About

- A TAV Essential Listening Album -

Masterminded by George Clinton alongside core members lead guitarist Eddie Hazel, bassist Billy Nelson, rhythm guitarist Lucious “Tawl” Ross, and drummer Ramon “Tiki” Fulwood - Funkadelic pioneered a heavy and heady mix of acid rock and funk. Following their self-titled debut, and their sophomore release “Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow”, this third album was the collective at their zenith. It was as if the training wheels came off - Maggot Brain was mind-blowing from its opening solo, a launchpad into an LSD-fueled freak out full of fuzzed-out guitars, intoxicating grooves and explicit lyricism.

An exhibition of controlled musical chaos, this album embodies the bombast and bedlam of the 1970s. Socially and spiritually, Maggot Brain was singular of its time. - The Analog Vault
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This version is remastered from new high-res analogue transfers. Includes bonus 'Maggot Brain' 12” with 2017 “Reworked by Detroiters” remix and 1971 live performance. Pressed on 180gm black vinyl.
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It starts with a crackle of feedback shooting from speaker to speaker and a voice intoning, "Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time, for y'all have knocked her up" and talking about rising "above it all or drown in my own sh*t." This could only have been utterly bizarre back in 1971 and it's no less so decades later; though the Mothership was well on its way already, Maggot Brain really helped it take off. The instrumental title track is the key reason to listen, specifically for Eddie Hazel's lengthy, mind-melting solo. George Clinton famously told Hazel to play "like your momma had just died," and the resulting evocation of melancholy and sorrow doesn't merely rival Jimi Hendrix's work, but arguably bests a lot of it. Accompanied by another softer guitar figure providing gentle rhythm for the piece, the end result is simply fantastic, an emotional apocalypse of sound.

Maggot Brain is bookended by another long number, "Wars of Armageddon," a full-on jam from the band looping in freedom chants and airport-departure announcements to the freak-out. In between are a number of short pieces, finding the collective merrily cooking up some funky stew of the slow and smoky variety.

There are folky blues and gospel testifying on "Can You Get to That" (one listen and a lot of Primal Scream's mid-'90s career is instantly explained) and wry but warm reflections on interracial love on "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks," its drum hits distorted to give a weird electronic edge to the results. "Super Stupid" is a particular killer, pounding drums and snarling guitar laying down the boogie hard and hot, while "Hit It and Quit It" has a great chorus and Bernie Worrell getting in a fun keyboard solo to boot. - Ned Raggett // AllMusic

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Label: Westbound Records
Format: Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Remastered + Vinyl, 12", Single
Country: UK
Released: 2023 / Original Release: Nov 1971
Genre: Rock, Funk / Soul
Style: Psychedelic Rock
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File under: Funk / Soul