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"Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!"

oh its definitely a funk album. but this was always the "problem" with Funkadelic - they always went a little too far in a bunch of different directions (be it rock/heavy metal or fried doo-wop or whatever). The Mandrill album goes in a lot of different directions too, but Funkadelic always went FARTHER than other bands. That being said, the rhythms/beats in Red Hot Momma, the title track, Sexy Ways (omg this song, my favorite of the batch definitely) are funk standards.

rest assured I will be posting more stuff that blurs the line between acid rock and blues and funk

Can't beat "I'll Stay"!

^^^yes!
though listening to this earlier today for the first time in a while, i can't believe I forgot how great Hazel is on the last track.

Can't think of a track where he isn't great... on like, anything, ever

take, for example, the Universal Rhythms track on Mandrill Is - I love it cuz I have a soft-spot for proto-hippie mystic goofiness but the track itself isn't FUNKY per se. However, tons of funk bands (including Funkadelic, who, again, took this kind of track to extremes with stuff like Eulogy and Light or the intro to Clones of Dr. Funkenstein) had these kind of interludes on their albums, enough that you could say it's something of a hallmark of the genre. So having a track that isn't funky in and of itself doesn't really disqualify an album from being a "funk" album, because funk as a genre was actually really ridiculously wide-ranging, especially when you look at it from the album level like we are here.

I mentioned this on the thread that inspired this one, but this is part of the problem with taking an album approach to funk. Invariably we're gonna be hearing a lot of stuff that isn't particularly funky - albums by funk bands were often filled with all kinds of digressions - into jazz solos, or syrupy ballads, or spoken word bits, or straight-up rock tracks, or silly covers of standards. You're gonna see this a lot on this thread, I imagine. If you wanna cut straight to nothing but dancefloor filling FUNK tracks then we would need to take more of a singles/45s approach to the genre, cuz that's where that kind of stuff was heavily concentrated. When it came time to release albums, funk bands tended to let things sprawl (there are exceptions to this, but they're pretty rare - Mothership Connection, for example, was highly distinctive at the time for being the first r&b album to contain NO ballads, which was unheard of at the time).

Ron Bykowski's also on Standing iirc...?

Token White Devil?

I'll take a week, but it'll have to be at the end of May. Say 26/5?

rest assured I will be posting more stuff that blurs the line between acid rock and blues and funk

me too

much to my surprise I'm enjoying the ballads on Pleasure more than the other tracks. I really like the falsetto singing.

Ohio Players "Pleasure" is great, also agree with the ballads comment xpost - like "Pride & Vanity" a lot.

remember the version of Pleasure on Spotify is a 2cd set with bonus tracks the original lp only had 9 tracks I think.

yup
http://www.discogs.com/Ohio-Players-Pleasure/release/2233227

"Walt's First Trip" is a fuckin' jam

ohio players play on play on!

I generally hate ballads yet I like Ohio Players ballads. The post-Westbound/Junie era has a lot of harder rocking songs btw. There was no end to their talents.

The Ohio Players Best 1970's Album (Album Covers pics contained maybe NSFW)

the original lp only had 9 tracks

ah, that makes sense, ending w/Our Love Has Died. Allmusic led me astray.

Im guessing the other tracks are outtakes. I only have the old cds so I cant check.

for what it's worth, a list of samples used from these albums:

Mandrill "Children of the Sun": Shawty Lo "Dey Know"
Mandrill "Universal Rhythms": Beck "Hot Wax"
Ohio Players "Funky Worm": NWA "Dopeman", "Gangsta Gangsta", De La Soul "Me, Myself and I", Kriss Kross "Jump", Ice Cube "Wicked", AMG "Vertical Joyride", MC Breed "No Future in Ya Frontin", Dr. Dre "Chronic Intro", Snoop "Serial Killer", DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince "Boom Shake the Room", Masta Ace "Born to Roll", Too $hort "Sample the Funk", Above the Law "Black Superman", X-Clan "Xodus", Beastie Boys "Funky Boss", Masta Ace "Born to Roll", Redman "Cosmic Sloop"
Funkadelic "I'll Stay": De La Soul "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa", Crucial Conflict "Hay"
Funkadelic "Standing on the Verge of Getting It On": Ice Cube "Endangered Species"

Ohio Players "Funky Worm": NWA "Dopeman", "Gangsta Gangsta", De La Soul "Me, Myself and I", Kriss Kross "Jump", Ice Cube "Wicked", AMG "Vertical Joyride", MC Breed "No

classic sample

The Funkadelic album reminds me of this: http://www.discogs.com/Tranquility-Bass-Let-The-Freak-Flag-Fly/release/30239

good excuse to to revisit that funkadelic; "jimmy's got a little bit of bitch in him" is the jam

^^^^love pretty much every line in that song too

Listening to Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, I agree with whoever said that this sounds kinda more "rock" than "funk", but it's really nice anyway (and I say this is a person who hates 99% of rock, so it's a big compliment). Could've done with some horns and more synths though - the guitar dominates it a bit too much for my taste. On the positive side, the vocals sound more versatile and deep than on some other Funkadelic stuff I've heard.

Can someone explain wtf the intro of "Red Hot Momma" is about?

read the liner notes

(honestly I'm surprised there are not high-quality scans of the various Funkadelic LP sleeves on the internets anywhere, because they are awesome and really frame what the albums are about)

It's definitely the most funkrock Funkadelic album, but there's more to it than just rock.

Whoa, I'm just listening "Jimmy's Got a Little Bit of Bitch in Him", it's pretty deep! Didn't expect to hear sentiments like these in a song made in 1974! Awesome!

in short - intro is about humanity being the greedy, egotistical, ungrateful spawn of mother nature

xp

even the sun goes down = lolz

I never understood why parliament/funkadelic got dismissed as a novelty band by some. They have always tackled awkward subjects in their lyrics as well as the funny stuff. Pfunk could do it all.

they dressed silly.

I never understood why parliament/funkadelic got dismissed as a novelty band by some.

I agree with you, but have you ever seen the movie PCU? see also 90s college-age hippies in general

Nope, i havent.

P-Funk is Super Stupid. it's a pearls before swine thang

Someone (not me) made a playlist of all the tracks of the original Pleasure album (no bonus tracks) on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=ACE351A24AC085D5

nice.

Unfortunately, the sound on Youtube is little too tinny for my tastes. Obviously, this album would sound tons better with may more bass to it.

yup

I really hope everyone will make the effort to listen to the Mandrill. If you check the cough in the 1st post you might get a nice surprise..

you might find your way to somewhere that has goodies on the menu on the right hand side

It's quite easy. If you know what you're doing.

listened to the Mandrill this morning. Pretty good, altho I can't say anything leapt out at me (well, apart from the nuttiness of Universal Rhythms). The songs are almost proggy in terms of how restless the arrangements are - they rarely settle into a groove for long, and they eagerly hop around from fuzz-rock to latin percussion breakdown to horn-centered jazz riffing to slippery soul. Even so, the playing is pretty insane, especially the bass and gutiar work, and you can hear them getting fairly loose here and there which is nice.

but I dunno, hooks are not their strong suit. or something.

you cant say that about Ape Is High

I hope the mandrill youtubes didn't scare some dude off

"Golden Baboon" of the Mandrill album sounds like theme music to a Kung-Fu actioner.

Found the Mandrill to be Wuite jazz-fusion in places, and a couple tracks heavy with rock/psych-rock guitar, and in between some spirituality vibes and flutes ish.

'salrigt but def glad to have come across The Ohio Players.

Gonna listen to Funkadelic again tomorrow.

By "wuite" I mean "quite"

(Honkey on the Baboon) Tannenbaum Schmidt | 00:36 23 April 2010

Ape is High is probably the best track on there (no wonder they lead off with it), just saying that catchiness/hooks was not what this band was about.

The Funkadelic album flies all over the shop, it's awesome! More varied than the other Funkadelic albums I've heard "Jimmy's..." sounds exactly like Zappa, "Sexy Ways" is somewhere between Stax and Al Green on lots of acid, Alice in my Fantasies is all garage punk funk. Only a couple of tracks have the typical "like early RHCP, but funky and good" sound I associate with Funkadelic - "Standing...", "Red Hot Momma"...

It confirms this feeling I've had for a while that Funkadelic was more *interesting* than Parliament, which is not entirely the same thing as "better".

hah, I guess there's enough volunteers/interest to start a Funk/Soul/Black Acid Rock/Jazz-Funk Listening Club

Anyone else wanting to volunteer?

26 August 2013 - Pfunkboy
2 September - Tom Violence
9 September - Viceroy