Better Funkadelic album, Standing on the Verge.. or Maggot Brain?

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Which is it?

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm listening to Tales of Kid Funkadelic right now, but it's not their best.

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Does it have Doctor Funkenstein on it? Or am I thinking of another album?

― webcrack (music=crack), Sunday, 15 December 2002 02:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Maggot Brain is my all time favorite, but it's followed closely by the first self titled album, "Free Your MInd...", and the first Parliament album "Osmium"

― JasonD (JasonD), Sunday, 15 December 2002 02:34 (twenty-three years ago)

America Eats Its Young. (But between those two, yeah, Maggot Brain.)

― Matt C., Sunday, 15 December 2002 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the first one best, aktually. I like the muddy sound, the slurred-sounding playing, and "Mommy, what's a Funkadelic" is my favourite track.

― Pashmina, Sunday, 15 December 2002 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

the best Funkadelic album is America Eats Its Young

this album is a frickin MASTERPIECE.

George Clinton's great statement. One of the greatest African-American artworks of the 20th century. Fuckin believe it. Bernie Worrell never sounded better. The instrumental arrangements on this record -- "You Hit the Nail On the Head", "A Joyful Process", "Lucifer" -- are absolutley off the hook.

"our countries ... and our cities .. they have been betrayed ... for money"

George Clinton.

The man is a god to me. God bless him. His problems depress the hell out of me. Also he's a MICHIGAN guy. I know GC is probably sitting up there in Brooklyn rooting for Sparty. God bless ya, GC.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 08:08 (twenty-one years ago)

in 2 days time I will be seeing him live, I believe Bernie Worrell will be coming as well, alas no Bootsy

― mentalist (mentalist), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 08:16 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, please report back with a review, mentalist!! I think George is still a good performer; last time I saw the group was about 8 years ago to be truthful, but they still slayed. Michael Hampton was still on guitar and they did "Maggot Brain" and Hampton sounded great and Garry Shider came out in the diaper and it all kind of ruled so I dunno. I think you will probably have a good time. Just don't go into thinking you're gonna see prime-era parliafunkadelicament, and you should still have a blast... Please report back!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 08:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Funny but "America Eats Its Young" is probably my least favourite "rock band" era Funkadelic album

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Dadaismus (: (:

we usually agree on so much...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

We do?!?!???

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought so!! then again I guess you hate Bailey and Braxton, don't you? so perhaps not. basically if you hate an african-american jazz musician then yeah I will probably hate you for your opinion! but I actually thought we jibed most of the time. i dunno.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe! Don't hate either Braxters or Delboy.

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I will also be seeing him on Thursday. Apparently he's going to be doing a
4-hour plus set.

― Seuss, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 11:08 (twenty-one years ago)

On the original question I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Standing on the Verge", it's one their most consistent albums but it does have 12 minutes of "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts", which is 12 minutes of a failed attempt to redo "Maggot Brain".

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Standing on the Verge", of course, is the ONLY Funkadelic album where Eddie Hazel wrote all the songs!

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

"little miss muffet sat on a tuffet
smokin' some THC
along came a spider and sat down beside her
and said WHAT'S IN THE BAG BITCH?"

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I will do, I saw him two years ago as well which was somewhat of a dream come true, they even celebrated his birthday with orange poppyseed cake on stage. It's great to see he's come back so quickly, the audience obviously gave enough of it up to warrent a speedy return. I just hope he stays away from them crack pipes, at his age it really is not a wise thing to do (not that it is at any age).

― mentalist (mentalist), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 14:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Maggot Brain: Easily the best first 2/3 of any rock OR funk album of the 1970s, but goes way overboard with "Wars of Armageddon". "Super Stupid" is better than 80% of any song written by Led Zeppelin, 90% better than any song written by Black Sabbath, and 250% better than any song written by Grand Funk Railroad.
America Eats Its Young: Just falls short of sustaining a double LP but way too much for just a single record. Actually "We Hurt Too" is probably the only track that doesn't work, so it's not exactly boated and overlong. I am probably alone in considering "That Was My Girl" one of the three best tracks. I am almost definitely alone in considering this better than Exile on Main Street (my 2nd favorite double LP of '72).
Standing on the Verge of Getting It On: Locked in a mortal battle with America... for my favorite first-half-of-the-'70s P-Funk effort. Comparable to Maggot Brain in that the first 2/3 are brilliant ("I'll Stay" is devastating; the title track is one of their best dance songs; "Alice In My Fantasies" is in their hard rock top 3), but it has a better ending ("Jimmy's Got A Little Bit of Bitch In Him" is a hoot and "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" is as good as one could hope from a "Maggot Brain" reprise with psych-religious lyrics).

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

What about Britney's cover of Funkadelic's "Red Hot Mama" ?

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

That's better than all of the rest put together.

― Haha no it isn't. I'll take Maggot Brain probably. (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Nate's right that it kind of falls apart a bit by the end, but it's still more consistent than America and except for maybe the title track better than Standing. All three are great (as is pretty much everything these guys were doing during this period.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Uh...damn, this is pretty hard, but I'm gonna have to go with Standing as probably my favorite Funkadelic album period, with America and Maggot Brain coming in as very, very close seconds. It's just that I honestly can't find one thing wrong with Standing...I don't really think "Good Thoughts Bad Thoughts" is a poor "Maggot Brain" impression at all, other than that it's a long psychey guitar song. Also "I'll Stay" is probably their best ballad ever.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

No love here for "Cosmic Slop"?

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I am probably alone in considering "That Was My Girl" one of the three best tracks.

NO YOU ARE NOT!

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Funny but "America Eats Its Young" is probably my least favourite "rock band" era Funkadelic album

sorry stormy, but i'm gonna have to agree with this. it's the only pfunk album i've actually sold back (and i've got some of the stinkers). it was a long time ago, long before my recent pfunk ADDICTION. i remember it being too sweet or something. overproduced. what could i have been thinking, i mean, it's still from the 70s so how could it sound overproduced in the way i don't like (meaning current)?

back when i wrote what i wrote upthread i didn't really like the disco aspect of pfunk yet, and now i think i almost like it more.

my current funkadelic album by far is One Nation Under a Groove, a perfect blend of the fuzzed out rock and danceable funk.

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

but because i've seen your posts on this album so much lately, stormy, i'll pick it up again. i pretty much trust your tastes

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

haha, that dave q thread threw me for a loop one time

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd vote for America... too, but out of the original 2 choices I reckon Maggot Brain shades it. I think it's underfunked, but there's something slightly Zappa-esque about a couple of the tracks on Standing... that slightly niggles me. This is all relative, obviously, cos they're all awesome albums.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

FWIW, I find "America" to be ponderous, portentous and proggy - tho it's obviously brilliant in places

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Interestingly it sounds much more like a follow-up to "Osmium" than it sounds like a Funkadelic album

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I see yr point dada, but there's not much proggy about "Everybody's Going To Make It" or "We Hurt Too" or "Loose Booty".

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Well it's not all bad!

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

That ponderous portentous proggy triumvirate confused me when I first heard Maggot Brain. I was like "HELLO?!? FUNK?!?!?"

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

No love here for "Cosmic Slop"?
That's my personal fave, probably. Of the two I have to pick from, Maggot Brain gets the edge. Can you get to that?

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

George is great on GTA: San Andreas. I been listening to The Bounce all week.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Standing on the Verge by a long shot. I like "Good Thoughts" better than "Maggot Brain." "Fly on children. So long, whitey."

― steve hise, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess I would go with Maggot Brain but like most here I would go with America Eats Her Young or Free Your Mind... over either.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I get more things done around the house if it's Standing On the Verge... on the player, but Maggot Brain remains to this day one of the 5 most fluid, natural beginning-to-end album tracklist progressions that this particular cowboy has ever heard, with "Wars of Armaggeddon" the integral climactic closer.

That being said, "Standing On the Verge..." is probably my favorite Funkadelic song, one of the few songs left that, in the odd chance it shows up on late night college radio, for which I will punch the ceiling of my poor car and howl out the window like a dog with its balls caught in a vice grip.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Christ, Stormy, I've been listening to "America..." and little else for the last 4 days now! Damn right it'sa masterpiece, just yer typical "sprawling double album" (indeed better than "Exile", Nate!)and a totally atypical Funkadelic LP. (First Funkadelic LP not led off with a George Clinton basso-profundo recitation!) Horns and strings and steel guitars and melodica everywhere. Bernie Worrell is the alltime master of the wah-wah clavinet. Glorious listening (tho still no more than my 3rd or 4th personal favourite Funkadelic joint)

(One question: Did they really think that little boinging instrument was called a "juice" harp? Or did they think "Jew's harp" was an inaccurate & vaguely anti-Semitic slang term?)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I like "Good Thoughts" better than "Maggot Brain."

Malfunction... malfunction... does not compute!

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

"Verge" vs "Maggot"? > The latter, since "Good Thoughts Bad Thoughts" does kinda meander a bit. (Still probably my favourite LP from 1974.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i like hardcore jollies.

one nation is easily the worst. electric spanking is underrated.

― charleston charge (chaki), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Dada,
didn't you just miss an opportunity to say "No compute"?

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Between the two, Standing On The Verge. No problems with Maggot Brain at all, except I just don't listen to it as often as Standing.

Let's Take It To The Stage, One Nation Under A Groove, and Cosmic Slop would also rank just as high.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

one nation is easily the worst.

No compute

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

one nation is easily the worst.

YEAH, HOLY FUCK, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Did they really think that little boinging instrument was called a "juice" harp? Or did they think "Jew's harp" was an inaccurate & vaguely anti-Semitic slang term?

Uh, some people do call it that since the term "jew's harp" is a little more than vaguely anti-semitic. Also known as a jaw harp. How is the anti-semitism there at all vague?

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Explain to me why jew's harp is anti-Semitic?

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Does the "Jew's Harp" name come from supposed associations of Jews and meanness? If you weren't aware of that stereotype or didn't twig to it you might be blissfully unaware of what was anti-semitic about the name.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

It was originally jaw harp, for obvious reasons, don't know why it became jew's harp but I don't think the reasons are all the sinister

― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always assumed it was "Jew's Harp" because it was a small, cheap thing, therefore tying in with the meanness stereotype.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm, I thought the implication was that it was a "cheap" instrument but maybe I was totally wrong. http://www.jewsharpguild.org/history.html

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

From The Living Tradition:

"There are considerable hang-ups regarding the name. Its origins are obscure, with one theory that it was a common item of Jewish peddlers, although there is no evidence that the Jewish race either invented it or use it as part of their culture. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 1543 is the earliest recorded date. They quote from Rates of Customs which mentions "Iues trounks the gross" - "trounks" being a spelling of "trumps", the name by which the instrument was known prior to the end of the 16th century, and still is in Ireland and Scotland. This would seem to give credence to the peddler story. There is, however, another possibility. In the Northeast of England it is called a ‘gew-gaw’. "This could be related to the Swedish munngiga and the German (Saar region) maulgeig. Gewgaw also means a cheap bauble’ the Norwegian equivalent being jugil. Phonetically, the Northumbrian pronunciations of gewgaw’ and Jew’s harp’ are not far removed" . Basically, nobody knows. There are suggestions that the instrument should be repackaged in the English language under its original name of "Trump"."

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Does it have Doctor Funkenstein on it? Or am I thinking of another album?

-- webcrack (signon2...), December 15th, 2002 9:15 PM.

that's Parliament. i like their records better, the song "Chocolate City" is genius.

― amon (eman), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Christ, did I ever derail this thread! Sorry folks. I'd never seen "juice harp" anywhere, ever, except in the AIIY liner notes.
Googling reveals about 5000 matches, compared to 16000 for "jaw harp" and 27000 for "jew's harp". Doesn't really appear to be racist; and I never would've brought it up if I thought it was.
Anyway, nobody seems to mind the term "Scotch tape", a brand name
that was TOTALLY racist in origin:

http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow_scotchtape.htm

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, i just looked in my collection and i have 18 parliament, funkadelic and side project cds and records and i dont have "Standing on the Verge". uh, guess i should go pick it up

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a no-brainer. Or perhaps I'd better say, a no-compute-r.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

For anyone (like me) who doesn't have the albums, dustygroove.com claims that remastered versions of the Westwood albums with bonus tracks are due out April 25.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean Westbound of course.

Or did Vivian Westwood have another phase of her career I never knew about?

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean Vivienne of course.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

no compute, either, on "worst"="One Nation." I think it's easily the best. I have love for "Electric Spanking" too, one that I think is commonly derided? Anyway, I prefer "Standing on" to "Maggot Brain." I like the later Funkadelic stuff better, altho I dig the guitar, obviously, on those earlier albums...

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

FUCK FUCK FUCK.. why doesn't Westbound Records have a fucking detailed newsletter about the reissues and what are going to be one it??

*wondering if I should sell off my current CDs now to make way for the reissues or not.. the bonus tracks may be worthless, as could the remastering, though I doubt the latter*

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I meant Westbound.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

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