FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Part Fifty-Five: Funkadelic
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IN the fifty-fifth part…
of this feature, I am including the legendary Funkadelic in A Buyer’s Guide. I am keen to get down to things. Before that, I wanted to bring in a big portion of AllMusic’s biography of the group:
“Though they often took a back seat to their sister group Parliament, Funkadelic furthered the notions of Black rock begun by Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, blending elements of '60s psychedelia and blues plus the deep groove of soul and funk. The band pursued album statements of social/political commentary while Parliament stayed in the funk singles format, but Funkadelic nevertheless paralleled the more commercial group's success, especially in the late '70s when the interplay between bands moved the Funkadelic sound closer to a unified P-Funk style.
In the grand soul tradition of a backing band playing support before the star takes the stage, Funkadelic began life supporting George Clinton's doo wop group, the Parliaments. After having performed for almost ten years, the Parliaments had added a rhythm section in 1964 -- for tours and background work -- consisting of guitarist Frankie Boyce, his brother Richard on bass, and drummer Langston Booth; two years later, the trio enlisted in the Army. By mid-1967, Clinton had recruited a new backing band, including his old friend Billy "Bass" Nelson (born January 28, 1951, Plainfield, New Jersey) and guitarist Eddie Hazel (born April 10, 1950, Brooklyn, New York). After several temporary replacements on drums and keyboards, the addition of rhythm guitarist Lucius "Tawl" Ross (born October 5, 1948, Wagram, North Carolina) and drummer Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood (born May 23, 1944, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) completed the lineup.
The Parliaments recorded several hits during 1967, but trouble with the Revilot label backed Clinton into a corner. He hit upon the idea of deserting the Parliaments' name and instead recording their backing group, with the added vocal "contributions" of the former Parliaments -- same band, different name. Billy Nelson suggested the title Funkadelic, to reflect the members' increased inspiration from LSD and psychedelic culture. Clinton formed the Funkadelic label in mid-1968 but then signed the group to Detroit's Westbound label several months later.
Released in 1970, Funkadelic's self-titled debut album listed only producer Clinton and the five members of Funkadelic -- Hazel, Nelson, Fulwood, and Ross plus organist Mickey Atkins -- but also included all the former Parliaments plus several Motown sessionmen and Rare Earth's Ray Monette. Keyboard player Bernie Worrell also appeared on the album uncredited, even though his picture was included on the inner sleeve with the rest of the band.
Worrell (born April 19, 1944, Long Beach, New Jersey) was finally credited on the second Funkadelic album (1970's Free Your Mind...and Your Ass Will Follow). He and Clinton had known each other since the early '60s, and Worrell soon became the most crucial cog in the P-Funk machine, working on arrangements and production for most later Parliament/Funkadelic releases. His strict upbringing and classical training (at the New England Conservatory and Juilliard), as well as the boom in synthesizer technology during the early '70s, gave him the tools to create the horn arrangements and jazz fusion-inspired synth runs that later trademarked the P-Funk sound. Just after the release of their third album, Maggot Brain, P-Funk added yet another big contributor, Bootsy Collins. The throbbing bassline of Collins (born October 26, 1951, Cincinnati, Ohio) had previously been featured in James Brown's backing band, the J.B.'s (along with his brother, guitarist Catfish Collins). Bootsy and Catfish were playing in a Detroit band in 1972 when George Clinton saw and hired them.
The Clinton/Worrell/Collins lineup premiered on 1972's America Eats Its Young, but soon after its release several original members left the camp. Eddie Hazel spent a year in jail after a combination drug possession/assault conviction, Tawl Ross left the band for medical reasons relating to an overdose of LSD and speed, and Bill Nelson quit after more financial quarrels with Clinton. Funkadelic hired teenaged guitar sensation Michael Hampton as a replacement, but both Hazel and Nelson would return for several later P-Funk releases.
Funkadelic moved to Warner Bros. in 1975 and delivered its major-label debut, Hardcore Jollies, one year later to lackluster sales and reviews. The same year, Westbound raided its vaults and countered with Tales of Kidd Funkadelic. Ironically, the album did better than Hardcore Jollies and included an R&B Top 30 single, "Undisco Kidd." In 1977, Westbound released The Best of the Early Years while Funkadelic recorded what became its masterpiece (and arguably the best P-Funk release ever), 1978's One Nation Under a Groove.
During the most successful year in Parliament/Funkadelic history, Parliament hit the charts first with "Flash Light," P-Funk's first R&B number one. "Aqua Boogie" would hit number one as well late in the year, but Funkadelic's title track to One Nation Under a Groove spent six weeks at the top spot on the R&B charts during the summer. The album, which reflected a growing consistency in styles between Parliament and Funkadelic, became the first Funkadelic LP to reach platinum (the same year that Parliament's Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome did the same). In 1979, Funkadelic's "(Not Just) Knee Deep" hit number one as well, and its album (Uncle Jam Wants You) reached gold status”.
I am going to recommend the four essential albums from the group, in addition to an underrated gem in their catalogue. I will also mention their final studio album and a book related to them. If you are new to Funkadelic, then I hope that the guide below…
POINTS you in the right direction.
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The Four Essential Albums
Funkadelic
Release Date: 24th February, 1970
Label: Westbound
Producer: George Clinton
Standout Tracks: Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?/I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody's Got a Thing/What Is Soul
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/funkadelic/funkadelic
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2uTTr2MEM4xINKN9Bls8KX?si=Khjggp6PT7mzPe-QcWKwwA
Review:
“Funkadelic's self-titled 1970 debut is one of the group's best early- to mid-'70s albums. Not only is it laden with great songs -- "I'll Bet You" and "I Got a Thing..." are obvious highlights -- but it retains perhaps a greater sense of classic '60s soul and R&B than any successive George Clinton-affiliated album. Recording for the Detroit-based Westbound label, at the time Funkadelic were in the same boat as psychedelic soul groups such as the Temptations, who had just recorded their landmark Cloud Nine album across town at Motown, and other similar groups. Yet no group had managed to effectively balance big, gnarly rock guitars with crooning, heartfelt soul at this point in time quite like Funkadelic. Clinton's songs are essentially conventional soul songs in the spirit of Motown or Stax -- steady rhythms, dense arrangements, choruses of vocals -- but with a loud, overdriven, fuzzy guitar lurking high in the mix. And when Clinton's songs went into their chaotic moments of jamming, there was no mistaking the Hendrix influence. Furthermore, Clinton's half-quirky, half-trippy ad libs during "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?" and "What Is Soul" can be mistaken for no one else -- they're pure-cut P-Funk. Successive albums portray Funkadelic drifting further toward rock, funk, and eventually disco, especially once Bernie Worrell began playing a larger role in the group. Never again would the band be this attuned to its '60s roots, making self-titled release a revealing and unique record that's certainly not short on significance, clearly marking the crossroads between '60s soul and '70s funk” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: I’ll Bet You
Maggot Brain
Release Date: 12th July, 1971
Label: Westwood
Producer: George Clinton
Standout Tracks: Can You Get to That/Hit It and Quit It/You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks
Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maggot-Brain-VINYL-Funkadelic/dp/B00004XOY1
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5p9GTYAPSgc5C1ck9ZbnMk?si=wQyIEs19QAyFRzwYBrOhuw
Review:
“Another example of Funkadelic’s egalitarian microphone policy, “You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks” is sung by Billy Nelson; the track exudes the air of a communal Sly & the Family Stone anthem, but imbued with the menace of the Manson Family, with the bass/drums groove ranking as one of the most lethal in the Funkadelic canon. Despite the sinister aura, the song is a plea for equality and understanding among all people. For what it’s worth, “You and Your Folks” is the most-sampled track on Maggot Brain (11 times), and Alabama Shakes singer-songwriter Brittany Howard covered it on 2020’s Spotify Singles.
In a 1985 issue of Spin, P-Funk professor emeritus Greg Tate dubbed “Super Stupid” a “heavy-metal hydrogen bomb test”; it’s no wonder heavies such as Audioslave and Big Chief took stabs at it. This is mercilessly vicious rock that attracted the attention and respect of British rock royalty when Funkadelic first toured England. Clinton claims David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and members of Cream, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin checked them out on that jaunt. “Super Stupid”’s metallic guitar avalanche is tempered by Worrell’s circus-y keyboard effusions, but the real star is Hazel, who is on fire in extremis, both on ax and vox. “Super Stupid” warns of the foolishness of drug abuse (Worrell claimed in Wax Poetics that band members were snorting heroin) while, incidentally, making you want to take drugs.
Following the release of Maggot Brain, Hazel and Nelson split to work for the vastly more popular Motown act the Temptations, reportedly due to dissatisfaction with Clinton’s handling of the band’s financial situation. Fulwood also was disgruntled about pay and left Funkadelic. Although Clinton doesn’t mention this issue in Brothas, the Wax Poetics interviews feature complaints about George’s stinginess. Ross, too, departed, after alleged misadventures with either LSD or speed. These painful losses were ameliorated by the additions of Bootsy and Catfish Collins, Garry Shider, and Boogie Mosson—all world-class funkateers. Nevertheless, Funkadelic never again released an album as laden with genius as Maggot Brain. It was the culmination of their first phase’s most outrageous and ingenious sonic ideas, establishing a new precedent for how Black musicians would exist in a rock context, juxtaposing metal, gospel, prog, funk, blues, and jazz fusion with nonchalant virtuosity. It’s the epitome of their extravagant virtues and vices.
Summarizing the LP in Brothas, Clinton wrote, “Maggot Brain was going places that Black groups hadn’t gone, into questions about whether America was still on the right path or whether the promise of the late ’60s had completely evaporated.” In these seven songs, you can hear Funkadelic attempting to make sense of the turmoil of the times, as they express the euphoria and anguish of being born and dying in the most extraordinary ways” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Maggot Brain
Let's Take It to the Stage
Release Date: 21st April, 1975
Label: Westbound
Producer: George Clinton
Standout Tracks: Better By the Pound/Let’s Take It to the Stage/Get Off Your Ass and Jam
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16137&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1VFuppv4Hb9jEhWEZ0hf6q?si=sMq0WZO3QiCIjJczvpA-Aw
Review:
“One of Funkadelic's goofiest releases, Let's Take It to the Stage also contains more P-Funk all-time greats as well, making for a grand balance of the serious and silly. Perhaps the silliest is at the end -- there's not much else one can call the extended oompah/icing rink start of "Atmosphere." The title track is as much a call to arms as "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow" is, but with a more direct musical performance and a more open nod to party atmospheres (not to mention the source of one of Andrew Dice Clay's longest-running bits). The targets of the band's good-natured wrath are, in fact, other groups -- "Hey, Fool and the Gang! Let's take it to the stage!" There's no mistaking the track that immediately follows makes it even more intense -- "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" kicks in with one bad-ass drum roll and then scorches the damn place down, from guitar solo to the insanely funky bass from Cordell "Boogie" Mosson. It may only be two and a half minutes long, but it alone makes the album a classic. Hearing Bootsy Collins' unmistakable vocals is usually enough to get anything on the crazy tip, but "Be My Beach" (Collins' Funkadelic vocal debut) just makes it all the more fun, as does the overall air of silly romance getting nuttier as it goes. "Good to Your Earhole" sets the outrageous mood just right -- it's one of the band's tightest monsters of funk, guitars sprawling all over the place even as the heavy-hitting rhythm doesn't let one second of groove get lost. Of course, there's also one totally notorious number to go with it, but "No Head, No Backstage Pass" has one of the craziest rhythms on the whole album, not to mention lip-smackingly nutty lines delivered with the appropriate leer” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Baby I Owe You Something Good
One Nation Under a Groove
Release Date: 12th September, 1978
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: George Clinton
Standout Tracks: Groovallegiance/Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!/ Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=54666&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1ymHE8ItOGthDlfQmqVKEQ?si=ypo5XXS8SvOCxqV8V_-78g
Review:
“Funkadelic’s 10th album and their commercial breakthrough, One Nation Under a Groove was the starting point for many British listeners.
An underground delicacy stateside since 1970, the group had yet to enjoy much popularity in the UK. But by 78, the Funkadelic part of leader George Clinton’s P-Funk mothership had travelled from being an acid-drenched funk-rock ensemble to something resembling Parliament, their hit-generating sister band.
One Nation Under a Groove immediately welcomed new listeners inside Clinton’s parallel universe, with all of his ideas, mythology and strangely monikered players. For example, Bootsy Collins is one of the ‘Bass Thumpasaurians’ on the album, and Bernie ‘DaVinci’ Worrell and Walter ‘Junie’ Morrison were ‘Keybo' Dans & Synthezoidees’.
When Clinton conceived the album’s title track – from a girlfriend’s comment when he was making a film outside the United Nations – it gave the whole P-Funk enterprise one of their biggest hits and an overall mission statement for Clinton’s wild vision.
The track is arguably Clinton’s greatest popular moment: supple, lithe and funky, it evoked soul past and present and had a chorus to die for. With its blend of Funkadelic Blamgusta Vocaloids (Voices For Da Nation!) – Clinton, Morrison and Garry Shider – the single was number one on the US R&B chart for six weeks.
The track also reached a respectable nine in Britain, too. It was to be P-Funk’s only foray into the UK charts, although Clinton was later to enjoy some solo success. One Nation… was (is!) rich on stomping, repetitive grooves, Who Says a Funk Band Can’t Play Rock doing exactly what its title suggests.
The album initially came with a free single that showed that the band hadn’t lost sight of their original far-out remit. It featured a live version of their 1971 standard Maggot Brain, featuring Mike ‘Kidd Funkadelic’ Hampton’s searing guitar work, playing former member Eddie Hazel’s solo perfectly.
One Nation Under a Groove as a whole may not represent P-Funk’s greatest work, but it is certainly very memorable, and acts as a perfect introduction to George Clinton’s freaky, funk-drenched alternative reality” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: One Nation Under a Groove
The Underrated Gem
America Eats Its Young
Release Date: 22nd May, 1972
Label: Westbound
Producer: George Clinton
Standout Tracks: Everybody Is Going to Make It This Time/We Hurt Too/America Eats Its Young
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16065&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/73cLZ1gY650S58z9sugEQV?si=hELOd2tjSIajxW1RJUdG5A
Review:
“A double album and worth every minute of it, America Eats Its Young makes for a freaky, funky, and aware good time. Compared to the endless slabs of double-album dreck that came out around the same time from all sources, here Funkadelic brought life, soul, and much more to the party. With George Clinton credited only for arranging and producing, here the mad cast he brought together went all out. Bernie Worrell in particular now had a new importance, credited as co-arranger with Clinton as well as handling string and horn charts on a number of songs. His surging, never-stop keyboards, meanwhile, took control from the start, with his magnificent lead break on the opening "You Hit the Nail on the Head" making for one of the best performances ever on Hammond organ. Bootsy Collins (credited as William) is also somewhere in the crowd on bass and vocals, while old favorites like Eddie Hazel and Tiki Fulwood, among many others, can be found. Perhaps to fill in the time, a few numbers from the first Parliament album, Osmium, two years before cropped up, namely "Loose Booty" and the hilariously sleazy "I Call My Baby Pussycat," here performed with a noticeably slower, dirty groove. The straightforward social call to arms appears throughout, with one song title saying it all -- "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause." Other winners include the vicious title track, combining everything from mysterious, doom-laden voices and weeping wails to slow, sad music, and the concluding "Wake Up," while "Everybody Is Going to Make It This Time" is a lovely, gospel-informed ballad that heads for the skies and hearts. There are more mundane concerns as well, such as "There Was My Girl," a quirky weeper, and the weird if smoothly delivered "Miss Lucifer's Love," with more than one target in mind” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: You Hit the Nail on the Head
The Final Album
First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate
Release Date: 25th November, 2014 (digital download)/ 23rd December, 2014 (physical release)
Label: The C Kunspyruhzy
Producer: George Clinton
Standout Tracks: Get Low/first ya gotta Shake the Gate/The Naz (ft. Sly Stone)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1497050&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5lslKuLlzEULcLc2Vmm7m4?si=BUM8dEwtRxKshTK1OTN1XA
Review:
“Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You” might be the perfect reintroduction of George Clinton (instead of Funkadelic, per se) since it begins with a darkly ingratiating embrace rather that the expected turn-this-mother-out groove.
That’s George Clinton, the master of left turns. At the same time, “Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You” — this standout moment from Funkadelic’s sprawling new comeback effort First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate — stirs in a few distinctly modern elements: There’s the flinty braggadocio of “I was hard when I started, I’ll be hard when I get through,” and those rollicking Roland 808s.
That very newness works as a kind of comfy oldness when it comes to Clinton, who has stayed firmly within an established framework of forward-looking trippy weirdness over the course of myriad lineup shifts and stylistic leaps by Parliament/Funkadelic and an assortment of other similarly named outfits. Clinton keeps himself young that way, it seems.
Always moving, always searching, he’s apparently been recording songs for First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate throughout the lengthy silence between Funkadelic albums. As such, it’s all over the map. In fact, there is no map. Like “Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You,” First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate is offbeat, within and without expectations, somehow throwback and yet modern, maybe a bit too long.
The names (as per usual) change again, with familiar figures like Michael Hampton and Bernie Worrell making a rare appearance on “Yesterdejavu,” a guitar-focused track that most closely recalls classic Funkadelic. But how cool is the idea of Clinton joining forces with Sly Stone, as on “The Naz”? He also welcomes in an old friend in the late Jessica Cleaves of the Friends of Distinction, for a remake of “As In” — a tune from Bootsy’s Rubberband.
And so it goes over an astounding 33 songs — mirroring the 33 years since Funkadelic offered its last official release, 1981’s The Electric Spanking of War Babies — as George Clinton and Company create a multi-dimensional, almost exhaustively comprehensive return. It all might have been better served with a judicious edit or 10. It all might not make sense, it all might not be required listening and it all certainly isn’t funkin’ kinda hard. It might have been better titled as a Clinton solo album, too. But First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate is rarely less than interesting, and often brain-bendingly fun” - Something Else!
Choice Cut: Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You?
The Funkadelic Book
Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You?: A Memoir
Author: George Clinton
Publication Date: 5th September, 2017
Publisher: Atria Books
Reviews:
“A perpetual conceptual moving target, George Clinton has always been more about the dogs than the dogma, and his ideas are always layered deep in the 24 track mix. In this insatiably readable memoir he finally parks his Mothership and tells the tales that the funkateers have wanted to hear for years."-- Rickey Vincent, author of Funk: The Music, the People and the Rhythm of The One
"Clinton has always proven himself a one-of-a-kind wordsmith."-- "Chicago Tribune"
"The funk pioneer has led a life that will make you laugh, cry and wince."-- "New York Post"
From the barbershop to the Mothership, from doo-wop to hip-hop, Dr. Funkenstein's tale is filled with honesty, insight, and a whole lot of rhythm goin' round. With this book, George Clinton gives up the funk and then some. The Bomb!--Alan Light, former Editor-in-Chief of Vibe and Spin magazines
People will come to this book looking for druggy tales and eccentric stories, and they will not be disappointed. However they will also encounter a highly intelligent, visionary man who happens to have an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music from doo wop to hip hop. P-Funk worked because George Clinton knew how to weave all the threads together.--Nelson George
Clinton's irrepressible spirit, eloquence, and musical acumen flow full-force through this candid, hilarious, outrageous, poignant, and resounding chronicle of perpetual creativity and hope.-- "Booklist" – Amazon.co.uk