Customer Reviews

Electric Spanking of War Babies

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone who doesn't like this album is slow or lacks a sense of originality.This was a very original cd with a little bit of everything on it.My favorites include funk gets stronger 1 and 2
and the title track.The influence of this album is heard (especially the horns and drumline of funk gets stronger)in a lot of rap music.If you have any taste or sense of originality
buy this album.

it was cool having two of Funks Greatest minds on one Album together The Genius Mind of George Clinton&The Genius Mind of Sly Stone.Electric Spanking of war babies was a trip out jam.The Grooves never let up.this is a Good solid Album.Free Your Mind&Let the Soul-N-Funk Follow.

I purchased this on vinyl when it was two years old and being the PFunk fan that I am, I called every record distributer that I could find that would have this album as it went out of print shortly after it was released in 1981. I found it in NYC for $14.00 which was alot of money when albums were selling for $6.00. Anyways, I opened it, played it and said What the *&^%^* is this? I have listened again over the years to the album and it has not grown on me except for "Oh,I". I like the Parliament version better you need to check out Rodney "Skeet" Curtis. Very Nasty on the Bass Guitar. He added flavor to a sinking Mothership. Although I did not care for this album much, "Oh, I " is what kept me listening. I would not trade my album for all the Funk in the world--It's Still Funkadelic!

When this album first came out (in 1981) I couldn't wait to get it home and play it. Funkadelic's previous LP, 'Uncle Jam Wants You', was okay, but it was more of an advertisement for George's Uncle Jam Records. I figured that this would be a proper Funkadelic album. Needless to say, I was disappointed. Yes, this was a proper Funkadelic album, so to speak, but....it just wasn't the same. The title cut, with it's weird spoken intro, was very good. The next song, "Electro-Cuties", I dunno...at first I thought it was extremely stupid. I've listened to it recently, and I've reconsidered my judgement of it. While it doesn't rate with any previous Funkadelic songs, it isn't as bad as I first thought. "Funk Gets Stronger" is a good, mellow Funk song. "Brettino's Bounce" is alright, reminds me of the old "Kidd Funkadelic" song. "Funk Gets Stronger (Killa Millameter
Version)" was great. Good to hear ol' Sly in action. I don't know why the "She Loves You" snippet was in there. Maybe it was a tribute to John Lennon who died while this LP was being recorded. I can't stand "Shockwaves"! The music was cool, but the lyrics were kinda trite, especially the corny references to soap operas. "Oh, I" was good. I heard that "Oh, I" was originally supposed to be a Parliament song. The very best song of the album was saved for last: "Icka-Prick". Now this was a good ol' Funkadelic song: Weird, Funky, and Nasty! The problem with this album was that there were too many new faces on the scene. Too many unknowns were writing the songs. This album doesn't come remotely close to any of the previous albums (with the possible exception of 'Uncle Jam Wants You', which is still a better album). Buy this album only to complete your Funkadelic collection.

Smart, deep funk. George Clinton is the Funk Lord of the Universe, and the sooner you understand that and begin shaking it, the better.

Funky horns and strong vocals make this album a fine addition to the Funkadelic oeuvre. This might not be for beginners, but the advanced acolytes of the Stone Brown Fonk will get it and love it.

funkadelic was ahead of everybody else even if they were on their last legs bernie worrell left which sucked but hey you get a mixture of eddie hazel, mike hampton, gary shider, tyrone lampkin, junie morrison, bootsy collins, with sly stonem, donnie sterling, roger troutman and cynthia robinson you get techno, rock, punk, reggae and new wave all in 1 and p funk made it wacky and futuristic newbies still don't know how to describe this every song on nherre rocks electric spanking has junie going baserk on keyboards george's intro is retardted add that with tyhe crazy lyerics and michael hampton's solo personally I like his solo here than on knee deep and mr. hampton do'nt stop here he solos on ekectro cutries too, oh I, and funk gets stronger while eddie hazel plays guitar on funk gets stronger 2 another heavy hitter is icka prick where george admitted he was giving prince a funking lesson on how to be nasty shockwaves was tight another smoking groove reggae funk cut one of funkadelic's best albums yes this was supposed to be a double album and we thought we saw the last of p funk but no we got computer games in 1982. funk will never die.

I'm sure that all hardcore fans remember that this KILLER album was released without actually being finished. George Clinton was working on a double album (which would have included tracks from COMPUTER GAMES) See Review). Of course the main track "Atomic Dog" was not allowed on this album because of Clinton's legal issues. The FUNK MOB which was huge was tired of not getting paid (royalties) and on top of that, 3 original members of PARLIEMENT had released what is now titled "WHO'S A FUNKADELIC and named themselves FUNKADELIC (see review). George Clinton also was attempting to launch his Uncle Jam Record Label and that to fell through. What does everyone think what would of happened to this album had "Atomic Dog" had been on here?? It would have been a HUGE SELLER!!! And had the Uncle Jam label not have been forced to fold, Clinton would have settled his legal problems with a little more help from a little known funk band ZAPP!! who was originally signed to his label. WHAT A DISASTER!!! But despite all of this, THE ELECTRIC SPANKING OF WAR BABIES was a heck of a good album!! Yes. I know that their was no "Not Just Knee Deep", or a "One Nation Under A Groove" on this album. But their was the "Electro Cuties" which even today in car stereos with high amps, TOTALLY FUNKS! "Funk Get's Stronger" does just that. Ant the songs here did not get dragged out forever like on alot of FUNKADELIC albums. "Shock Waves" excellent piece of reggae funk. "OH I" classic funk rock! And "Icka Prick" do I need say more??? This INCOMPLETE album STOMPED and would have really SMOKED if it had been completed!!!!!

Recorded at roughly the same time as Parliament's Trombipulation but released a year later after being pared down from a double album set this album kind of got the identity straight between P-Funk's two primire groups. During the end of the 70's Parliament and Funkadelic albums were beginning to lose some of the distinction between them musically. But even than Funkadelic albums always tended to be far more eclectic and experimental in sound than what George was doing at Cassablanca. Across eight songs this album actually doesn't bare much of a resemblance to anything else in Funkadelic's catalog or P-funk for that matter. In fact I dare say you'd be hard pressed to find a big name funk album in the early 80's that sounded much like this at all. Over the years Funkadelic had defined their sound as a mixture of psychedelic rock and soul-funk and on this album they branch out a bit musically. The 8+ title track actually bares something of a stronger influence of the then burgeoning Minneapolis sound with it's stripped down new wave guitars and synthesizers. Both "Electro Cuties" and the wonderfully bass driven "Oh,I" have this rhythm based guitar/bass sound to them that's very much in keeping with not only the sound of funk about seven years before this but also a lot of the more sussinct musical stylings of the recently passed disco era. There's also a song here called "Funk Get's Stronger" that comes in two parts:both not only very psychedelic in orientation but also have very unique flavors:the first part has a pronounced ska influenced rhythm to the groove and the second,with it's prominant wah wah's and stop-start arrangements owe a great deal to guest Sly Stone,whose horse vocal here may sound a little offputting but actually speaks a lot for his deterioration around this period. "Bretttino's Bounce" is a vibrant detour into percussive Brazillian jazz featuring a guerro that sounds like it's almost chuckling at it's own song. "Shockwaves" is a full blooded dive into dub-reggae waters featuring a mini battle between the have and have nots of both the first and third world,again using dancing as the metaphore. "Icka Prick" again shows the obvious cross influence between George Clinton and Prince around this time,although lyrically this song chooses to look at it's subject more scatologically than of of Prince's psychosexual preoccupations. Both the last formal Parliament and Funkadelic releases in 1980-81 were not necessarily going to be the cup of tea to some P-Funk fans as neither of them tend to go musically where one would expect them to,especially this one. All the same it's another example of how something very unique,unexpected and inventive can come out of something starting to fall apart at the seams.

There are no legendary hits on this album. Nothing you will most likely recognize.. but it is a good album with some infectious grooves nonetheless. Im honestly more partial to the b-side, especially the reggae tune. Def. worth getting if you happen to come across it in a record shop. Would not recommend for first time funkadelic listeners.

When I purchased this album in 1981 I listened to all of the songs and I was saying to myself," What the frick is going on here?" George Clinton's P-Funk empire was sadly coming apart with the ongoing feud with Warner Brothers records,original members of the group Calvin Simon,Ray Davis and Grady Thomas signed with Lax Records under the same name and released the awful "Connections and Disconnections" album,the womens group protested the cover of "The Electric Spanking of War Babies" with an illustrated drawing of a naked woman on the cover and Mr. Clinton losing signing a group called Zapp to WB. Although some of the songs on this album I felt were thrown together to complete the album "Funk Gets Stronger Part 1 & 2","Shockwaves","Electro-Cuties". I liked the message Mr.Clinton was trying to say with the album insert and Pedro Bell's artwork (the cd insert will not give you the complete story) about the 1980's.In closing the songs and music on ESOWB are all over the place and not very good but it is interesting to listen to.