Parliament-Funkadelic discography
Part 6: 1978
Bootsy’s Rubber Band - “Bootsy? Player of the Year” (1978)
Similar in style to the first two Bootsy records, this one is about half upbeat funk and half ballads. However, this time, rather than all the ballads on the second half, they are mixed in. The record opens with an introduction of the band with chants of “we want Bootsy” while band jams. This was a studio version of their live intro and Bootsy’s entrance. Every song is solid with Bootzilla and Hollywood Squares being the best known. The psychedelic ballad, “May the Force Be With You” is the highlight with excellent, trippy guitars and phenomenal vocals by Mudbone Cooper. “Roto-Rooter” is another highlight, a faster, catchy hard funker. The record sleeve features a cardboard cut out of oversized Bootsy Star glasses.
4/5
The Brides of Funkenstein- “Funk or Walk” (1978)
The Brides of Funkenstein were two female vocalists who had previously worked with Sly Stone and were brought in to sing back up for P Funk. They debuted on Eddie Hazel’s solo album but this is the first of their two records. Like Bootsy’s first three albums, this is a mix of harder funk jams with ballads. “Disco to Go”, their best known song is features a heavy bass line and drumbeat with lyrics slightly poking fun at disco. P Funk still plays parts of this live to this day. “War Ship Touchante” features some great great bass playing by Rodney Skeet Curtis along with laser sound effects, sci-fi keyboards, and trippy alien vocal effects. The highlight is Birdie which features a heavy bass line backed by horns and guest vocals from Clinton. “Amorous” has some great horns from Maceo and Fred. The ballads are kind of boring but showcase the Brides’ voices. Overall, a solid album.
4/5
Fuzzy Haskins - “Radio Active” (1978)
Haskins’ second album is made up of half slow, stanky funk or upbeat poppy funky and even an attempt at disco. The guitar on this featuring Michael Hampton and Glen Goins is a highlight. The funnier, sleazy songs are excellent while pop numbers kind of drag the whole thing down.
3.5/5
Parlet - “Pleasure Principle” (1978)
Clinton had long dreamed of having his own version of Motown, overseeing multiple acts with many of the same writers and musicians. With the massive success of Parliament and Bootsy, this was able to finally come to fruition. While Brides was more of the female fronted version of Funkadelic and Bootsy, Parlet was to be the female fronted version of Parliament. Parlet puts Parliament’s female back up singers up front. Musically, this P-Funk’s most blatant attempt at a commercial record so far. The album mostly consists of pop grooves, often bordering on disco and sappy ballads. Fortunately, the layers of various instruments and Parlet’s vocals more than make up for an otherwise dull pop album. The highlight is P-Funk second take in “Cookie Jar”, the first being on Fuzzy Haskins’ first solo record.
2.5/5
Bernie Worrell - “All the Woo in the World” (1978)
Bernie’s first solo record, features longtime P-Funk keyboardist taking center stage as lead vocalist and keyboardist. It also introduces former Ohio Players keyboardist, Junie Morrison to P-Funk who also doubles on vocals and keyboards. The record is essentially a solid Parliament album with Bernie as the front man, featuring all the usual Parliament-Funkadelic players from this time. The highlight is “Much Thrust” which sounds like a standard Parliament song but with shredding Funkadelic guitar. “Insurance Man” would be remade by the 2018 version of Parliament. Bernie’s song writing and innovation playing is no doubt one of the most important elements in the development of the P-Funk sound and a huge factor in their success. However, this record feels less like a showcase for Bernie’s talent and more of a way to release leftover Parliament tracks while pushing Bernie to the front. Fortunately, this was a time when P-Funk was churning out a lot of really good music so this is still a fairly solid album.
3.5/5
Quazar - “Quazar” (1978)
Quazar was a band formed by P-Funk vocalist/guitarist, Glen Goins and drummer, Jerome Bigfoot Bailey who had recently quit Parliament-Funkadelic to form their own band. Unfortunately, Glen Goins passed away before the album even came out. Bigfoot’s drumming in unmistakable. Glen’s vocals and guitar are top notch, joined on guitar by his brother, Kevin Goins. Interestingly, the chant in “Funk N Roll” was also used in the Funkadelic song’ “Cholly” off of “One Nation” released around the same time. Despite, a couple cheesy ballads stuck on close to the end of the record, this is overall of a solid performance of upbeat dance music with superb musicianship. The problem is there isn’t really any tracks that really stand out too much.
3.5/5
Funkadelic - “One Nation Under A Groove” (1978)
One Nation was a breakthrough for a Funkadelic, both commercially and artistically. It is Funkadelic’s best selling album and often considered one of the greatest funk records of all time. Like Maggot Brain, it is musically diverse, with each track sounding completely different. Unlike, Maggot Brain, which has a dark and murky feel, One Nation is bright and upbeat. The title track is an upbeat party song and is one of P-Funk’s best and most well known songs. Check out the extended 12” single version for Michael Hampton’s solo. Speaking on Kidd Funkadelic, his guitar licks and solo are all over this album. However, this isn’t as much of a rock record as past Funkadelic releases but more of an eclectic hard funk album. That’s not to say there isn’t any hard rock. The album comes with a bonus 7” which contains a live version of “Maggot Brain” with the solo played by Hampton along with a heavy metal track called “Lunchmeataphobia”. In addition there’s a rocket called “Who Says A Funk Band Can’t Play Rock”. “Doo Doo Chasers” is one of the weirdest tracks in P-Funk’s extensive catalog. “Groovallegiance” is reggae, “Into You” is political funk, and “Cholly” is hard, catchy funk. This record is absolutely essential and pure funk.
5/5
Parliament - “Motor Booty Affair” (1978)
This is one of Parliament’s best and unfortunately, their last GREAT album. Clinton and Junie Morrison as a songwriting team is just phenomenal. There is a huge cast of musicians all bringing a lot to the table including Bootsy and Skeet both tearing it up in bass and Junie and Bernie both killing it on the keys and I mean killing it. This one has a lot of the OG musicians along with the newer ones so there’s a lot going on. The vocals and lyrics are silly and the original record has pop-ups of all the characters drawn for the album by Parliament’s artist, Overton Lord. The concept is underwater funk and the raising of Atlantis. Again, there is obviously lots of underlying social and political commentary here regarding black power and other issues. The hits were “Aquaboogie” and “Rumpofsteelskin” but every song is top notch. Great dance music, catchy hooks (no pun intended), and innovative musicianship. The keyboards on “Liquid Sunshine” are particularly trippy, emulating how funk would sound underwater.
5/5
Next up is 1979.
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