Customer Reviews

Maggot Brain

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Musicologists love to debate where Jimi Hendrix may have ventured had he not tragically died in 1970. It is true the master was going to work with Miles Davis, and that would have been monumental. It is worth exploring the possibilities of a foray into the newly developing funk scene as well, and nobody came closer to carrying on the Hendrix legacy than Funkadelic's guitar wizard Eddie Hazel, a true contemporary of Hendrix and Jeff Beck. Unfortunately, he has not enjoyed the mass appreciation of other guitar gods, and that's a crime.
"Maggot Brain" opens with the title track, a simple rhythm guitar backing Hazel in a ten minute opus that belongs in the rock god pantheon. George Clinton wisely lets Hazel shine, knowing genius when he hears it. If "Maggot Brain" isn't enough, Hazel soars throughout, welding funk with metal and making it work. It makes you wanna boogie and play air guitar at the same time, which would look really stupid, but that just proves how well the two styles of hard rock and funk can work together.
As with great jazz musicians like Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane and Charlie Christian, to name a few, it's a shame more young black musicians aren't interested in making real music, preferring instead to rap over minimalist backgrounds and completely ignore their musical ancestry that invented blues, rock and roll, and jazz. "Maggot Brain" belongs in every collection.

This is one of those albums everyone eventually stumbles upon sooner or later. What I don't understand is why it actually takes some digging around to discover. Yeah, you'll find every music magazine in the world raving about Eddie Hazel's amazing guitar work, yet in the world of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Sly & The Family Stone, etc., this one unjustifiably manages to slip through the cracks again and again with younger audiences. Ask any teenager whose top five consists of the Beatles, Led Zep, Floyd, the Who and the Stones who Eddie Hazel was and, 9 out of 10 times, you'll get blank stares. It's not right, I tell you! This album should be standard listening!

Okay, enough of that. It's not just Eddie's guitar chops that make this album what it is. It's also the tight band and spacey grooves that will have you coming back again and again. There is nothing boring about this record. It should also be noted that the song "Super Stupid" had it's own little effect on the development of what the world would eventually come to know as heavy metal(!).

Get it. Dig it. Play it again.

I don't know what drugs Clinton and co. were on when they recorded this classic. I probably don't want to. The first two were pretty weird as well, but this one makes 'em look tame. Here, you get a lot of the acid funk-rock stuff the group was doing in their early days, only what they did was took that formula and improved on it. The winding, stoned jams that took up most of the first record are better, so are the loud, crazy freakouts that took up much of the second one. And the short tracks rule as usual.
First up, there's "Maggot Brain," with Eddie Hazel playing a guitar solo worthy of Hendrix. It's amazing how much emotion he pulls out of it, and the huge variety of feelings he expresses just with is guitar. It's wonderful stuff, but part of me thinks I like the bonus full band mix more, just because you get a cool marimba part with that one. Either way, it's one of the top five (if not top three) tunes that ever came out of the P-Funk camp. "Can You Get to That?" rules, too. It's totally different from the emotional odyssey that was "Maggot Brain" - it's a down-home folk song with a great melody and awesome baritone vocals, and it actually manages to almost be as good as "Maggot Brain." Not quite, but close. Then you get a couple sweet acid-soul songs, with Bernie showing off his weird organ stuff: "Hit it and Quit it" and "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks." Totally cool tunes, both of 'em. Then it's back to the rock, with the uber-heavy "Super Stupid," with another one of Eddie's Hendrixian solos. It's yet another highlight - everyone gets a chance to rock out, and they don't waste it. I'm a bit disappointed by "Back in Our Minds," though. It's okay, but isn't particularly interesting. It's made up for by "Wars of Armageddon," though. That's the best freakout ever to come from Funkadelic. A ten minute celebration of all things sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Most people don't like it, but I think it's quite cool.
Bonus tracks! You've got the alternate mix of "Maggot Brain," "I Miss My Baby" (cool song!), and "Singing a New Song" (eh.) Worth a purchase! I don't know what to call this one. It rocks harder than most "funk" albums, and has more groove and bottom than most "rock" albums. Funkadelic was always cool, but the early stuff is insanely creative.

This album is the best investment i ever made. I'm a 16 and i play guitar and the solo on maggot brain puts every guitarist i've ever heard to shame,i t moves me to tears every time and eddie hazel has got nowhere near the recognition it deserves. I can't believe more people haven't heard this. And its not just the title track, EVERY song on here gets 5 stars from me. This band puts the supposed heaviest band ever, black sabbath, to shame on super stupid. its super heavy and on top of that you can dance to it and eddie hazel plays another classic solo. enough from me you should get it now, it criminal to not recognize this album for the masterpiece it is.

Funkadelic-Maggot Brain *****

Funkadelic's Maggot Brain is one of the most rewarding albums in my entire musical library, and I have a very big and vast library. Rewarding in the since that I have taken more away from this album than just about any other. As a musician any Parliament or Funkadelic, or any funk album in general is going to test your skill and this is no exception. Being a guitar player, hearing Eddie Hazel play is a lesson every time, and upon each listen my mind is blown. The title track, 'Wars Of Armageddon' and 'Super Stupid' are among some of the very best guitar playing I have ever heard. The rest of the group as well from the signature bass to the great percussion this great.

As a musical fan this is a rewarding album on that front as well. Songs like the elegant title track still give me chills. And what is great about anything with George Clinton is that like his hero Sly Stone all his funk is fun but contains and important social message. 'Can You Get To That' is loose and a great comment of the economy. But aside from the funk 'Super Stupid' is just one example of how Funkadelic was versatile, this is one of the very first heavy metal tracks recorded. With one listen to that track and you'll be able to see where Lenny Kravitz got his funk.

For me Funkadelic was always a favorite over it's counter part Parliament, while I love them both, Funkadelic always was more free with their musical endeavors, where Parliament was pigeon holed with one genre, and Maggot Brain is the best example of this, even more so than One Nation Under a Groove. Maggot Brain is a rewarding album on so many levels that I feel no musical collection is complete without it, which I feel okay saying because this has something that would fill a whole in any genre's collection.

Why this album and this band are so overlooked is beyond me. Funkadelic were the forefathers of the funk metal genre, and their influence is heard on bands like Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden/Audioslave, and so many more. To think that this music was made in the early 70's is astonishing. These guys were far ahead of their time.

The title track is an acid-fueled guitar solo that brings to mind the most inspired Hendrix solos put on tape. A slow minor key dirge with some incredible guitar soloing by Eddie Hazel, it is a feast for the ears.

The next track, Can You Get To That, is a soul-influenced psychedelic number with everyone taking turns singing. Quite a happy little tune. The next two songs really showcase the metallic side of the band, with Hit It & Quit It built around a jerky heavy riff, and Super Stupid sounding like the best of Cream and Stevie Wonder.

You and Your Folks, Me & My Folks increase the funk side of the album, but still retains that metallic edge throughout the album. Back In Our Minds is just a goofy number, showing that the band can be silly when they want to.

The last track, Wars Of Armageddon, show the band at their most expiremental, a sound collage of percussion and strange sounds. Very interesting stuff.

All in all, this is a great album and a foreshadow of the funk metal genre. I love it.

Released in 1971, Maggot Brain is a freaky, funky, hard-rockin' blast of acid-mangled psychedelic soul, as performed by what may be the greatest band of inspired weirdoes since the Velvet Underground. These seven songs are sweaty funk-rock masterpieces, stuffed with elements of everything from Motown-informed soul to guitar-screeching proto metal. What's not to like?

The title track alone is worth the price of admission: It features guitarist Eddie Hazel playing one of the greatest instrumental solos ever recorded, a nearly ten minute long tour-de-force of sky-melting, soul-shredding psych-soul telekinesis that rivals even Jimi Hendrix's most inspired moments. The whole piece bleeds with raw emotion and acidic virtuosity, never slipping into pretension or bombast. And on to p of that, you get a totally sweet piece of brain-bending poetry from ringleader George Clinton (which, by the way, is not nearly as meaningless as some people seem to think it is).

After that, there's six more tracks of wigged out funktasia. "Can You Get To That" and "You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks" are sweaty, rhythmic groovers with socially conscious lyrics and swirling vocal harmonies, while "Back In Our Minds" features some wonderfully deranged percussion and singing. "Hit It And Quit" sports a riff that'll tattoo itself to your brain forever, and rhythms that are deeper than the Grand Canyon. "Super Stupid" is a pounding firestorm of guitars and organs. "Wars Of Armageddon" closes out the album with an epic slice of divinely messed-up soul-funk-psych-rock-metal apocalypse.

So, Maggot Brain rules. Get it and boogie.

I didn't realy know what to expect when I first heard this album in the early 70's. What realy surprized me was the Guitar solos. The best lead riff on this album can be heard on a number called Super Stupid. It's a gem. I must have replayed this song a million times just to hear that lead riff. This album contains a lot of heart and a whole lotta soul. Eddie Hazel is amazing.

George Clinton's crew.WOW!! Black-funk-soul rock!!! Guitar solos with funk-filled soul!!! Funkadelic was the REAL FUNK before any generation could lay claim to it!!! Now that's the truth! Buy this for your collection, if you don't own MAGGOT BRAiN, then your collection is so imcomplete. Sit back and enjoy, Free your mind.....

It was not that George Clinton's Funkadelic was not revolutionary before Maggot Brain. The band spent two albums in 1970, Funkadelic and Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow proving that funk and soul could be as heavy and psychedelic as any rock. It was not like the Temptations taking ideas from Hendrix on , say, Cloud Nine. It was erasing ALL the lines between soul funk and rock. And black and white music.

But Maggot Brain takes this to a new level. Eddie Hazel does an amazing wha wha solo on the title track: one of the best in popular music. But great solos are all over rock, and if you are just listening to Hazel, you are only getting half the point. The guitar on most funk records was a comping instrument--sometimes given a jangly little solo in the middle. "Maggot Brain" showed that the funky wha wha could create a funky solo. Funky as funk, loud as rock. Loud funk rock. Black and white and funk and rock all over.

And who cared. Not George Clinton: Was he too busy bringing funk to all kinds of music? Or all kinds of music to funk?

The answer is Yes.



Listen to "Can You Get To That." The riff that starts it off is folk blues, but listen to how Clinton places a female vocal section straight off of Soul Train onto the rustic guitar. The piece works as all the genres placed into a blender, coming out as a new type of music. Totally alien ideas, superimposed. Madness--on paper, but in reality, on vinyl, it is as natural as air.

"Super Stupid" is more ironic acid crunch. "Armies Of Destruction" Hazel filling Hendrix's shoes. I need not outline the cross breed process again.

But Maggot Brain was Clinton's vision now come completely true--music that could go anywhere, any place, any time. In 1971, when racial lines were being erased at a snails pace, Clinton sprayed you with too much acid wha wha party whoopie cushion funk rock cream for you to remember they ever even existed.