Funkadelic CD

Funkadelic's ground-breaking self-titled 1970 debut is laden with great songs, including "I'll Bet You" and "I Got A Thing." This CD contains the original 7 track album (remastered) plus 7 bonus tracks from 1969 (alternate 45 versions and the associated

Funkadelic: Ed Hazel (vocals, guitar); Bill Nelson (vocals, bass); Tiki Fulwood (vocals, drums); George Clinton, Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas, Calvin Simon, Raymond Davis (vocals); Tawl Ross (guitar); Mickey Atkins (organ).
Engineers include: Milan Bogden, Russ Terrana, Ed Wolfrum.
Recorded at Terra Shirma Sound Studios, Detroit, Michigan.
Funkadelic's self-titled 1970 debut is one of the group's best early- to mid-'70s albums. Not only is it laden with great songs -- "I'll Bet You" and "I Got a Thing..." are obvious highlights -- but it retains perhaps a greater sense of classic '60s soul and R&B than any successive George Clinton-affiliated album. Recording for the Detroit-based Westbound label, at the time Funkadelic were in the same boat as psychedelic soul groups such as the Temptations, who had just recorded their landmark Cloud Nine album across town at Motown, and other similar groups. Yet no group had managed to effectively balance big, gnarly rock guitars with crooning, heartfelt soul at this point in time quite like Funkadelic. Clinton's songs are essentially conventional soul songs in the spirit of Motown or Stax -- steady rhythms, dense arrangements, choruses of vocals -- but with a loud, overdriven, fuzzy guitar lurking high in the mix. And when Clinton's songs went into their chaotic moments of jamming, there was no mistaking the Hendrix influence. Furthermore, Clinton's half-quirky, half-trippy ad libs during "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?" and "What Is Soul" can be mistaken for no one else -- they're pure-cut P-Funk. Successive albums portray Funkadelic drifting further toward rock, funk, and eventually disco, especially once Bernie Worrell began playing a larger role in the group. Never again would the band be this attuned to its '60s roots, making self-titled release a revealing and unique record that's certainly not short on significance, clearly marking the crossroads between '60s soul and '70s funk. ~ Jason Birchmeier
Funkadelic's self-titled 1969 debut may not be on the same plateau as the group's later, all-encompassing masterpieces (MAGGOT BRAIN, COSMIC SLOP, etc.), but does serve as the strong foundation upon which their early 70's masterworks were built. Along with Jimi Hendrix's band, Funkadelic is one of the first units to inject funk with hard rock. Whereas funk pioneer James Brown concentrates on creating air-tight, precise grooves, Funkadelic keeps things loose, raw, and groovy. Drug experimentation also plays a prominent role in the band's early work, perhaps never as evidently as on FUNKADELIC.
From the beginning, singer George Clinton has been the band's undisputed leader. He wrote or co-wrote nearly all of FUNKADELIC's seven tracks and also served as the album's producer. Bassist Billy Nelson and guitarist Eddie Hazel are superb instrumentalists, as heard on the slowly evolving "Music For My Mother," the frantic "I Got A Thing," and the album's Motown soul-inflected hit single "I Bet You" (the latter featuring great vocal interplay between all members). And the seeds for such future Funkadelic epics as "Maggot Brain" and "Wars of Armageddon" can be traced to the album's longest compositions, "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?" and "Good Old Music."

Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.110) - "...It's the best blues-influenced, warped acid rock you're likely to hear..."