Customer Reviews

Testify: Best of the Early Years

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The Parliaments, which later evolved into Funkadelic and Parliament, consisted of George Clinton, Fuzzy Haskins, Ray Davis, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon. This is one of the few compilations of their work. Funkier and more polished versions of (I Wanna) Testify, All Your Goodies Are Gone, The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg, Good Old Music, Baby I Owe You Something Good and That Was My Girl would eventually be recorded by Funkadelic and/or Parliament. However, there is something very special about the rawer Temptations-like versions of these songs and the other songs on this CD. It captures an era and it provides PFunk fans a listen to the early stages of George Clinton's incredibly diverse and ever evolving music. If you are a PFunk fan, this CD is a must have for your collection.

Before George Clinton and his "Funkateers" sent the world on a spacey all nite groove extravaganza, his group, the Parliaments, were letting their soul-glo during the mid-sixties. This group was straight and polished from head-to-toe. Complete with matching polyester suits, these guys were making soul music with a church revival type feel. "Testify", the hit single off the disc topped the Billboard R&B charts at number three in 1967. This album is a must have for any fan of George Clinton, but don't expect to hear the familiar looped synthesizers or fuzzy bass beats. Testify! the best of the Early years, is an honest make you feel good type album. You'll be glad you bought it.

The album itself is very good, but everyone should buy this primarily for "Testify", THE great "lost" funk/soul single of all time. What a fantastic song, and rightfully kicked off the Parliament/Funkadelic empire. That this song is not regularly featured on oldies radio is an absolute mystery to me, but maybe that makes it even better each time you listen to it.

Amazing Soul music! At this time, George Clinton was already doing great Soul production work. This collection is unspeakably beautiful for Soul fans. A favorite.

As GC put it in his song "Why Did You Dog Me Out," This is NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH the Parliament Clinton fans know and love. Pretty oddball stuff, for the most part. A curious mix of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Motown and a lot of it goes down like mustard and ice cream.

In the midst of the largely bizzare tunes are a few nice surprises. "Dont Be Sore At Me" is quite appealing with Clinton doing a Beatle-esque accent (Clinton once said the Fab 4 were his all time favorite group and it shows here). "I Wanna Testify" is not bad, sort of predates the pscychadelic soul that Sly Stone would do a short while later. "I Can Feel The Ice" has an offbeat charm as it owes more to London than Motown. In short, good for historical and curiousity value mostly. You may find "Don't Be Sore At Me" to be one of those songs that you can't help singing to youself.