Odessa Music: Funkadelic

Funkadelic

05.03.03

Funkadelic came into the life at just the right moment. I was a bit lost - I had left my Michigan sanctuary and had entered the wild northern Californian hippie vortex at seventeen for college - and luckily one of my freshman year neighbors had excellent taste in music. Turns out her introductory dose of Funkadelic in my life was just what I needed to start to make some sense of it all. Some.

And since then, I've been a loyal Funkadelic fan.

Most people collapse Parliament and Funkadelic into one, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. The groups are both the children of funk-father George Clinton (photo), but I still keep them distinct in my head. I'm just more attached to Funkadelic because of silly sentimentality associated with each song.

For an official declaration of how the two groups differ, here's a quote from this site:

Funkadelic albums are heavily guitar-oriented, with lots of solos and instrumental pieces. A lot of the singing was done by the band members themselves. Horns are very rarely heard, and keyboard arrangements were mostly used for fills and melody. Parliament, on the other hand, was used as the main outlet for the five singers. Lots of doo-wop and gospel-influenced vocals, resulting in some beautiful, if occasionally bizarre, harmonies. Horns are prominently heard, with the occasional solo (Mothership Connection almost sounds like a jazz album at times). Keyboards and bass are the dominant instruments, with the guitars being left to drive the riffs. By the time the late 70's hit and the bands had four # 1 singles between them, the two groups started to sound more and more alike, especially when all of the splinter groups started up and everyone recorded stuff for them. The music became less rock oriented and more dance oriented, though at a very high standard in general.

I suppose Parliament is the snazzier of the two. As the baseline for almost every early rap song ever, Parliament is known for the big hits like "Flashlight," "Atomic Dogg," and "We Want the Funk."

But Funkadelic seems to be more varied to my ears. They run the gamut from crazy and funky to slow and mellow. Some of their slower songs I can listen to on repeat for hours, if in the right mood. They'll eventually make their way onto this site, but not today.

Instead, we'll do a well-known Funkadelic song, because it was how I first came to know them. "One Nation Under a Groove" is a toe-tapper, a head-bopper, a damn-why-the-hell-do-I-feel-like-puttin-on-my-dancin-boots piece of genius.

Listen to that percussion. Wild. How many instruments do you think there are total? Honestly. Plus, how can you not like a song that's man lyrics are "One nation under a groove, gettin' down just for the funk of it"? How can you not?

Download it here: download no longer available, contact me to find out how to get it.

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