Maggot Brain - Funkadelic

“Maggot Brain” came out in 1971 as the third album from the George Clinton-led Funkadelic. It sees just as with earlier albums both here, and as Parliament, you find the same line-up with Tiki Fulwood on drums, Billy Bass Nelson as the bassist, Eddie Hazel on lead guitar and the Parliaments (Clinton, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, Grady Thomas and Ray Davis) for the vocals (in addition to many other contributing with lesser roles coming with some Psychedelic ...
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Getting things underway you have a highly emotive one which sees Hazel straight ripping it with a guitar solo as he attempts to convey the emotions of his mother’s passing through what he can on the guitar (complete with wah-wah techniques), and the results are something which you just can’t argue with. As it does just tear you apart, and has them show how effective their Soul work is (even without vocals).

**Five Stars**
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“Maggot Brain” came out in 1971 as the third album from the George Clinton-led Funkadelic. It sees just as with earlier albums both here, and as Parliament, you find the same line-up with Tiki Fulwood on drums, Billy Bass Nelson as the bassist, Eddie Hazel on lead guitar and the Parliaments (Clinton, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, Grady Thomas and Ray Davis) for the vocals (in addition to many other contributing with lesser roles coming with some Psychedelic Rock, Funk and Soul.

1. “Maggot Brain”

Getting things underway you have a highly emotive one which sees Hazel straight ripping it with a guitar solo as he attempts to convey the emotions of his mother’s passing through what he can on the guitar (complete with wah-wah techniques), and the results are something which you just can’t argue with. As it does just tear you apart, and has them show how effective their Soul work is (even without vocals).

**Five Stars**

2. “Can You Get To that”

Moving things on from the highly impactful opening track, you see that the mood of the record is shifted towards something much lighter, as it sees that The Parliaments come together (with the bassy Garry Shidder leading), and having them get into something much unlike what you got on other material as it finds that they make the lyrics of the song much more of an prominent feature, and so it shows how well they can balance this with the funky grooves.

**Four Stars**

3. “Hit It And Quit It”

You hear that Bernie Worrell (the usual keyboardist to the band, leading the vocals for this one, and I felt that it made for a big one as it shows them getting quite progressive with their material as they come with something which resembles the sounds of Funk later on in the decade much more than anything else up to this point in their prior material with Hazel’s funky riff guiding it and making it what it is wit the hardcore wah-wahs.

**Five Stars**

4. “You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks”

This one seems to follow on well fro the track prior to it as you hear that the kind of techniques implemented into the track prior to it re carried right through into this one and they allow them to come out with more of this advanced sound which acknowledges the Psychedelic sixties sound, but is seen to take things more towards something unique and original.

**Five Stars**

5. “Super Stupid”

Here you see lots of flow as they get into this one and you see that they come up with an epic track which has them coming up with one of the most complex arrangements which had come out of them up to this point as they make a point of making the Rock aspects much more prominent as they force the style of the drumming and the guitar to fit in with this popular style of Rock in the time and come up with a banger of a track made up of the band working to the best level they can.

**Five Stars**

6. “Back In Our Minds”

Here you see that the mood is clamed somewhat as they come off on of the best tracks form the album and choose to make the lyrics much more of an important aspect of the music. With this, you see that Fuzzy Haskins sings a nice little one about how people have to come together, rather them fighting over things which they don’t have any control over.

**Four Stars**

7. “Wars Of Armageddon”

Bringing things to an early end you have a funky jam session from the band. Just as the opening recording, this lasts for around ten minutes and it has them just showcasing all the sorts of things which they have to offer with each of the instruments and how they can all come together to make amazing things alongside strange sound effects. It is an effective one and typical of them as they have Fulwood holding it together with a consistent percussion backing which hypes them up through the track.

**Five Stars**

Personally, I saw is particular as the best release from Funkadelic (and Parliament) up to this point. It is the most consistent one from them, and in spite of the fact that they do experiment a fair bit with the kind of things they come with for each track, they manage to keep the standards high throughout as they appear to lessen the Psychedelic aspects of the music somewhat.
 

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