Jan 13, 2012

RhoDeo 1202 Grooves

Hello, today's artists have been up to the downslope and carved out their own niche in the globalmusic mind..PPP FFFunk from the start of the seventies onwards they laid their grooves on us, and even, as you can see at the bottom, if i posted several vinylrips 4 years ago (Rhotation Grooves 10 & 20), I think a further and deeper look into their discography is essential. So the coming weeks Fridaynght Grooves will be...

"A Parliafunkadelicment Thang"

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It's back to the Parliament groove again today. The album Up for the Down Stroke was released in 1974, with Chocolate City following in 1975. Both performed strongly on the Billboard R&B charts and were moderately successful on the Pop charts. Parliament began its period of greatest mainstream success with the concept album Mothership Connection (1975), the lyrics of which launched much of the P-Funk mythology. The subsequent albums The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976), Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977), and Motor Booty Affair (1978) all reached high on both the R&B and Pop charts, while Funkadelic was also experiencing significant mainstream success. Parliament scored the #1 R&B singles "Flash Light" in 1977 and "Aqua Boogie" in 1978.

The rapidly expanding ensemble of musicians and singers in the Parliament-Funkadelic enterprise, as well as Clinton's problematic management practices, began to take their toll by the late 1970s. Original Parliaments members Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas, who had been with Clinton since the barbershop days in the late 1950s, felt marginalized by the continuous influx of new members and departed acrimoniously in 1977. Other important group members like singer/guitarist Glenn Goins and drummer Jerome Brailey left Parliament-Funkadelic in the late 1970s after disputes over Clinton's management. Two further Parliament albums, Gloryhallastoopid (1979) and Trombipulation (1980) were less successful than the albums from the group's prime 1975-1978 period.

In the early 1980s, with legal difficulties arising from the multiple names used by multiple groups, as well as a shakeup at Casablanca Records, George Clinton dissolved Parliament and Funkadelic as recording and touring entities.

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The album is considered to be one of the best in Parliament's catalog. It is a loose concept album warning the listener of falling into the 'Placebo Syndrome', which according to George Clinton is consumerism, and listening to disco music, which he saw as a simplification of funk music in attempt to gain commercial success. They simply poured it on for this amazing album, clearly one of its all-time best. At least one band named itself after a lyric -- Urge Overkill, taken from the song "Funkentelechy" itself -- while the amount of times this album has been sampled for the music is uncountable. Besides having an absolutely wonderful name, it contained at least three of the finest Parliament tunes ever, including arguably its signature song. "Flash Light," which closes Funkentelechy on a riotous high, has it all -- a brilliant fake ending, instant singalong value, a synth-bassline to kill for from Bernie Worrell, and so much more.

As the album ends, so too does it begin, with a stone-cold classic -- "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)." Starting with a brisk little guitar figure and beat, it turns into an instant party on all fronts, with great lead vocals and an addictive chorus, the Horny Horns and company hitting the grooves and blasting hard. Worrell's laser noises and shimmering keyboard leads and Cordell Mosson's monster bass squelches send everything all that much more over the top. "Funkentelechy" and "The Placebo Syndrome" both have plenty of goodness as well, while "Wizards of Finance" is an amusing retro diversion, helping make Funkentelechy the highlight it is. The album became Parliament's fourth consecutive gold album and second platinum album.


Parliament - Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (269mb)

01 Bop Gun (Endangered Species) 8:29
02 Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk (Pay Attention - B3M) 10:04
03 Wizard Of Finance 4:23
04 Funkentelechy 10:56
05 Placebo Syndrome 4:20
06 Flash Light 5:46

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Motor Booty Affair was released in late 1978, it contains two of the group's most popular tracks, "Rumpofsteelskin" and "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)" which went to number one on the Billboard Black Singles chart. By this point Parliament was one of the most accomplished and intelligent bands in music. George Clinton's druggy and patently eccentric humor often obscured the enviable musicianship throughout. Motor Booty Affair is no doubt another classic album and the perfect follow-up to 1977's Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome. On Motor Booty Affair, Clinton decides to yuck it up more with a great underwater concept and a few of his stronger alter egos, including the rhythmically challenged Sir Nose D' Void of Funk and his friend Rumpofsteelskin.

The deft and airy "Mr. Wiggles" has Clinton taking on the persona of Wiggles, the "DJ of the affair" as he says: "Mr. Wiggles here on roller skates and a yo-yo/Acting a fool." The hypnotic "Rumpofsteelskin" has a great bassline and inventive and infectious background vocals. The closest thing to a ballad here is the astrologically savvy "(You're a Fish and I'm A) Water Sign." The well-produced "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)" with its handclaps and high-pitched basslines basically set the standards for the sound of R&B in the coming decade. Artist Overton Loyd prepared the cover of Motor Booty Affair. The main release consisted of a gate-fold album cover featuring a pop-up rendition of the city of Atlantis, with Loyd's artwork on the front and back covers.


Parliament – Motor Booty Affair ( 280mb)

01 Mr. Wiggles 6:43
02 Rumpofsteelskin 5:34
03 (You're A Fish And I'm A) Water Sign 4:41
04 Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop) 6:40
05 One Of Those Funky Things 3:45
06 Liquid Sunshine 4:22
07 The Motor-Booty Affair 5:14
08 Deep 9:09

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GloryHallaStoopid was their penultimate album on the Casablanca Records label, and is another concept album which tries to explain that Funk was responsible for the creation of the universe ( P Funk mythology). It reuses samples from previous albums, notably the Mothership Connection and Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome. Though Gloryhallastoopid boasts a couple great songs, "Big Bang Theory" and "Theme from the Black Hole," it's unfortunately one of the least essential Parliament-Funkadelic albums. In particular, the ten-minute "Party People" and the nine-minute "The Freeze (Sizzaleenmean)" rather plod on Shorter songs like "May We Bang You?" are better, but "Big Bang Theory" and "Theme from the Black Hole" are far and away the chief draw to Gloryhallastoopid.


Parliament – GloryHallaStoopid (Pin The Tale On The Funky) (289mb)

01 Prologue 0:47
02 (Gloryhallastoopid) Pin The Tail On The Funky 4:08
03 Party People 10:10
04 The Big Bang Theory 7:13
05 The Freeze (Sizzaleenmean) 9:01
06 Colour Me Funky 4:53
07 Theme From The Black Hole 4:39
08 May We Bang You? 4:43

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

:) I really want to hear this again. Best wishes. Jeff

Anonymous said...

Hi Rho,

I would appreciate it greatly if you could re-up the Flacs of Parliament's Funkentelechy and Motor Booty Affair.

Thank you!

Sam

Anonymous said...

Hi Rho,
Could we get a re-up of these please.
Cheers

Anonymous said...

Thanks