{"id":30639,"date":"2026-01-26T05:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30639"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:44:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:44:42","slug":"album-review-funkadelic-funkadelic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/26\/album-review-funkadelic-funkadelic\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Funkadelic – Funkadelic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hearing it today, it\u2019s easy to think of Funkadelic as part of a deep funk tradition. But the thing is, in 1970 when George Clinton\u2019s group released its debut, there was little precedent for their brand of psychedelic funk. Certainly, the music on Funkadelic<\/i> is built on a foundation created by James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone<\/a>, but it\u2019s less the product of those influences than a fully formed work that both owes a debt and stands on its own.<\/p>\n

The music is often constructed around a single riff, a solitary groove, a simple melodic line. But in the hands of these players, that\u2019s more than enough. The music is irresistibly sexy and hypnotic. The eight cuts on Funkadelic<\/i> don\u2019t all even qualify as songs-proper; they\u2019re grooves. The album\u2019s production aesthetic is gauzy and unfocused, and that\u2019s exactly as it should be. The music is equal parts careful construction and free-wheeling jam.<\/p>\n

\u201cMommy, Whats a Funkadelic?\u201d establishes the musical approach, with a rubbery bass line that anchors nine minutes of funkification. Chanted vocal harmonies back Clinton\u2019s spoken-word come-on. \u201cI Bet You,\u201d on the other hand, is in fact a song, and a fine one, too. Co-composed by Clinton\u2019s pal Sidney Barnes<\/a>, the tune is a fantastic blend of super-clever lyrics and an indelible melodic line. The song was memorably covered by Dennis Coffey on his superb self-titled 2011 album<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eddie Hazel\u2019s (or possibly Coffey\u2019s) guitar work on \u201cMusic for My Mother\u201d is sublime and alluring. Bill Nelson\u2019s bass is the track\u2019s center of gravity. The track splits the difference between the groove- and song-based approach of the first two tracks. The album\u2019s shortest cut, \u201cI Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody\u2019s Got a Thing\u201d is a head-nodding guitar groove freakout with chants; it proves yet again that in the right hands, a tune doesn\u2019t need more than one chord.<\/p>\n

Side Two of this new vinyl reissue from Org Music opens with \u201cGood Old Music.\u201d It feels like the soundtrack to whatever cool stuff would have been happening in \u201870, gritty and urban-style. \u201cQualify and Satisfy\u201d somewhat unexpectedly serves up the blues. Its deliberate pace emphasizes the beat, and it\u2019s heavier than Cream or similarly blues-oriented rock acts of the era. The album wraps with \u201cWhat is Soul,\u201d a track that conjures thoughts of Sun Ra. Spacey synth textures and spoken-word passages characterize the tune, as does humor: \u201cSoul is the ring around your bathtub,\u201d we are told.<\/p>\n

Funkadelic<\/i> introduced the world to George Clinton\u2019s unique musical worldview; it would usher in a landmark era of psychedelicized funk-soul. Lots of great music followed in its wake, but for listeners who want to hear where the aesthetic first bloomed, Funkadelic<\/i> is where their minds and ears should go. (And you ass will follow.)<\/p>\n

Org Music\u2019s clear vinyl with multicolor splatters is super-cool, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hearing it today, it\u2019s easy to think of Funkadelic as part of a deep funk tradition. But the thing is, in 1970 when George Clinton\u2019s group released its debut, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,57,65,69,73],"tags":[664,872,3924,3248],"class_list":["post-30639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funk","category-psych","category-review","category-soul","category-vinyl","tag-dennis-coffey","tag-funkadelic","tag-george-clinton","tag-sidney-barnes","cat-31-id","cat-57-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30639"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31418,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30639\/revisions\/31418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}