whose name means “new city” in ancient Greek, has got big problems with urban waste, and stinks of sulfur, because of the volcano Vesuvius;
New Delhi, India, suffers from poor air quality, especially from November to February, because of vehicular circulation, burning garbage, illegal industrial activities, and more;
New Orleans, penetrating humidity and mud beat other smells;
New York City, especially in the summertime and in Manhattan, can be pretty smelly, I think because of the winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean;
Paris, they say that, perhaps, Satan’s farts have a very similar smell, because of the dominant presence of a peculiar sewers system, accessible to visitors;
Rome, the smell of ancient buildings, and others coming from river Tevere can generate a decadent scent;
Rotorua, New Zealand, is nicknamed Sulfur City, due to the smell of rotten eggs provoked by geysers and hot springs;
San Francisco, the scent is defined by city’s borders;
Shenzhen, China, has got a big problem with the stink of unsorted garbage, because of an ambitious government plan of recycling e-waste, partially failed;
Venice, Italy, stenches of decomposing algae, salty brine, and ubiquitous sewage, even if it’s the most beautiful and original place in the world;
Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, is a city well-known for the wine caves, where port wine is aged, and a strong scent of alcohol is ubiquitous.
In conclusion, those who love to travel the world are normally not discouraged by bad smells, and I can ideally take them even to the funkiest towns and cities. Logically, the mix of the page contains the funkiest funk of the 80’s, the golden age of funky.
File name is “80’s funkiest, by Max Look DJ (March 2025)”, about 1 hour and 22’ of excellent funky tunes from the 80’s.
The funkiest playlist:
Freddie Hubbard feat. Jeanie Tracy – you're gonna lose me (1981)
Bohannon – take the country to New York City (12'',1983)
Con Funk Shun – lady’s wild (1980)
Melba Moore – love's comin' at ya (1982)
Whispers – in the raw (1981)
Mystic Merlin – can’t stop dancing (1980)
Patrice Rushen – the funk won’t let you down (1980)
D-Train – keep on (1982)
Visual – the music got me (1983)
UK Players – you make me feel (1983)
Weeks & Company – go with the flow (1982)
Stone – time (mix by Tee Scott, 1981)
Hi Voltage – let’s get horny (12” mix by Tee Scott, 1982)
Marvin Gaye – rockin’ after midnight (1981)
