July
12th marks the 50th anniversary of Funkadelic’s third album, and last
with its original lineup, Maggot Brain, released on this day in 1971.
The
P-Funk axis is fundamentally known for it’s party anthems and their
upbeat attitude infused with social conscience woven into intricate
narratives. Within that landscape, Maggot Brain, a title believed to
reference George Clinton’s discovery of his murdered brother, stands as
the darkest, dankest, deepest well of apocalyptic despair and anger ever
put forth by Clinton and his cohorts. Not that it doesn’t bring the
grooves when it wants to, but those moments are book-ended by two
mammoth slabs of sound that anchor the album in the very earth that
buries the screaming head on its cover. From its music to its graphics
to its themes, the “funketeers” never got heavier than this LP. It even
featured liner notes lifted from the pseudo-Satanic religious cult, The
Process Church of the Final Judgement. This is psychedelic acid-funk
where you’re gonna need some counseling after your trip.
The
album opens with a brief narration from Clinton where he states, “…I
knew I had to rise above it all or drown in my own shit”, setting the
stage for a 10 minute dirge of an instrumental title track focused
squarely on Eddie Hazel’s mournful guitar histrionics. For most of the
song, Clinton drops out nearly all of the backing instruments so that
Hazel is left in the void of his grief, encouraged by Clinton to imagine
how he’d feel to learn of his mother’s death. It’s a lonely, desolate
beginning to the album, but also one of the most profoundly emotive
pieces of music ever put to tape.
From there, the album kick
into gear with some furious funky grooves until we get to the other end
of the spectrum with the closing track, Wars of Armageddon, another near
10 minute epic which layers breakneck rhythms with a collage of sounds
effects and voices, creating a cacophony of chaos. From beginning to
end, it’s almost as if the album is a run through the “stages of grief”,
with the finale reveling in the madness, and accepting our doom with
one final apocalyptic explosion. The journey from there to here is
fraught with anger, revulsion and frustration and perfectly reflects the
cultural state of the times while still remaining relevant to current
issues.
It’s an album of outrage and desperation and it’s not
surprising that it marked the end of Funkadelic’s first phase of
existence. Three of the core members ended up departing after it’s
completion for various reasons. Some financial, but drugs were at the
root of others. In the case of guitarist Tawl Ross, he reportedly got
into an "acid eating contest, then snorting some raw speed, before
completely flipping out" and has not performed since! What was left
behind with their first three albums: Funkadelic, Free Your Mind… and
Maggot Brain, is a legacy of psychedelic funk that remains a watershed
canon of music for Clinton & crew and R&B music in general.
