CD Odyssey Disc 336: Parliament

Some albums make great driving music. Other albums are great for painting the house, and still others are good for sitting on the deck with a good book. This next album is great for parties.

Disc 336 is...The Best of Parliament: The Millennium Collection

Artist: Parliament

Year of Release: 2000 but with music from 1974-1980

What’s Up With The Cover?: A picture of the band, beautifully capturing just how truly whacky these guys were in the day. Yet a single picture can't do "Parliament's" craziness justice, so here's another one, presumably taken during a performance of "Flashlight."

How I Came To Know It: Before Parliament, the only funk I knew was a single cassette tape of James Brown's greatest hits. My buddy Spence introduced me to Parliament, and immediately upon hearing it I knew I needed to get some of my own.

How It Stacks Up: "Best ofs" don't stack up, but even if they did, this is the only Parliament in my collection. Sad, but true.

Rating: "Best Ofs" don't get rated. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'd know that. It just ain't right.

As I said in the teaser, Parliament is definitively party music, and for a few years in the early oughts, every house party in my circle of friends would have Parliament on heavy rotation. It invariably would get people up, laughing, dancing and quoting lines from the strange space-funk mythology that Parliament built around themselves.

One year for my birthday I even held a funk party, where the rule was to dress up in ridiculous fashion. Everyone had to wear sunglasses, because as Parliament advises us in "P-Funk", "that's the rule around here - you gots to wear your sunglasses."

Musically, funk is up-tempo soul with a heavy bass line. Topically, soul is often about love, but funk gets its kicks below the waistline, sunshine. Given all this free love, it is not surprising that funk fathered a lot of musical bastards in the years that followed, including disco and hip hop. Despite this, for a blissful period in the mid-seventies. funk ruled alone.

James Brown's band always inspires as one of the tightest musical you'll hear, with everyone coming in on their parts right on time, and following the Godfather of Soul's direction flawlessly. Parliament's sound is more a kaleidoscope of sound, with horns, keyboards and strange vocals seemingly coming in and out on a whim. Amazingly, despite all this musical hedonism, they manage to be just as precise.

Of course you can enjoy Parliament's music critically, marvelling at their innate ability to know when a horn section is called for, or the genius of Bootsy Collins' bass track, artfully laying a line through the song that all the other musicians can follow. Or even just the perfectly timed hooting and hollering by various band members who can't seem to contain themselves, but still manage to unload only where it serves the song.

You could do this, but instead I'd recommend you stop over-analyzing it so much and just let Parliament shoot you with their "Bop Gun." Loosen your backbone, dance around, and even clap your hands when you feel inspired to do so. You may feel compelled to utter a falsetto "whoo!" or two. Do not panic; this is normal. It is a funk revival, and you need to park all that stinking thinking and surrender to the groove.

Lyrically, Parliament talks a bunch of nonsense, but it is the most infectiously fun nonsense you'll ever hear. It is like early rap crossed with spoken word poetry. What is it about? Well, here's a sample from "Dr. Funkenstein":

"They say the bigger the headache, the bigger the pill
So call me the big pill.
Dr. Funkenstein.
The disco fiend with the monster sound.
The cool ghoul with the bum transplant."

Well, that clears that up. It also tells me that if the 19th century had had funk music, Frankenstein would've had a much happier ending.

Most of the songs that have an identifiable theme consist of band leader George Clinton warning listeners that they will be forcing you to dance and have a good time. Then, the music kicks in and they proceed to do just that. If Parliament's guitar licks, bass lines, blowing horns and bohemian philosophy don't get you up and moving then you are in desperate need of one of the aforementioned bum transplants Dr. Funkenstein is handing out.

I can't rank this album, since it is a best of, but I can say I had a damned fine time listening to it. I don't put it on that much lately, but the only reason is that this album got badly overplayed for a few years in the early oughts. Hearing it as part of the CD Odyssey reminds me that it is still great and deserving of a return to rotation.

Best tracks: P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up), Dr. Funkenstein, Up For the Downstroke, Bop Gun (Endangered Species),