Customer Reviews

Hardcore Jollies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Hardcore Jollies" starts off with a classic-- "Comin Round The Mountain" is one of the all time best Funkadelic guitar jams and to me, it is the definitive Eddie Hazel moment. (before you argue, yes it is Eddie Hazel uncredited on that track no matter what you think) New kid (or should I say Kidd?) Mike Hampton gets a nice little guitar workout on the title track... There is a solid live version of "Cosmic Slop" which showcases both Hampton and Shider but suffers from poor mixing of the vocals which drop out at times... "You Scared the Lovin' out of me" is a classic track with shimmering Bernie Worrell synth, a phased and distorted guitar riff that quotes "The Streets of Cairo" (which spawned the "place in france, naked ladies dance" dirty nursery song) and a crazed Glen Goins screaming in a tone that is at once funny, incredibly skilled, exacerbated, soulful and a little bit unsettling. "Adolescent Funk" is a Worrell showcase with some nice moog soloing but it sort of meanders to nowhere. The rest of the tracks are listenable and not at all bad, they just aren't very memorable. Overall this is a good, solid record. I would give it 3.5 stars if I was allowed. A good album for fans, but probably not a good starting point for neophytes.

In mid 1976, there was alot going on in George Clinton's

P-Funk universe! Parliament was riding high from their recent

successes with "Mothership Connection" and

"The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein", he had just inked

Bootsy's Rubber Band a deal with Warner Bros. Records

on the strength of that success, and Funkadelic was

coming to the end of it's contractual obligations

with the independent Westbound Records, who had

given him and his funk mob the perfect lab to

experiment in and hone their craft over the seven

years that they had been together at the time of this album.

Add to this, they were in the middle of rehearsals for

the elaborate $275,000 (in 1976/77 dollars!) jaugernaut that

would become the fabled "P-Funk Earth Tour", which would take

them to another level as far as their concert & record sales!

It was in this magical & chaotic climate that Warner Bros.

made a move and put in a bid for Funkadelic to come

to their label! George, ever the opportunist, saw the

big budget of a major label behind his vision for Funkadelic

and the rest is history!

Songs were hastily thrown together from what the

Parliafunkadelicment Thang, at the height of their

creative powers, had been pooling together in United Sound

in Detroit, Sunset Sound in L.A., as well as from the

Air Force Hangar in Newburgh, NY where they had been hold

up in rehearsals. Some were really good, and some were

basically glorified demos. The result of this was called

"Hardcore Jollies", released in October 1976.

The funk gems and semi-gems of this album are:

"Comin 'Round The Mountain"(Gem)--The late great

Eddie "Maggot Brain" Hazel on soaring guitar

(his last studio performance with Funkadelic),

the legendary Buddy Miles on drums, Cordell "Boogie"

Mosson holding down that perculating bassline.

All of this equates to an incendiary funk-rock jam session

with George scribbling some quickie lyrics that are partly

based on the old choral standard and partly about jammin'

in the U.S. Funk mob!

The end result was DEFINITELY not the song you

remember from high school chorus! (-:

"Smokey"(Gem)--Man!!, I still love this slinky-sexy-funky

joint here! With the late great Glenn Goins and his distinct

churchified tenor ranting, raving, and extolling the joys of

loving a double-entendre, which could be percieved as either

a woman or some bomb-azz weed! (-:

I love Bernie "Da Vinci" Worrell's keyboard and synth work

on this, along with both Glenn & Garry Shider's tasty rhythm

guitar feels woven in between.

I also love the droned background vocals of Garry, Fuzzy,

Grady, Ray, Calvin, George and Mudbone from Bootsy's Rubberband.

The "lookin' back at cheaww!" and the "Waell, weall, weall, weaaaaawwwwlll!!"

Like Al Green and Sly Stone on acid!

In black gospel singing, these are known as "squawls" or

drawling out a word by changing the pronounciation from you

to yeaww, and so forth.

I just love the atmosphere of this jam and it's eerie

build up to the end.

"If You Got Funk, You Got Style" (Semi-Gem)

Was a throw away track from Bootsy's Rubberband's debut

album sessions. George & The Gang tried to salvage it,

but it still sounds like just a pretty good demo with

some good potential. It's cool.

"Hardcore Jollies"(Semi-Gem)--Is just basically

Mike "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton working out on his mighty

axe, along with the other musicians in an impromptu jam session.

It just shows that a funk band can play rock after all!

"Soul Kiss" is a real gem to me!--Quirky, catchy, hooky,

George Clinton's writing style is flirtatious and lewd at

the same time without being vulgar. The vocals and the

track all work well together, and I always wished this

could've been a B-Side to another stronger song.

Real P-Funk Headz know and love this one!

"Cosmic Slop (Live)"(Gem!!)--Recorded live in the upstate

N.Y. Air Force Hangar during the P-Funk Earth Tour rehearsals,

I really love this stripped down, raw, and slightly sped-up

version of their original 1973 hit, which has it's charm as well,

but I like this one more for it's energy.

The sound crew must've been buzzing, because the backgrounds

are pulled down too low in the mix on the

"Would you like to dance with me, we're doing the Cosmic Slop!" part.

It was sung really lazy, like what you would hear in a

rehearsal, but it still works fine.

The guitar between Mike, Garry and Glenn is stellar!

This song still rocks!

"You Scared The Lovin' Outta Me" (Gem!!)--Everything about

this song is the bomb!!--The atmosphere, the guitar-layered

track, Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey's kickin' drumming, and of course..

this is a Glenn Goins vocal tour de force!

You really hear the uniqueness of his very soulful vocal

instrument on this song!--Another true P-Funk Headz staple!

"Adolescent Funk" (Semi-Gem)--Sounds like they just had

a very laid back track for a demo they were working on

and George just told Bernie to stretch out on it and play with it.

Then the little scatted vocal line just kind of developed.

It's cute, but more demo than a song.

It closes the album out though on a mild note.

Overall I gave this album a 4 star rating...

it's not one Funkadelic's best, but it has some great gems on it.

Still worth a good listen after 33 yrs.

Despite having some great musical contributions from Eddie Hazel, Mike Hampton, Bernie Worrell, and Buddy Miles, this album still could've been better than what it was. Instead of rushing this LP out on the heels of 'Tales Of Kidd Funkadelic', George should've waited another year (remember, no Funkadelic LP came out in '77), finished up the Earth Tour, and then added a little polish to this LP. Maybe some inspired lyrics to go on the title cut. 'This Is The Way We Funk With You' from the Parliament's Earth Tour LP would've fit in nicely here, instead of the live 'Cosmic Slop'. Even 'Fantasy Is Reality' would've worked.

Here's how it could've looked:

Side One

1- Comin' Round The Mountain

2- Smokey

3- If You Got Funk, You Got Style

4- Fantasy Is Reality

5- Hardcore Jollies (With inspired lyrics)

Side Two

6- This Is The Way We Funk With You

7- Soul Mate

8- You Scared The Lovin' Outta Me

9- Adolescent Funk (Maybe with a George Clinton monologue)

I think this would've been a better album. It definitely would've been as good as, if not better than, 'Tales Of Kidd Funkadelic', and right on par with 'One Nation Under A Groove'. Oh well. Nothing we can do about it now. Overall, this is still a good album. The music is powerful, especially on 'Comin' Round The Mountain'. The typical Clinton monologue is sorely missed, though. Still, it's better than 'Electric Spanking Of War Babies'.

By the time this album was released in 1976, I was already so enamored with Funkadelic that whenever a new album came out, I got so geeked I couldn't contain myself. Every new album meant a new adventure because you never knew what to expect (except that it was going to be FUNKY!). Just when I thought "Tales of Kidd Funkadelic" was IT until the next fall, out comes "HARDCORE JOLLIES! The hair on my body stood on end when I saw yet another new Pedro Bell album cover sitting in the record store bin. I knew this was going to be a CRAZY record and I was RIGHT! Nevermind award-winning singing/song-writing. This was crazy, hardcore FUNK right from the gate! "Comin' Round the Mountain" started it off with some nasty, nasty drum beats by guest drummer-the late, legendary Buddy Miles, "Boogie" Mosson's monster bass(!) and one of the BADDEST lead guitar performances ever recorded, by the "Maggot Brain" himself- Eddie Hazel! George goes into some crazy vocal experimentation throughout and Glen Goins and Garry Shider both get their chance to excercise their vocal cords. The title track is simply THE BADDEST BAND IN THE WORLD world doing their thing(!), featuring Eddie again and some hellacious "dueling guitars" to finish it off! Pedro's insane, ghetto space drawings and "fractured fairy-tale" liner notes contributed to making this album the complete "otherworld" experience. I thought this album was a slight step down from "Let's Take It to The Stage", but it's STILL FUNKADELIC TO ME!!

Not only Hardcore Jollies but hardcore funk as well. The bass and guitar provide a thick and layered sound while Bernie Worell brings a celestial quality to the album on the keyboards. This isn't Parliament and if you're looking for anything like "Flashlight" you won't hear it here. This is raw uncut funk accomponied by some of the best drum work I've heard on any album. Soulmate is the song where it all comes together. The musicianship is uncanny. This is one of my favourite albums. I love it.

This is when George got paid, the first WB Funkadelic
cut, Tales of the Kid was Still Hot and we were suprised
Hardcore Jollies showed up in the record shop.This album is just
for true funk fans those who had every album and got excited
when a new Parliment Funkadelic cut was released.
To those of us that sang like george,(Hey butch where ya at Caspers lookin for Ya) gary, fuzzy, calvin and ray and played like mike,glen,cordell,bernie,eddie,jerome and bootsy in our basements and garages. None of these cuts were done at any of the concerts this album was just for us, A Personal Funk album.
Cosmic Slop was originally slower at all the live shows, but this version out cold a little faster one of jeromes funkiest live sets,
Comin Round the Mountian (Smokin), Smokey was funky,
If You Got Funk, Slamin, Hardcore Jollies, Jamin
Soul Mate, Harmonic, You Scared The Lovin, Smooth and
Adolescent Funk ,sit back close your eyes turn the lights off
get your funk on and dig my Favorite cut, dee da da da dee da da da de da da da da da da da da da da da....................

good to hear eddie on the first track his solo was a blessing. michael hampton goes off on the title track. but he'll never take eddie's place. the whole cd was tight except for cosmic slop live sucks. this was to be the last funkadelic cd that featured the talents or at least the names of fuzzy, ray, grady, and calvin. and also of that of glen goins. but the myth lived on and ain't died yet.

Funkadelic at it's finest. One of my favorite albums of all-time. George & the rest of the P-Funk All-Stars are in rare form. From the cuts " Comin' round the mountain", "Smokey" (looking back at you, I lost alot), "If you got funk, You got style" (later turned into a go-go clasic), "Cosmic Slop"(Live) my personal favorite cut,and the nasty "U scared the lovin' out of me". Be careful not to O.D. on this funk. The album cover is one of the all-time greatest. George, you're a musical Genius!

I have every Funkadelic release there is........and this is by far the best!!! A little of everything is on this CD and there is not one bad track. "Soul Mate" and "Smokey" are big time highlights, along with a killer live version of "Cosmic Slop". If you have funk, then you have style and you should have this disk......

Funkadelic is often a great band, but I see this as one of their worst releases. Released just after the group had moved to Westbound, it was really the first weak album to come out of the P-Funk canon (okay, so I haven't heard Rhenium or America Eats Its Young). There is occasionally some great stuff from Eddie, like on Comin' 'Round the Mountain and the title song, but none of that's Maggot Brain-level and neither of those tracks are exactly brilliant - even the sultry R&B love song Smokey wastes a minute on its spaced-out coda. I will grant that it's my second favorite song on the album, though, my favorite being the live Cosmic Slop. For whatever reason it is rather unpopular among fans, but I like it plenty. Magic Mike's ace guitar playing seriously reaches the emotional level of Maggot Brain, Machine Gun, or In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, the "Space... people... universal lovers" intro is awesome (and cannot be heard on the studio original!), and the bass line is clearer. But I'm not sure if it's better than the studio version or not: for one, the studio take had all these cool studio effects and that random string section and other stuff you can't exactly replicate live; for another, the mix is terrible, to the point where the bass overpowers the vocals. Which is too bad, because the lyrics (a brutally honest tale of a woman forced into prostitution to feed her family, if you don't know) are Clinton at his finest, and I love how he pitches it from a child's point of view, which means he doesn't have the chance to moralize about how either a) all prostitutes are going to Hell or b) desperate times call for desperate measures.

But Slop is by far my favorite - otherwise, this one comes up short. For one, Clinton makes a failed attempt to pull of the hilarious nonsense chant thing - something he had previously achieved on Parliament's Night of the Thumposarus Peoples. But the similar Adolescent Funk falls down dead. I've never been a fan of P-Funk ballads, and while it's amusing to hear that stupid "There's a place in France..." melody on You Scared the Lovin' Outta Me the first time, by the fourth I'm so irritated with the dirgelike atmosphere and pained vocals that it goes by unnoticed. If You Got Funk, You Got Style is an unimaginative call to dance; and Soul Mate has some very obnoxious vocals that ruin an otherwise not bad tune.

This is isn't really all that good. I love the live version of Slop; Comin' Round the Mountain, Smokey and the title song aren't too bad. But P-Funk has done far better: I'd recommend Parliament's Mothership Connection, Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome; Funkadelic's Free Your Mind..., Maggot Brain, Cosmic Slop, Standing on the Verge of Getting it On, Let's Take it to the Stage, One Nation Under a Groove and Uncle Jam; and Bootsy's Stretchin' Out in a Rubber Band; Ahh... the Name is Bootsy, Baby!, Bootsy? The Player of the Year and The One Giveth, the Count Taketh Away in this one's place. But it has its moments.