The story behind the album "Maggot Brain" by the band Funkadelic
Содержание
"Maggot Brain" is the third studio album by the band Funkadelic, released in July 1971. "Maggot Brain" was the last studio work of the original Funkadelic line-up: shortly after its release, members Towle Ross (guitar), Billy Nelson (bass) and Tiki Fullwood (drums) left the band for various reasons... However, the album was still a fairly satisfactory success: it entered the R&B Top 20 chart and was also widely praised for its 10-minute title track performed by guitarist Eddie Hazel! According to Rolling Stone magazine, "Maggot Brain" is listed as one of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It is also on the list of the best albums of the 70s. We offer to recall its history together....
Brief overview
Finding themselves between towering extremes, Funkadelic have rolled out the kind of soulful funk rock that can fuel world-class parties... It's hard to name a hotter and more confident piece of their studio work than "Maggot Brain". Listening to this album makes you feel like your entire extended family is surrounding you with good vibes at your birthday party... Funkadelic put together sun-weary funk with intricate female and male vocals... It was a new twist to an old sentiment that would be subject to further manipulation with time and genre... "Maggot Brain" opens with a spoken monologue by George Clinton: the Funkadelic leader addresses the "maggots in the mind of the universe". As mentioned above, the main jewel of the album is the 10-minute title track, which, as legend has it, was recorded in just one take! If this legend is to be believed, Clinton approached Hazel and said: "Play it like you've been told your mother is dead..." And Hazel played one of the most soulful solos of his career... Clinton basically took all the other musicians out of the background, thus focusing the listener's attention only on Hazel's guitar. Fuzz and wow-wow techniques, as it's not hard to guess, were inspired by the work of Jimi Hendrix. As a result, the solo amazed not only the listeners, but also the critics, who described it as "an emotional apocalypse of sound"!
Another legend says that the album's title, Maggot Brain, was inspired by Hazel's nickname! A dubious nickname, of course, but... But there is some disagreement: some sources claim that the album got its name "Maggot Brain" in honour of a case when Clinton found a body of a man with a split skull... Creepy! Actually, the cover of this masterpiece is no less terrifying: we can see the head of a black woman, who is screaming and as if getting out of the ground....
By the way: the cover features the not-so-famous model Barbara Cheeseborough.
Track list
The album "Maggot Brain" comprises a total of 7 tracks. First up is the eponymous gem, followed by "Can You Get to That", one of the greatest underrated rock meditations... "Hit It and Quit It" is a deceptively smooth soul track: it starts immediately with an infectious rhythm and a repetitive chorus. The most magnificent element of "Hit It and Quit It" is Tiki Fullwood's rhythm: easy to overlook, but impossible to forget... Closing the first side is "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks", the track with the most samples on "Maggot Brain". The second side opens with "Super Stupid", a track reminiscent of a more rocking version of Jimi Hendrix's work with Band of Gypsys... "Back in Our Minds" is the album's weakest track, while the closing 9-minute "Wars of Armageddon" has been described by critics as a "crazy" jam!
Graduation and success
"Maggot Brain" was released in mid-summer 1971: after its release Funkadelic almost broke up, but their last collaboration was in the R&B Top 20. In 2005, the album was re-released: it included several bonus tracks. Earlier, in 2003, the album was included in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time": "Maggot Brain" was described as "the heaviest rock work of P-Funk's career...". Today, the album is also on the list of "the thousand and one albums you must hear before you die...".
Conclusion...
After the release of "Maggot Brain", Hazel and Nelson left the line-up to work in the much more popular Motown band, The Temptations, reportedly due to dissatisfaction with Funkadelic's financial situation... Fullwood was also unhappy with the pay and left the band. Although Clinton does not mention the problem, many interviews include complaints about his stinginess... Soon Ross left as well... These painful losses were compensated by new members, but... Nevertheless, Funkadelic never again released an album filled with such powerful, deep and unstoppable genius. It was the culmination of the most daring and ingenious sonic ideas! "Maggot Brain" is a new precedent for how black musicians would exist in the context of rock, blending metal, gospel, prog, funk, blues and jazz fusion with carefree virtuosity. This is the epitome of their extravagant virtues and vices... In these seven songs, you can hear Funkadelic attempting to make sense of the turmoil of all time as they express the euphoria and pain of birth to death in the most extraordinary ways.
