#parliaments

Parliaments, 1956

Corrupt Colonial Capitalism UK CA Contains The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction GET OUT OF OUR ECONOMY FOOD BANKS - GET OUT OF OUR PARLIAMENTS UK CA

Peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet United Nations declaration of human rights

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“YOU MUST BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD” Marking 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi 2 October 2020

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https://unitedforclimate.blogspot.com/

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Funkadelic: Cosmic Slop (1973)

I’m still trying to make up my mind about this one ...

Cosmic Slop was Funkadelic’s fifth studio platter and it arrived half a century ago to mixed reviews -- many of them critical of the album’s oddball, genre-bending song selection, but then what else did they expect from the wild, wild world of George Clinton and his colorful troupe?

Could the album’s inconsistencies be blamed on the unusually pared-down line-up on hand: Clinton, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarists Garry Shider and Ron Bykowski, bassist Cordell ‘Boogie’ Mosson, and drummer Tyrone Lampkin (plus the uncredited Mallia Franklin and Debbie Wright on backing vocals)?

Or might they be related to the previous year’s America Eats its Young, which had pushed its luck across four sides of vinyl, and thus left the band scrambling to complete half-baked leftovers (never as good as fully ‘baked,’ if you catch my drift) into a literal Cosmic Slop?

Well, I wouldn’t go to any of those lengths, because I still hear more music I like here than music I do not, specifically ...

Opener “Nappy Dugout” lays down an easy groove that successfully whets the appetite for funky singles (alas, none of them HIT singles) like the title track, “You Can’t Miss What You Can’t Measure” (an old, 1965 Parliaments tune, re-worked), and a Hendrix-redolent semi-rocker called “Trash a Go-Go.”

OK, so both “Let’s Make it Last” and “Can’t Stand the Strain” owe a little too much to Sly and the Family Stone, but I love the twisted country-and-western-backed jive talk of “No Compute,” and I even like the ‘power’ doo wop of “This Broken Heart” (check out that stinging lead guitar).

But the only track I really dislike is the creeping, unnerving “March to the Witch’s Castle,” whereupon a vocally distorted, molasses-slowed George narrates the horrifying plight endured by Vietnam fighters and returning veterans over the familiar strains of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”

Speaking of the lyrics, as per Funkadelic’s M.O., these rarely succumb to romantic banality and several offer a front-row seat to Clinton’s worst nightmares, be they political, racial, or personal, and I’ll use the title track as an example:

“Hear my mother call; I can hear my mother call; Late at night I hear her call; Oh lord, lord I hear her call.

Then the devil sang: ‘Would you like to dance with me? We’re doin’ the cosmic slop’ She was well known through the ghetto; Tricks would come and then they'd go; The neighbors would talk and call her Jezebel; But always with a smile, she was sure to try to hide; The fact from us that she was catching hell, hey!

She says, ‘Father, father it's for the kids; Any and everything I did; Please, please don't judge me too strong; Lord knows I meant no wrong -- Lord!’”

Yowza!

Notably, Cosmic Slop was the first Funkadelic album decorated with the hyper-detailed artwork and liner notes of Pedro Bell, who would go on to design all of the band’s colorful gatefold sleeves from this point forward.

Next up for Funkadelic was their sixth LP, the wonderfully named Standing on the Verge of Getting it On, while the long-dormant Parliament was finally revived via their sophomore classic Up for the Downstroke, on its way to becoming Clinton’s primary vehicle for the latter half of the ‘70s.