Day After Day #236: Maggot Brain

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Hit It and Quit It (1971)

I've already written about the wild and wooly career of George Clinton and his bands Parliament and Funkadelic, but that time I focused on a Parliament classic. This time around, I'm looking at Funkadelic, which played cosmic heavy funk rock (as opposed to the horn-drenched R&B of Parliament). 

Amazingly, Clinton was releasing both Parliament and Funkadelic albums just about every year in the '70s with a rotating cast of musicians, and then touring as Parliament-Funkadelic. For the first three albums, the core group included Clinton, keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell and guitarist Eddie Hazel. 

The band leaned into psychedelic funk on its third album, 1971's Maggot Brain, which features a wide range of styles, from Sly Stone-esque funk ("Can You Get to That") to Hendrix-inspired hard rock ("Super Stupid") to psycho freak outs ("Wars of Armageddon"). On "Hit It and Quit It," Worrell takes the lead vocals, aided by some supremely funky backup singers. The album captures the turmoil of the Vietnam-era early '70s.

Maggot Brain kicks off with the epic title track, a trippy 10-minute guitar instrumental featuring Hazel's mournful wailing. It starts with Clinton intoning solemnly.

"Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time/For y'all have knocked her up/I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe/I was not offended/For I knew I had to rise above it all/Or drown in my own shit."

The remaining 10 minutes features a guitar tour de force from Hazel, recorded in one take. Tripping on acid, Clinton asked Hazel to play as though he had just learned his mother died, and man, Hazel really wrings the emotion out of every note. Clinton faded out the other musicians on the track to highlight Hazel's playing, adding some delay effects. The result is one of the greatest guitar songs of all time, a true face-melting classic.

The song, and Hazel, have influenced countless guitarists, including Prince, Dean Ween, John Frusciante, Vernon Reid and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. On Mike Watt's terrific Ball-Hog or Tugboat album, J Mascis plays an impressive cover of "Maggot Brain."

Hazel quit Funkadelic later in 1971 over financial disagreements, but he contributed to several Clinton-led projects over the next decade. He died in 1992 at age 52 from internal bleeding and liver failure.

Now in his 80s, Clinton has kept the P-Funk train rolling after all these years with an assortment of younger players. He moved away from the guitar-heavy sound of Funkadelic and leaned into R&B and hip hop in recent decades, but Maggot Brain remains a testament to a supreme melding of funk and rock.

Day After Day #100: Me Myself and I

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Me Myself and I (1989)

It's always a momentous year right before the move into a new decade, but 1989 was an interesting year for music as well. Just as alternative rock was moving more into the mainstream, hip hop was evolving, too. Gangsta rap was emerging with NWA and Ice-T, political rap was in the forefront with Public Enemy and party rap remained strong with new voices like Digital Underground. There was also a move to a more positive sound, which was led by De La Soul.

A trio out of Long Island, De La Soul was formed in high school by Kelvin "Posdunos" Mercer, David "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur and Vincent "Maseo" Mason. They used a ton of interesting samples; in addition to James Brown and George Clinton (who were sampled by everybody), De La Soul sampled songs by Hall and Oates, Johnny Cash, Steely Dan, Eric Burdon and War, Liberace, the Turtles, Steve Miller Band, Kraftwerk, Billy Joel, the Monkees and the Rascals. In fact, they used so many samples that their back catalog wasn't available for download or streaming until last year, when a deal was worked out over the sample royalties.

They rapped about peace and positivity, which led some to call them hippies, which they pushed back on. De La Soul often rapped about D.A.I.S.Y, which stood for "Da Inner Sound, Y'all," and referred often to the Daisy Age. The group's first album, 3 Feet High and Rising, came out in February 1989 and was an immediate hit. 

De La Soul's sound and aesthetic was so original when it came out because they defied hip hop convention by avoiding tough guy poses and posturing, instead embracing wonder and weirdness. The album also introduced the concept of skits between songs, which has since become commonplace and somewhat annoying.

"Me Myself and I" was the fifth single released off 3 Feet High and Rising. The main sample came from Funkadelic's "(Not Just) Knee Deep," a 15-minute funk jam from 1979. 

"Mirror, mirror on the wall/Tell me, mirror, what is wrong?/Can it be my De La Clothes/Or is it just my De La Soul?/What I do ain't make believe/People say I sit and try/But when it comes to being De La/It's just me, myself and I."

De La Soul used the song to respond to being called the hippies of hip hop, noting that they weren't just a gimmick.

"Now you tease my Plug One style/And my Plug One spectacles/You say Plug One and Two are hippies/No we're not, that's pure plug bull/Always pushing that we formed an image/There's no need to lie/When it comes to being Plug One/It's just me, myself and I."

The song went to #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Dance Club Songs, Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts. It also went to #1 in the Netherlands, where a TV station had made a documentary about the group when they were unknowns.

The album also spawned hits with "Say No Go" and "The Magic Number." Critics also lauded the album, which placed on numerous best-of lists for the year and for all time. De La Soul has had a successful career, collaborating with Mos Def, Gorillaz, Yo La Tengo and many others. 

Sadley, Trugoy the Dove died in 2023, just before the release of all of De La Soul's music on streaming services. The surviving members have continued to tour, opening for Wu-Tang Clan and Nas last fall.

Day After Day #19: Flash Light

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Flash Light (1977)

Coming off the psychedelic end of the '60s, the 1970s were a lot of things: Messy, sweaty, wild and wooly. It was the Me Decade. After decades of repression and conservatism, people were just doing whatever they felt like. 

One of those people was a songwriter named George Clinton, who started out as a doo wop singer in the '50s and was a staff songwriter for Motown in the '60s before eventually forming two groups in 1970: Parliament and Funkadelic. With a rotating cast of musicians, Clinton explored different sides of funk. Parliament was horn-driven R&B while Funkadelic played psychedelic guitar-heavy funk rock. Each act released albums but they would tour as a combined group called Parliament-Funkadelic, or P-Funk. The group included some amazing players including Eddie Hazel, Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell, Fred Wesley, Garry Shider and many more.

Throughout the '70s, Clinton explored a space-themed "funkology" with recurring characters like Dr. Funkenstein and Sir Nose d'Voidoffunk, and concepts involving UFOs, Afrocentric themes and of course, feeling the funk. The P-Funk stage show included an actual spaceship that would drop from the ceiling and upwards of 20 people on stage at any given time. Sure, disco was in full effect in the mid- to late '70s, but P-Funk was way beyond that. There was a lot there and it could be overwhelming at times, but the mission statement was clear: Free your mind and your ass will follow.

One of Parliament's biggest hits was "Flash Light" from the 1977 album Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome. The album closer details how the group defeats the evil Sir Nose d'Voidoffunk by getting him to dance. "Most of all he needs the funk/Help him find the funk."

The song features a supremely funky bass line that many assume is played by Bootsy Collins, but it's actually played by Worrell on synths. Clinton handles lead vocals on the song, which hit #1 on the R&B charts and #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has been sampled more than 60 times, including by Digital Underground, Salt-N-Pepa and Aaliyah.

By the early '80s, there was plenty of legal confusion from the multiple band names and groups, so Clinton dissolved Parliament and Funkdadelic as official groups. But he continued to release albums and tour under the name George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars. Parliament was reunited in 2018 to release a new album, Medicaid Fraud Dogg.

I didn't discover P-Funk until the '80s and didn't see Clinton until 2018 when he brought the show to the Cabot Theater in Beverly, Mass. He was 77 at the time and did most of his performing sitting in a chair, but the band was tight and the show was terrific.

But if you want to get a real sense of the P-Funk insanity, go on YouTube and watch some of their live performances from 1970s. It's just amazing stuff, super-tight extended jams, crazy costumes and all. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to be in the audience for one of those shows, but I do know it was pure, uncut funk. 

Lock It Up

I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent individual. But every once in a while, I do something so incredibly stupid it confounds me. Tonight I drove into Harvard Square to meet up with some folks from the Notch Session running team, which I ran with recently in the Vert Sasquatch trail race. I pull into the same parking garage I always use, get my stuff together, open the door, lock it and start walking to the elevator. Then I notice that I don't have my keys. I go back to the car and sure enough, they're still in the ignition. At least the car wasn't running, but holy crap, what an awful feeling.

I've only locked my keys in my car once before, sometime around 1990 when I had driven my brother back to Dartmouth for the semester. We were done moving his stuff in and I was about to leave when I noticed my keys were locked in my Hyundai. A campus security guy was able to open my door with a "slim jim" and I was on my way, but it was kinda humiliating.

So it's been 22 years since it last happened. I was kind of shocked at first, wandering around looking for a cop. I finally found one and asked him if he could jimmy the lock, but apparently they don't do that anymore because people sued after their cars were damaged. I called AAA and waited for another half hour or so before the owner of the falafel shop next to the garage suggested I ask the garage attendant, who sure enough was able to open my door in about a minute.

I was able to make it for the last half hour of the get-together, so the night wasn't a total loss. I suppose I should be happy my bouts of stupidity are few and far between. Here's hoping it's another 22 years before I do it again.

Hit It and Quit It

This originally ran in Cold as Ice, the column I co-write for Popblerd.

The current saga of Peyton Manning, the surefire Hall of Fame quarterback who’s planning to continue his playing career despite a serious neck injury, certainly resonates with fans of the NHL. Not so much the specific injury, but the situation. When is the right time for an athlete to retire?

The NHL has seen several versions of this scenario play out in recent years. Most notably, the case of Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, the league’s best player, who has been out of action for more than a year with concussion issues. He returned to action briefly in November and lasted eight games before taking a few more hits to the head and shutting it down again. Crosby has been biding his time until he feels right again and has been cleared to return as early as this weekend, but one wonders if the 24-year-old, who has already won a Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal, should just retire instead of risk another serious brain injury.

The NHL has lost many players who were forced to retire or take long absences over the last two decades because of concussion-related issues: Eric Lindros, Pat Lafontaine, Marc Savard, Chris Pronger, and Keith Primeau, among many others. Hockey is a full-contact sport played at high speed, and its players are faster and stronger than ever before, which can lead to intentional and unintentional collisions that result in concussions (and that’s not to mention the occasional fight). Sure, the players are clad head to toe in bulky helmets and pads, but a hard hit just ends up rattling a player’s brain around in his skull, regardless of the helmet.

In the last few years, the NHL has targeted so-called head shots, assessing penalties or suspensions for hits that are deemed to be directed at a player’s head. Awareness of the issue has been raised, even if the number of incidents has yet to decline. Some argue that the equipment itself is to blame; most players didn’t wear helmets until the ‘80s and anecdotal evidence suggests there were fewer concussions when players went helmetless. Of course, back then, players would play through concussion symptoms and not admit that anything was bothering them.

Even now, that bravado creeps into the game. The NHL has a set protocol that teams must follow if a player is suspected of having a concussion. But in December, Toronto’s Colby Armstrong waited nearly 48 hours before informing the team he was feeling nauseous from a collision. More than likely Armstrong, who has missed substantial amounts of the last two seasons because of various injuries, didn’t want to be sidelined again and kept his mouth shut, but it was obviously a foolish decision.

Another sad example is the story of Boston’s Marc Savard, a talented forward who in March 2010 was the victim of a nasty blindside hit by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke. Savard recovered in time for the playoffs a month later, but the following January, he sustained a second concussion in a game against Colorado and the team shut him down. More than a year later, Savard still has not played another game and likely won’t ever again, although he hasn’t retired yet.

The concussions sustained by Crosby, meanwhile, have placed renewed focus on the issue. Last season, the Pittsburgh captain was on his way to the best regular season in several years until he suffered hits to the head in games on January 1 and 5. The concussion symptoms he suffered drew even more scrutiny to the seeming preponderance of hits to the head in the league.

Meanwhile, some have suggested Crosby not risk his health any further by playing. It’s a difficult position to be in. If you were Crosby and had the skills to be the best player in the game, would you walk away so easily? Putting aside the fact that Crosby is earning $9 million this season (his contract runs out in 2013), wouldn’t you want to exhaust every possibility of resuming your career before you called it quits? Then again, would you want to risk playing hockey when one hit could leave you incapacitated for the rest of your life? These are the questions Crosby is wrestling with on a daily basis, and it’s a position that nobody envies.

Completely Conspicuous Episode 51: Super Stupid

In the latest installment of CompCon, I take a look at stupidity in its many forms. Download it directly here (right click and "save as") if you don't already subscribe.

The show notes...

Topics:
- Eliot Spitzer gets stupid
- Fake memoirs
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- British Sea Power - No Lucifer
- The Raveonettes - Dead Sound
- Bauhaus - International Bullet Proof Talent
- Grand Archives - Torn Blue Foam Couch
- Funkadelic - Super Stupid

Promo:
- New England Podcasting.

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast Pickle podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!

The song from British Sea Power is on their new album Do You Like Rock Music? on Rough Trade Records. The song from The Raveonettes is on their new album Lust Lust Lust on Vice Records (not Sony, as I misspoke in the show). Both songs are courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.

The song from Bauhaus is on the new album Go Away White on Red Eye Distribution; find out more at . The song was provided by IODA Promonet:

Bauhaus
"International Bullet Proof Talent" (mp3)
from "Go Away White"
(Cooking Vinyl)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album



The Grand Archives song is on the band's new album The Grand Archives; the song is courtesy of Sub Pop Records, where you can find out more and download the song.

The Funkadelic song is on the classic album Maggot Brain on Westbound Records. Buy the CD here.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of Mark Campbell.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.