Behold! I am Funkadelic I am not of your world But fear me not I will do you no harm
Never were truer words declaimed on wax. Welcome to Funkadelic, a brilliantly earthy treat from outer space.
Exploding sideways and outwards from George Clinton’s doo wop group The Parliaments, Funkadelic dropped their best and debut LP in February 1970. Scratch that, not just their best LP, one of the best LPs of that whole storied decade and one of the very best rock LPs stat.
Funkadelic is low down dirty and rocky right from the opening notes of ‘Mommy, What’s A Funkadelic?’; once Mr Clinton has stopped threatening to lick our funky emotions to the accompaniment, of what sounds like, the Very Hungry Caterpillar on backing sound FX. It all grooves heavy on a Bob Babbitt bassline.
The band, a pretty amorphous thing at the time for contractual reasons* play it grounded and decidedly rocky, loads of sexy grinding and grooving throughout. You don’t need me to say it but Eddie Hazel is an absolutely incredible guitarist, truly one of the few within touching distance of Hendrix. Just listen to the incredible outro of ‘I’ll Bet You’.
In fact listen to ‘Ill Bet You’ full stop. That brilliant picked intro that I first met as a Beastie Boys sample** gives way to a groove that just rolls through the depths, courtesy of Tiki Fulwood, adding continuity no matter what flourishes, excursions and diversions carry on above it. It’s a powerful piece.
For such a latterly futuristic crew Funkadelic strip it right back to the primal moody ooze blues on ‘Music For My Mother’. It talks funk, but its real music is the blues and even older African American chants and chains, making a point about continuity and community. The uncredited Herb Sparkman gives it a great lead vocal too.
Next on Funkadelic the afterburners flame on for the space drug gospel wah-wah sermonette that is ‘I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody’s Got A Thing’. No deep bass here, every instrument straining for the sky, for that divine take off.
Side 2 kicks down the doors with ‘Good Old Music’, a great groove, dextrous, sinewy, fuzzy and chewy, which somehow manages to feel a bit unfinished as a song. Given better lyrics and a bit more purpose it could have been truly epic.
The awesomely bluesbustingfunkalicious ‘Qualify & Satisfy’ is up next. This is basically Hendrix playing on the chitlin’ circuit in a silver foil jumpsuit; Calvin Simon’s vocal sounds a lot like him. The call and response between Hazel’s guitar and Martin Atkins Hammond is great. It does feel like a tip of the hat to Jimmy James himself.
To close us off and bring us on home to the stars, Funkadelic the LP, band and sound are goosed up on bright blue Venusian LSD for ‘What Is Soul’. This track is home to all manner of dark grooves, portentous exclamations, great picking and plain daftness as some supremely stoned chaps try to answer the very question posed by the title (‘Soul is a ham hock in your cornflakes’, ‘A joint rolled in toilet paper’, ‘Chitlins Foo Yung’) and giggle a lot. It’s bloody great.
Funkadelic is a brilliant listen and it hasn’t dated a day in 54 years, we still haven’t got to where these gentlemen’s heads were orbiting back then.
Given how radical a jump into the future Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow would be 17 months later, I am struck by how grounded in the blues it all is. Yeah you can talk deep, dark, delicious funk all you like but this is a rock LP and all the better for it too. Enjoy it for that too as Mr Clinton was about to cut all the tethers with LSD and float off into the skies, never to touch down this firmly again.
My copy of Funkadelic is a very serviceable 1989 reissue copy that was labelled in a second-hand shop (not a second-hand record shop) as a 1970’s reissue. I got it cheaper by politely pointing out the barcode and the ‘also available on CD’ line on the back.
1215 Down.
PS: How freaking freakily great is this?! Jackson 5 covering ‘I Bet You’ on their ABC album, out only 3 months after Funkadelic …
*the five musos listed on the back cover are just part of 18 who contribute here.
**’Car Thief’ from Paul’s Boutique.
Good hustle, man.
Love the review, though it’s Maggot Brain for me.