There were several crucial records, growing up, that opened up whole new musical vistas for me — LPs like A Night at The Opera by Queen, Heavy Weather by Weather Report, the first record by The Clash — but nothing could really match the initial impact made on me by Mothership Connection by Parliament.
I would have been about nine years old when my older sister first brought home a copy of the record. She managed to capture my curiosity by basically suggesting that they were like “the black KISS” (both their label-mates and my heroes, at the time), but one look at the album cover convinced me that there was precious little chance that the music contained within could possibly be boring.
Beyond the endearingly ridiculous sci-fi concept-album narrative and their penchant for indeed-KISS-symmetrical spectacle, the music on Mothership Connection was absolutely nothing short of brilliant. There was just so much going on between Bernie Worrell’s stately pianos and spacey synthesizers, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker's horns, Bootsy Collins' deep, squelchy bass and George Clinton’s surreal and eminently quotable schpiel, but there was a real, sophisticated musicality to all of it. Sure, Parliament were flamboyant goofballs, but they were also a seriously accomplished band. So much so that, unlike several other favorite records of mine, at the time, pretty much everyone in the family was cool with repeated airings of it — no easy feat, that. I still fondly remember my otherwise dependably straight-laced and endearingly stiff step-father whistling along to “Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off The Sucker)” while making breakfast one morning.
While most of my favorite music thereafter would largely gravitate towards a sort of guitar-as-weapon aesthetic, I stuck with Parliament, thrilling to subsequent records like The Clones of Dr. Funkentstein (not quite as seismic as its predecessor, but essential for the inclusion of “Do That Stuff”) and Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome, which contained the crucial “Flash Light.”
If you haven’t experienced these records, you’re really depriving yourself of some of the most joyous, smile-inducing music ever recorded. This is not hyperbole. Surrender to the groove.
I had the very great honor, a few weeks back, of speaking with one of the crucial participants of this era of Parliament and a funk icon in his own right, that being the afore-cited Bootsy Collins. Click here to check it out.
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