Soul Strut 100: # 13 - Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

RAJ

I will slowly be unveiling the Top 100 Soul Strut Related Records as Voted by the Strutters Themselves.

# 13 - Funkadelic - Maggot Brain



The list so far:

# 100 - Jr. and His Soulettes - Psychodelic Sounds
# 99 - Sir Joe Quarterman & Free Soul
# 98 - Donny Hathaway - S/T (1971)
# 97 - Bernard Wright - ???Nard
# 96 - Tom Scott - Honeysuckle Breeze
# 95 - People Under the Stairs - Question in the Form of an Answer
# 94 - Harlem River Drive
# 93 - Black Moon - Enta Da Stage
# 92 - Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear
# 91 - Muddy Waters - Electric Mud
# 90 - Les McCann - Layers
# 89 - Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
# 88 - Leroy Hutson - Hutson (1975)
# 87 - ESG - S/T (1981)
# 86 - Can - Tago Mago
# 85 - Bohannon - Stop & Go
# 84 - WILLIAM DEVAUGHN - Be Thankful For What You Got
# 83 - Power of Zeus - The Gospel According to Zeus
# 82 - Gang Starr - Hard To Earn
# 81 - The J.B.???s - Doing It to Death
# 80 - Parliament - Osmium
# 79 - McNeal & Niles - Thrust
# 78 - The Lafayette Afro Rock Band - Malik
# 77 - Earth, Wind, and Fire (1971)
# 76 - Dr. Dre - The Chronic
# 75 - Black Sabbath (1970)
# 74 - Trap Door / An International Psychedelic Mystery Mix (2006)
# 73 - Bob James - One
# 72 - Matthew Larkin Cassell - Pieces
# 71 - The Beginning Of The End - Funky Nassau
# 70 - Big Bear - Doin??? Thangs
# 69 - Steely Dan - Aja
# 68 - Quasimoto - The Unseen
# 67 - Curtis Mayfield - Curtis/Live! (1971)
# 66 - Al Green - Im still in love with you
# 65 - The Beatnuts - Street Level
# 64 - Archie Whitewater - Archie Whitewater (1970)
# 63 - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Mecca & the Soul Brother
# 62 - Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
# 61 - The J.B.???s - Food For Thought
# 60 - Don Blackman (1982)
# 59 - Niagara - (Tiddies)
# 58 - Can - Ege Bamyasi
# 57 - Whatnauts - On the Rocks
# 56 - The Mohawks - Champ
# 55 - McDonald and Giles (1971)
# 54 - Darondo - Let My People Go
# 53 - Dorothy Ashby - Afro Harping
# 52 - Beastie Boys - Paul???s Boutique
# 51 - Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu of Ethiopia
# 50 - Lyman Woodard Organization - Saturday Night Special
# 49 - Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul
# 48 - Lyn Collins - Think (About It)
# 47 - James Brown - In The Jungle Groove
# 46 - Bill Withers - Still Bill
# 45 - Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
# 44 - Silver Apples - S/T
# 43 - Mobb Deep - The Infamous
# 42 - Lyn Christopher (1973)
# 41 - Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
# 40 - Gang Starr - Step in the Arena
# 39 - Diamond D - Stunts, Blunts, & Hip Hop
# 38 - Terry Callier - What Color is Love
# 37 - David Axelrod - Song of Innocence
# 36 - The Invaders - Spacing Out
# 35 - Leo Sayer - Endless Flight
# 34 - Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
# 33 - DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist - Brainfreeze (Mix)
# 32 - Michael Jackson - Thriller
# 31 - DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
# 30 - De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
# 29 - Ray Barretto - Acid
# 28 - The Sylvers - II
# 27 - Donald Byrd - Places and Spaces
# 26 - Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information
# 25 - Nas - Illmatic
# 24 - The Baby Huey Story - The Living Legend
# 23 - Roy Ayers - He???s Coming
# 22 - Kool and the Gang (album) (1969)
# 21 - Demon Fuzz - Afreaka!
# 20 - Curtis Mayfield - Curtis!
#19 - Eugene McDaniels - Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse
# 18 - Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock
# 17 - Placebo - Ball of Eyes
# 16 - Arthur Verocai - Arthur Verocai (1972)
# 15 - A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
# 14 - S.O.U.L. - What Is It

Please discuss your reactions to this record. The thread will be archived later here.

About

Maggot Brain is the third studio album by the American funk band Funkadelic, released in 1971 on Westbound Records. It was the last album that featured the original Funkadelic lineup; shortly after Maggot Brain was recorded, Tawl Ross, Eddie Hazel, Billy Nelson, and Tiki Fulwood left the band for various reasons. The album incorporates musical elements of psychedelia, rock, gospel, and soul music, with significant variation between each track. Pitchfork Media named it the 17th best album of the 1970s.[2] In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 479 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[3]

hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggot_Brain

Related Threads

this Maggot Brain LP

If you had to put a label on the greatest American Rock ???N Roll band???

What do you think is the greatest Rock ballad of all time?

Funkadelic vs. Parliment???

Media

kala

what can you say that hasn't already been said?
super stupid is the heaviest song known to man.
it still pops up once in awhile in the field but usually in g/vg condition

JectWon

Ahh, I'll never forget the "Play like your Momma just died" story about Maggot Brain. Once you hear that tale, the guitar sounds that much better.

asstro

Awesome album, even if I feel like the title cut is a bit overrated. I mean, it's great emotional playing and all, but 10 minutes of it is too long IMO. That said, "Super Stupid", "Hit It and Quit It", and "Can You Get To That" are three of the greatest rock songs ever.

ppadilha

Wars of Armageddon: best use of fart sounds in a song?

cai

I'm really glad this album is so high in the list.

stratasphere

One of the best Rock albums period. I have copies filed in the Soul and Rock sections.

vinylstalker

In my top ten. I recent revisited this lp after repeated viewings of the Pretty Sweet skate vid. That Sleigh Bells track at the credits, while a bit of fluff, has me listening to this while cooking again.

SIRUS

the best ever. i could listen to a double lp that was nothing but the title track. maybe the best opener of any album ever.

motown67

I know all the heavy rock songs are usually the favs on this album but personally this is mine

asstro

Chuck_Huss

motown67 said:

I know all the heavy rock songs are usually the favs on this album but personally this is mine

The title cut juxtaposed with this song are easily the GOAT opening tracks for an album.

With that said, I llike their self-titled a little better as a whole album - I love origin stories and that record really sets up the Parliament/Funkadelic narrative.

Electrode

SPlDEY

aw man.. I love you guys.

I can't even explain the importance of this album. Unless you've met me in person. Really this is the damn album that made me into the man that I am today... I climbed the mother ship, and never came back. Thank you funk gods for ruining the rest of all music for me with your greatness.

EDDIE HAZEL. EDDIE HAZEL. EDDIE HAZEL.



Seriously, the beers on me tonight fellas. Good job with this one.

- spidey

Horseleech

asstro said:

I cannot get to this.

toby.d

Isn't Little Richard and Chuck more rock and roll or rhythm and blues than rock? Does it matter?

Classic album, haven't put it on for a while but the title track slays me always.

toby.d

Gotcha, never thought of it as a straight rock album myself.

SIRUS

Horseleech said:

asstro said:

I cannot get to this.

i was like, hey this ain't so bad, and then that chick started singing.

Scott

It's worth checking out the 2005 CD reissue for the alternate mix of the title track. The drums are much more prominently featured, which gives the song more structure. Not better, not worse, just a different take on a song you've heard a ton of times.

batmon

handmade_tortillas said:

Why is everyone saying this is the bedt rock albums of all times and filed and stuff. The band is titled funkadelic so I would imagine this to be more in the funk genre than rock. I mean this doesn't sound like little Richard or chuck berry so it's funk?

This is an old debate.

Despite having Funk in their title/name the music still has heavy heavy guitar action and can be labelled Funk or Rock.

Funkadelic was the "Rock-ish" Yin to Parliament's "Soul/Funk/R&B" Yang.

Funk can cover alot of bases.

Is Pete Rock and CL Smooth a Rock band?

p_gunn

Scott said:

It's worth checking out the 2005 CD reissue for the alternate mix of the title track. The drums are much more prominently featured, which gives the song more structure. Not better, not worse, just a different take on a song you've heard a ton of times.

yeah, the old story was the rest of the band was so high that they sounded terrible, so george mixed it down with just eddie and rhythm guitar... i actually think the full band version sounds good, but the stripped down one is def more dramatic and kudos to george for having the foresight to proceed as such...

Electrode

No one has mentioned it here as far as I know, so I might as well:
While searching for magazine cover firsts, I discovered Barbara Cheeseborough ('Essence' in 1970). Turns out that she was the Maggot Brain lady and passed late last year.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=758767464138903&set=a.439426302739689.148770.439421462740173&type=1

Kinetic

I personally don't give a shit about the genre debate: this album rulez so hard. Picked up an Australian pressing of this a month or so back, and was surprised since I had no idea it had a local pressing here.

james

ppadilha said:

Wars of Armageddon: best use of fart sounds in a song?

Don't sleep on Grace Joneses's "J.A. Guys," though.

I was listening to Maggot Brain's title track a couple months ago, because I remembered listening to it a long time ago and thinking it was epic, then listening to it a couple of years ago and feeling let down, so I wanted to check back in on it and see what was what. Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty big Parliament-Funkadelic fan, but I'd kinda stopped hearing this particular record as music, and had come to consider it more as a symbol, if you know what I mean. And so this was one of those periodic relistenings that you give to records like that: done not without affection, necessarily, but probably done out of respect as much as desire.

Anyway, I was struck by how faulty my memory had been: "Maggot Brain" is not an epic song at all. It's actually kinda tiny--rugged, halting, and cheap-sounding. I remembered it as this sustained cosmos-swallowing howl of collpase and rebirth, panoramic and profound, an idea no doubt shaped by what I knew to be the iconic and universally relatable story behind the song. But that doesn't really hold; the idea of Mother might be universal, but your mother, your version of her, is ultimately unknowable to anyone except you. And it's that human-sized mystery that I hear here, not the bullshit universality that "Maggot Brain" so often gets saddled with. It's deeply, deeply personal, an almost unbearably intimate display not of towering masterpiecery, but of the kind of raw small effort that only a kid will make.

No matter what they tell you or what they told me, this song is not some lone afronaut guitar hero singlehandedly mapping an entire universe of blues. This is one dreamy son's long, imperfect kiss into the void. And if it's never as good as I remember, it's always a lot more beautiful. Which I guess makes it even better.