“Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time.” And thus begins this epic third Funkadelic album of progressive psychedelic funk. Whether George Clinton expected or predicted that 50 years later Mother Earth would be delivering something so monstrously Calibanesque is, as far as I know, unrecorded. But I wouldn’t be surprised. This is a dark intense record with heavy brooding basslines, and something of a fixation on war, death, Armageddon and judgement day. We’re well out of James Brown funk territory. This goes way beyond Afrofuturism freak out, this is the Afro-inspired Apocalypse. The album’s musical legacy largely comes from its 10 minute opening mind-melting emotional onslaught by guitarist Eddie Hazel, outdoing his hero Hendrix in many respects by playing, as Clinton directed, “like his mother had died, to picture that day, what he would feel, how he would make sense of his life, how he would take a measure of everything that was inside him.” Clearly Hazel had a strong emotional connection to his mother. Clinton’s production on this and the other tracks, using Echoplex, and experimenting with other effects at the mixing desk turns this glorious blues guitar solo into something otherworldly. Bookending the album at the end of side two is Wars of Armageddon which is a freeform assault of jamming grooves accompanied by street protest style chants and what sound like airport departure announcements. In between these two pieces are some tight funky pieces like the country-funk (is that even a thing?) of Can You Get To That and the James Brown referencing Hit It And Quit It and the super catchy You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks – all three of which were released as singles. So far, so P-Funk. But if you’d only heard the singles from this album, you’d be missing its true glory. #funkadelic #georgeclinton #pfunk @we_r_pfunk #eddiehazel #maggotbrain #funk #hititandquitit #vinyl #psychedelicfunk #recordcollection #nowlistening #nowplaying #randomrecordreview https://www.instagram.com/p/CG-7IwPJcQ8/?igshid=wehxtqy1008e