Brett Schewitz Brett Schewitz

#136 Funkadelic, 'Maggot Brain' (1971)

The album opens with a 10-minute trip recorded in one take. Band leader, George Clinton, under the influence of LSD, recorded a monologue over the guitar of Eddie Hazel, who had been told by Clinton to play as if he had been told his mother is dead. In that one song, Hazel gives the performance of a lifetime and it sets the tone for the record. The subsequent tracks are completely different to any of the previous Funkadelic albums we’re heard, or even Parliament, for that matter.

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