Date: 1970
Release: WESTBOUND
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One of the few instances where a band’s name totally describes its sound. With their 1970 self-titled debut album, we hear the raw funk rhythms of the Meters collide with the psychedelic soul sounds of Jimi Hendrix, giving rise to the musical revolution that was Funkadelic. A raw and nasty musical manifesto loudly expressing the madness of King George Clinton, founding father to the “extraterrestrial brothers” of Funkadelic and Parliament. This album is designed to answer the one burning question it asks in the title of the first track: “Mommy, What’s a Funkadelic?” Definitive bits of Clinton’s strange take on the universe are to be found throughout this hard-grooving acid-trip of an album, such as “soul is a joint rolled in toilet paper,” and “I got a thing / you got a thing / everybody’s got a thing.”

These random insights give way to moments of more serious reflection, as Clinton confesses, “I once tried to escape this music,” admitting “I was cool / but I had no groove.” All seven tracks are heavily laden with the fuzz guitar of the late-great Eddie Hazel and the thick bass of Bill Nelson, stretching and pulsing to create a truly original sound that set the stage for the 70s and beyond.