Funkadelic: Uncle Jam Wants You [CHARLY]

Why you'll love it

This Charly edition is newly mastered by Pete Reynolds with lacquers cut by Barry Grint at AIR Studios, in a facsimile gatefold with an obi and a 4-page insert. The album reached No. 18 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the R&B chart, went gold, and an edit of "(Not Just) Knee Deep" topped the soul singles chart.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Newly mastered by Pete Reynolds
• Lacquers cut by Barry Grint at AIR Studios
• Facsimile gatefold jacket
• Lyrics on card inner sleeve
• 4-page insert with notes by John Masouri
• Obi strip
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

The title borrows from the old "Uncle Sam wants you" recruiting posters, and George Clinton meant it: this time the funk army had a mission, which, according to the cover, was to rescue dance music from the blahs. With disco everywhere, Funkadelic answered with a sequel to the million-selling One Nation Under a Groove, and the band's swagger shows in every bar.

Clinton produced as Dr. Funkenstein. "Freak Of The Week" kicks things off, and "(Not Just) Knee Deep" takes up most of the first side, fifteen minutes of elastic groove that De La Soul and Digital Underground later mined for samples. Side two runs "Uncle Jam" into "Field Maneuvers" and "Foot Soldiers (Star-Spangled Funky)." Tucked in between, "Holly Wants To Go To California" is a gentle piano-led change of pace, the calm in the middle of the campaign. Pedro Bell drew the back cover and interior art.

Paul Sexton of Record Mirror called it "marvellously enjoyable comic book funk," and a Los Angeles DJ crew named itself Uncle Jamm's Army in its honour. We're inclined to enlist.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Charly (cat# CHLP3371), a reissue of the 1979 album.