Funkadelic: Maggot Brain [ORG MUSIC]

Why you'll love it

This ORG Music edition is mastered all analog, straight from tape to lacquer, in a gatefold jacket. Pitchfork named it the 17th best album of the 1970s, and Rolling Stone placed it at No. 136 on its 2020 list of the greatest albums of all time.

This edition

• All-analog mastering, tape to lacquer
• Gatefold jacket
• Remastered
• Etched runouts
• Stereo mix

About the album

Ask any guitarist to name the most emotional solo on record and a surprising number will say three words: Eddie Hazel, "Maggot Brain." George Clinton recorded Funkadelic's third album at United Sound Systems in Detroit in late 1970 and early 1971, the last LP by the band's original lineup, and he opened it with that ten-minute title track. He told Hazel to play from the deepest, saddest place he could find, then pushed the rest of the band down in the mix so the guitar could cry on its own, echoed back on itself until it sounds like it's drifting in from space.

The rest of the record is a heavy, soulful trip. "Can You Get to That" brings in Isaac Hayes' backing singers Hot Buttered Soul for a gospel-tinged singalong, "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks" makes a plea for unity over distorted drums, "Hit It and Quit It" grooves hard, "Super Stupid" swings a riff heavy enough for any metal band, and the nine-minute "Wars of Armageddon" closes in a freak-out of sound effects.

Joel Brodsky photographed the unforgettable cover, with model Barbara Cheeseborough emerging from the earth. Hazel's solo went on to be studied by guitarists for half a century; most of us are still on the first bar.

Also at Kops: more Funkadelic on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On ORG Music / Westbound (cat# ORGM-2329), a reissue of the 1971 album.