A few days ago Andy wrote, on the Galaxie 500 mailing list, "I always call my record collection 'my autobiography' so even the embarrassing ones are still around because they are part of what I am". This is partly true of the collection presented here — it certainly has its share of embarrassments and things I should be embarrassed about — and I'll never write anything more autobiographical.
But the collection also contains aspirations; things I don't quite understand yet; like the places I want to visit before I die. The part of my autobiography I've not yet lived.
As with Parliament, Funkadelic are one of those bands I feel I should know better than I do, even if I'm never going to be a big fan.
So every time I listen, I absorb something new. This time it was the rock guitar on some of the tracks. I consulted Julian Cope's Head Heritage site, and, as I suspected, there's a helpful and interesting review of Hardcore Jollies there (several of the tracks on The Funkadelic Collection originally came from that album), which comments on the rock guitar. I know there's a series of links here, between James Brown, The Beatnigs, Living Colour, the Black Rock Coalition and Public Enemy (and Afrika Bambaataa and James Blood Ulmer and Ornette Coleman and Miles, of course, and and and). But though I know the connections are there, I can't quite trace their routes yet.
| Wikipedia list of Funkadelic compilations |
Comments