Favorite Parliament/Funkadelic Record

I first found this forum while doing a Google search for some info on Funkadelic, and I've appreciated some of the Pfunk related topics I've found here, and I know there are a few Funk experts on these threads.

So far I haven't found one like this, so I figured I'd throw it out there.

Simple enough, and I will include a few of the spinoff/George Clinton solo works as well

Evidently there are more PFunk albums than eligible poll responses, so if your favorite is not listed, just write it in.

Also, I encourage you to explain your choice, or highlight tunes you like in the comments.

 

The Parliament/Funkadelic discography and appreciation thread »

 

From your poll, "Maggot Brain" is my choice. But there's a huge omission there:

 

Mothership Connection?
Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome?
One Nation Under a Groove?

 

Thanks, operator error, I accidentally hit enter while writing the poll.

Also evidently there's only so many responses you can put, so I will take away one and add the option for "Other"

edit: maybe because votes were already cast, it won't let me edit to add 'other.' so just write it in!

 

yes, that thread is what I found on google, I read the whole thing, great stuff.

 

Thank you

 

@Jarvius

 

I thought the same thing, he was my very first "like" on this board.

 

my pick was "Let's Take it to the Stage" (so far the only vote for that one.)

 

'Free Your Mind'

with 'Maggot Brain' a close second.

'Motor-Booty Affair' comes in third.


I like my P-Funk freaky.

 

Too many, and too different to pick one.

I love the Revilot singles; among early albums I love Osmium, Maggot Brain and America Eats Its Young best; among high-period P.Funk maybe Funkentelechy would be my first choice, but also Mothership and Strechin' Out and Player of the Year (for "Bootzilla" alone!) and Dr. Funkenstein for the cosmology and the definitive title track and the incredible horn arrangements; among later period stuff Computer Games and the terminally underappreciated Urban Dancefloor Guerrillas; the last P Funk record I really loved was Dope Dogs.

 

Thanks for commenting, and 2 things that really stood out to me making the list

First that this group put out something like 35 albums (counting the spinoffs like Fuzzy, Horny Horns, Eddie Hazel, Parlet etc.) in the course of 13 years, (1970-83) the least of which are decent, and the best of which stand as all-time classics.

the second was that I could easily pick from like 8-10 favorites. I like Funkadelic more than Parliament and think that Frank Zappa is the only other well known artist to so successfully combine avant-garde weirdness and meaningful lyrics with eclecticism and instrumental virtuosity in a rock milieu.

case in point: (adult themes)


I think the Parliament stuff is more well-known and they are still criminally underrated. The general public has a superficial knowledge of who George Clinton is but he doesn't get enough credit for the bands he put together and the really great music they put out.

 

Clicked One Nation but might have gone with Bootsy (Player of the Year) if it had been a choice. You made it easier for me.

 

Can listen to this one all day long:

 

Way too difficult to choose between 'the children'. That being said, Free Your Mind is
the best Afrocentric psychedelic guitar record ever made that's not directly associated
with Jimi Hendrix or Del Jones.

 

You're welcome? I fully intended to put all of Bootsy's 70s albums on there, plus Eddie Hazel's solo album, the Horny Horns, Urban Dancefloor Guerillas, etc. but you are limited to 25 options.

 

I dunno. I mean, I've been a funkateer since the mid '70s and back in the late '80s I did a nine-hour live radio retrospective/documentary on the group and I've spent some time with George and Bootsy and Bernie (RIP), and others. I think P.Funk's greatness, place in history (including in the RnR HOF) and influence are pretty well enshrined, and especially with the absolute deification in the post Dr. Dre hip-hop world. There was a period in the early '80s when the Westbound stuff was out of print, and the high-period P-Funk empire had collapsed and despite the success of "Atomic Dog" it's almost like P.Funk was half forgotten -- late in the decade I wrote some pieces about George's early contract songwriting work and about the early Parliaments stuff and that stuff then really had to be unearthed, now they're well known parts of the history -- but really beginning with the big De La Soul "Knee Deep" sample and through to today when the Mothership is being installed as a permanent part of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, I think P. Funk is pretty much given its due in history.

Part of the problem I think for people coming to the work today is that there's a lot of if and it's varied in style, and, frankly, it's not all great. So delving in can be daunting. But I don't think that this point that P.Funk is underrated.

 

Maybe I'm just projecting my own previous lack of knowledge on the general public? I had a best of Parliament CD I got years ago from BMG or some such place; I thought it was OK but apart from Star Child never got into it. I also had a cassette of One Nation and found parts of it a bit off-putting at that age. The R&B elements were too R&B and the guitar was too metal for my taste at that time. I rediscovered "Ultimate Funkadelic" early last year, which has tracks from the WB albums, and from there got back into the whole catalog.

I think that most people know of Pfunk, and especially in circles that include musicians and audiophiles, but that for most others the knowledge extends to Flashlight, Atomic Dog, Give up the Funk, George Clinton's rainbow hair, and the actual physical Mothership.

In spite of all the sampling and the Smithsonian exhibit, I can't remember the last time I heard a Pfunk tune on a commercial radio station, if I ever even did (I'm 37.) Same for Funkadelic and Bootsy, yet their lesser contemporaries in the same genre get much more exposure.

 

Sure, but "most people" aren't involved in music the way people on a forum like this are. Most people only known the big hits and big personnae of only the biggest acts that were big during their youths in their particular social or ethnic or cultural environments, and then maybe the names of some legendary figures whose fame transcends the music -- like people might know the names Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis or Hank Williams or Elvis Presley without knowing a stitch of their music.

 

Motor Booty Affair is where it's at. "Mr.Wiggles" through "Deep" is nothing but perfection. Love that album. Funkentelechy is second on my list.

 

"Motor Booty Affair"- Parliament

"One Nation Under a Groove"-Funkadelic

 

I voted Chocolate City (1975). It's lean, mean and very funky, yet some of the purest of their melodies can be found here.

I'm sticking to my vote, but Morthership Connection (also released in 1975) kind of makes a double-sided sword with this release. I'm fact, put both albums in one CD and be amazed at their flow for a banner year!