Parliament-Funkadelic discography
Part 3: 1972-74
United Soul - "U.S. Music with Funkadelic" (1972)
United Soul were the little brother band to Funkadelic. They recorded a one off single in 1972 featuring Funkadelic. This album is a compilation of both of songs from the single along with five other songs recorded with Funakdelic. United Soul's lead vocalist and guitarist, Gary Shider sung back-up vocals on Maggot Brain and was later brought in as a member of Funkadelic along with bassist Cordell Mosson after the departure of Funkadelic's original guitarists and bassist. Most of these songs were later reworked as Funkadelic songs or for other P-Funk projects. Essentially, this sounds like Funkadelic as members past and present play on this album and half the songs are written by George Clinton. The stand out track for me is the heavy psychedelic rocker, "Rat Kissed the Cat".
3.5/5
Funkadelic - "America Eats Its Young" (1972)
Within a year of Funkadelic's third album, half the band is gone. There is a new drummer and both guitarists and bassists have left as well. Instead of calling it a day, Clinton brings in two younger bands. First off, he brings in a couple of the guys from United Soul, Gary Shider and Cordell Mosson. Shider will be forever remembered as Diaper Man for wearing a diaper on stage for his entire career.
Shider stuck with P-Funk till his untimely passing in 2010 and was an integral part of the group. Clinton also brought in the House Guests, a band that had recorded a couple singles and featured brothers, Catfish & Bootsy Collins along with Frank “Kash” Waddy who had all been fired by James Brown, supposedly for playing shows on LSD. The Collins brothers would leave the group soon after this album. However, Bootsy would come back a couple years later to help bring back Parliament. From here on out, band members come and go frequently and other musicians guest star on specific songs. It would be impossible to keep track of without writing an essay about every album so no disrespect to any musicians who don't get props. The album is very similar to Parliament's "Osmium" in that it really showcases the diversity of Clinton's songwriting and the ability of the musicians to play different styles. There are even string and horn sections brought in for specific songs and a ton of guest musicians. Only a few songs sound like old-school Funkadelic. The title track is similar to "Maggot Brain" with a guitar solo over a chill rhythm with Clinton reciting poetry over top. Hazel appears on this album but I am not sure if that is him on the track. "Miss Lucifer's Love" is another with a heavily OG Funkadelic song with a highly distorted psych guitar riff. The rest is more straight forward funk or soul. "Loose Booty" and "Pussycat" are reworkings of Parliament songs played completely different and "That Was My Girl" was also Parliaments song. Bernie's instrumental "A Joyful Process" is a great funk track while “Biological Speculation” finds George Clinton singing along to a mix of soul and country (complete with slide guitar). The rest is straightforward soul with a couple ballads thrown in. There is not a bad song on here. However, as a double album this feels a little too ambitious like they were throwing out ideas to see what would stick and it doesn't feel very cohesive. As a collection of songs it works, as a whole it barely does. The stand out tracks are "Loose Booty", "A Joyful Process", and "America Eats Its Young". The lyrics, liner notes, and artwork are blatantly political as the album title suggests. This is the one factor that does sort of holds the record together and the message is right on. Overall, this is a great album but just doesn't hold up compared to their other records.
3.5/5
Funkadelic - "Cosmic Slop" (1973)
Cosmic Slop is a psychedelic funk masterpiece. The polar opposite of the previous album's over the top production, Cosmic Clop is a more stripped down, straight forward album but no less creative. Gary Shider is the star of the show, singing lead on the title track which has been a live staple ever since and "Let's Make It Last" which was a Motown style Parliaments song, now turned into heavy psychedelic rock. "Trash A-Go-Go" is another heavy song. "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" and "Can't Stand The Strain" are reworkings of Parliaments songs to showcase the band's vocals along with "This Broken Heart" which is a cover of a '50's song by the Sonics (doo-wop group, not the garage rock band). "March To the Witch's Castle" is a powerful political song while "No Compute" showcases Clinton's bizarre sense of humor. The album is great front to back and is a classic on par with Maggot Brain. It is similar in style to Funkadelic's earlier straightforward psych funk sound, however the songs are shorter and more structured with less space for jamming out and long guitar solos. However, Gary Shider and new guitarist, Ron Bykowski (possibly the first white guy to play with P-Funk full time) are nonetheless phenomenal guitarists throughout the album. Cosmic Slop is notable as the first Funkadelic record with art and liner notes by Pedro Bell. Bell was a fan who had been sending the band art in the mail that was inspired by their music. Bell would go on to do art on every proper Funkadelic release from here on out and on a few of Clinton's solo records.
5/5
Parliament - "Up For the Down Stroke" (1974)
In '74, Clinton brought back Bootsy Collins to help him bring take resurrect Parliament for Casablanca Records (the same year the label debuted Kiss's first album). The title track was P-Funk's first hit song and featured the songwriting team of Clinton/Collins/Worrell, who would write several hits for the band in the following years (Fuzzy Haskins is also credited on this song). The song "Up For the Down Stroke" has more of a James Brown-feel than any of P-Funk's previous material, thanks to Bootsy's experience with the Godfather of Soul. The beat is on the One (first measure), a trick Bootsy picked up from playing with James Brown. "The One" would become a crucial element to the P-Funk sound and double as a philosophical element as well. The title track also included a guest horn section to give it even more of a James Brown feel. "Testify" & "All Your Goodies Are Gone" are reworkings of Parliaments songs with a more '70's funk feel closer to Sly & the Family Stone than to their Motown/doo-wop roots. The album also includes two more Parliaments songs; "Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good" reworked as a blues rock song and "The Goose" reworked as 9 1/2 minute Funkadelic-style psychedelic. The success of this album would propel Parliament as the more accessible, mainstream side to Funkadelic's underground, weirder, more experimental side. This is a solid album but the best is yet to come for Parliament.
4/5
Funkadelic - "Standing on the Verge of Getting It On" (1974)
Standing on the Verge is the return of Eddie Hazel to the band and Funkadelic's heaviest album as far as guitars go. Every song is written by George Clinton & Eddie Hazel (with Bernie also credited for "Red Hot Momma"), although Hazel's writing credits are given to his mother, Grace Cook for some kind of legal reason regarding contractional obligations that the guitarist had at the time. "Red Hot Momma" is a heavy funk song previously recorded by Parliament. "Alice In My Fantasies" is a slight plagiarism of Hendrix but is a great song nonetheless and features great lyrics by Clinton, "I'll be your dog and you can be my tree and you can pee on me". "I'll Stay", a reworking of "I'll Wait" by the Parliaments, is a slow psychedelic soul groove and possibly the best song on the album. The title track is a classic. It has a great groove and amazing guitar licks. "Jimmy's Got A Little Bit of Bitch in Him" is a comedic song about a dude who can't get it up. "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" is a 12 1/2 minute epic with a chill rhythm to showcase Hazel's lead guitar and Clinton's deep lyricism much like "Maggot Brain".
5/5
Next up, in part 3, I am reviewing P-Funk albums from 1975-76
Part 3: 1972-74
United Soul were the little brother band to Funkadelic. They recorded a one off single in 1972 featuring Funkadelic. This album is a compilation of both of songs from the single along with five other songs recorded with Funakdelic. United Soul's lead vocalist and guitarist, Gary Shider sung back-up vocals on Maggot Brain and was later brought in as a member of Funkadelic along with bassist Cordell Mosson after the departure of Funkadelic's original guitarists and bassist. Most of these songs were later reworked as Funkadelic songs or for other P-Funk projects. Essentially, this sounds like Funkadelic as members past and present play on this album and half the songs are written by George Clinton. The stand out track for me is the heavy psychedelic rocker, "Rat Kissed the Cat".
3.5/5
Funkadelic - "America Eats Its Young" (1972)
Within a year of Funkadelic's third album, half the band is gone. There is a new drummer and both guitarists and bassists have left as well. Instead of calling it a day, Clinton brings in two younger bands. First off, he brings in a couple of the guys from United Soul, Gary Shider and Cordell Mosson. Shider will be forever remembered as Diaper Man for wearing a diaper on stage for his entire career.
Shider stuck with P-Funk till his untimely passing in 2010 and was an integral part of the group. Clinton also brought in the House Guests, a band that had recorded a couple singles and featured brothers, Catfish & Bootsy Collins along with Frank “Kash” Waddy who had all been fired by James Brown, supposedly for playing shows on LSD. The Collins brothers would leave the group soon after this album. However, Bootsy would come back a couple years later to help bring back Parliament. From here on out, band members come and go frequently and other musicians guest star on specific songs. It would be impossible to keep track of without writing an essay about every album so no disrespect to any musicians who don't get props. The album is very similar to Parliament's "Osmium" in that it really showcases the diversity of Clinton's songwriting and the ability of the musicians to play different styles. There are even string and horn sections brought in for specific songs and a ton of guest musicians. Only a few songs sound like old-school Funkadelic. The title track is similar to "Maggot Brain" with a guitar solo over a chill rhythm with Clinton reciting poetry over top. Hazel appears on this album but I am not sure if that is him on the track. "Miss Lucifer's Love" is another with a heavily OG Funkadelic song with a highly distorted psych guitar riff. The rest is more straight forward funk or soul. "Loose Booty" and "Pussycat" are reworkings of Parliament songs played completely different and "That Was My Girl" was also Parliaments song. Bernie's instrumental "A Joyful Process" is a great funk track while “Biological Speculation” finds George Clinton singing along to a mix of soul and country (complete with slide guitar). The rest is straightforward soul with a couple ballads thrown in. There is not a bad song on here. However, as a double album this feels a little too ambitious like they were throwing out ideas to see what would stick and it doesn't feel very cohesive. As a collection of songs it works, as a whole it barely does. The stand out tracks are "Loose Booty", "A Joyful Process", and "America Eats Its Young". The lyrics, liner notes, and artwork are blatantly political as the album title suggests. This is the one factor that does sort of holds the record together and the message is right on. Overall, this is a great album but just doesn't hold up compared to their other records.
3.5/5
Funkadelic - "Cosmic Slop" (1973)
Cosmic Slop is a psychedelic funk masterpiece. The polar opposite of the previous album's over the top production, Cosmic Clop is a more stripped down, straight forward album but no less creative. Gary Shider is the star of the show, singing lead on the title track which has been a live staple ever since and "Let's Make It Last" which was a Motown style Parliaments song, now turned into heavy psychedelic rock. "Trash A-Go-Go" is another heavy song. "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" and "Can't Stand The Strain" are reworkings of Parliaments songs to showcase the band's vocals along with "This Broken Heart" which is a cover of a '50's song by the Sonics (doo-wop group, not the garage rock band). "March To the Witch's Castle" is a powerful political song while "No Compute" showcases Clinton's bizarre sense of humor. The album is great front to back and is a classic on par with Maggot Brain. It is similar in style to Funkadelic's earlier straightforward psych funk sound, however the songs are shorter and more structured with less space for jamming out and long guitar solos. However, Gary Shider and new guitarist, Ron Bykowski (possibly the first white guy to play with P-Funk full time) are nonetheless phenomenal guitarists throughout the album. Cosmic Slop is notable as the first Funkadelic record with art and liner notes by Pedro Bell. Bell was a fan who had been sending the band art in the mail that was inspired by their music. Bell would go on to do art on every proper Funkadelic release from here on out and on a few of Clinton's solo records.
5/5
Parliament - "Up For the Down Stroke" (1974)
In '74, Clinton brought back Bootsy Collins to help him bring take resurrect Parliament for Casablanca Records (the same year the label debuted Kiss's first album). The title track was P-Funk's first hit song and featured the songwriting team of Clinton/Collins/Worrell, who would write several hits for the band in the following years (Fuzzy Haskins is also credited on this song). The song "Up For the Down Stroke" has more of a James Brown-feel than any of P-Funk's previous material, thanks to Bootsy's experience with the Godfather of Soul. The beat is on the One (first measure), a trick Bootsy picked up from playing with James Brown. "The One" would become a crucial element to the P-Funk sound and double as a philosophical element as well. The title track also included a guest horn section to give it even more of a James Brown feel. "Testify" & "All Your Goodies Are Gone" are reworkings of Parliaments songs with a more '70's funk feel closer to Sly & the Family Stone than to their Motown/doo-wop roots. The album also includes two more Parliaments songs; "Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good" reworked as a blues rock song and "The Goose" reworked as 9 1/2 minute Funkadelic-style psychedelic. The success of this album would propel Parliament as the more accessible, mainstream side to Funkadelic's underground, weirder, more experimental side. This is a solid album but the best is yet to come for Parliament.
4/5
Funkadelic - "Standing on the Verge of Getting It On" (1974)
Standing on the Verge is the return of Eddie Hazel to the band and Funkadelic's heaviest album as far as guitars go. Every song is written by George Clinton & Eddie Hazel (with Bernie also credited for "Red Hot Momma"), although Hazel's writing credits are given to his mother, Grace Cook for some kind of legal reason regarding contractional obligations that the guitarist had at the time. "Red Hot Momma" is a heavy funk song previously recorded by Parliament. "Alice In My Fantasies" is a slight plagiarism of Hendrix but is a great song nonetheless and features great lyrics by Clinton, "I'll be your dog and you can be my tree and you can pee on me". "I'll Stay", a reworking of "I'll Wait" by the Parliaments, is a slow psychedelic soul groove and possibly the best song on the album. The title track is a classic. It has a great groove and amazing guitar licks. "Jimmy's Got A Little Bit of Bitch in Him" is a comedic song about a dude who can't get it up. "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" is a 12 1/2 minute epic with a chill rhythm to showcase Hazel's lead guitar and Clinton's deep lyricism much like "Maggot Brain".
5/5
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