What I have been listening to: Funkadelic

 A favorite band of mine is Parliament. They were sliding into obscurity in the 90s until they seemed to come exploding back. I mean obviously rap and hip-hop, there weren’t many artists that got sampled as much. So many key Dr Dre moments had Parliament roots. But it wasn’t like it was just that. If you were a rock fan, bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Primal Scream were working with him. George Clinton made the Lollapalooza tour. He showed up in the 1994 movie PCU and on the soundtrack alongside bands like Mudhoney and Redd Kross. But Parliament was everywhere in the 90s- the band also was namechecked by Digital Underground and Clinton’s solo career was given an assist by Prince. Bootsy Collins was involved in bands as diverse as Dee Lite and Praxis. Bernie Worrell worked extensively with Talking Heads, Les Claypool and Govt Mule.

I probably regret not seeing the P Funk All Stars when I had the chance. Still, it always felt like the golden P Funk age has passed. But dang if going back and discovering the classic tracks was so rewarding. One part Sly and the Family Stone funk rock, one part Frank Zappa weirdness, some Hendrix guitar heroics and let’s throw in the kitchen sink of rock, jazz, soul, funk, disco, rave and rap. Parliament seemed to transcend a person’s age, race or any number of determining factors.

In 2018, Parliament surprised everyone by releasing a new album Medicare Fraud Dogg. I would be lying to say it was a great album but a handful of years removed, the album puts me in a specific time and place that I was listening to it. (It’s major defect being it’s 24 songs and should have probably been one album not two)

In any case, though I love Parliament, I had yet to really get into Funkadelic- the brother band who took that aforementioned mix and doused it with a heavy dose of Led Zeppelin and birthed a new generation of African American guitar heroes.

In recent years, Maggot Brain is probably considered the bands epic. It’s an album as weird as it’s cover - heavy in sound and heavy in spirit, influence impossible to measure- it would be ground breaking of released in 1981 or even 1991, but instead born in 1971

It is an album that like Trout Mask Replica, I have never quite seemed to crack. But I have been dipping into Funkadelic again recently.

Although I might go for a detour here and there, my recent jam is probably the bands most accessible point -1973s Cosmic Slop and what a great record it is.

Not a commercial success at the time, it feels like a classic album now- which finds all roads leading to a perfect tune - the title track.

It’s a roller coaster of emotions, musical genres and moods. The title track makes an appearance on Doing Dumb Sh*t from Ice Cube’s 1991 album Death Certificate. Though nearly 20 years apart, both albums have a lot in common- there’s Urban reality and a lot of sex. It sounds like a Party but there’s a lot bubbling underneath.

One of the things that makes so much of Maggot Brain special is guitarist Eddie Hazel who just could make soulful psychedelic music, but my understanding is he was only minimally involved with the band by Cosmic Slop. It is Gary Shider and Ron Bykowksi who do the guitar work here and it’s Shider who would feature on “One Nation Under A Groove” (At this point Funkadelic is a pretty slimmed down group but they are all great here- Worrell, Boogie Mosson and Tyrone Lampkin) and Shider playing guitar on one of my favorite P Funk related albums (and recent discoveries for me) “Stretchin’ out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band”

And it’s Shider on lead vocals that make that title track so compelling. With so many colorful characters and comings and goings in the P Funk collective, Shider gets overlooked. For better or for worse, he is known as Diaper Man for his memorable concert uniform.

Thirty years from when I first heard of Parliament, it’s amazing that there’s still so much ground for me to cover.

In March, Fuzzy Haskins passed away. A reminder that this artistic generation is getting older (Hazel, Shider, Worrell and Mosson have already passed). Haskins wrote “Up for the Downstroke” and pops up all across the band’s history going back to the original doo wop Parliaments to the Original P - a non-Clinton group that toured in the 90s. Haskins can be found on Parliament’s Clones of Dr Funkenstein (1976) and Funkadelic’s America Eats It’s Young (1972)