Parliament: Unfunky UFO
Continuing my focus on the music of 1975, coming in at #10 on my Top 20 is the best funk album of the year. Prior to 1974, the best albums by Parliament Funkadelic (aka P-Funk) had been funk/rock fusion records released under the Funkadelic banner. This all changed in 1974 when George Clinton released the album Up For The Down Stroke as Parliament. This was followed in April 1975 with Chocolate City. Within that one year period (July ’74-April ’75), Clinton had reinvented funk music in a way that would define funk for the rest of the decade and influence the evolution of hip-hop in the ’90s. Still, it is the funk masterpiece Mothership Connection, released in December 1975, that stands as P-Funk’s best album of any era or style. When people think of P-Funk, they are thinking of the images developed for this album’s tour in 1976; they are thinking of the songs on this album; they are thinking of not only the sounds of Bootsy Collins (bass) and Bernie Worrell (keyboards), but also the horns of Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley (who left James Brown’s band The J.B.s to join P-Funk during the recording of this album). There are 7 solid funk jams on this record, including “P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up),” “Mothership Connection (Star Child),” and “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker).” Those 3 funk classics overshadow the other tunes, but all of the songs on the album are a funk masterclass.
Make my funk the P-Funk, I want my funk uncut.
If you hear any noise, it’s just me and the boys.
Awww, we need the funk, we gotta have the funk!
If you are interested in other years, check out my Year in Review series.
To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.
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