1978 Funkadelic “One Nation Under A Groove” on Warner Brothers Records

1978 7” EP “Maggot Brain/Lunchmeataphobia (Think! It Ain’t Illegal Yet!)” on Warner.

Sure, you could shake your boogie ass at the club or hit the floor with the second-hottest maid of honor at a wedding, getting down to this utter groover of a chapter in the long and storied career of All Time Groovers, Funkadelic….or you could look at the art and listen to the lyrics and simultaneously want your funk uncut while absorbing the very political message behind it all. Basically, George Clinton, who was really the president of the United States while the rest of us were pretending it was Jimmy Carter, put this proclamation of a record together as a response to the 1976 Bicentennial and white patriotic fever sweeping the country. That’s not Betsy Ross’ flag that Bootsy and Bernie are Iwo Jima-ing on the cover, it’s the R&B banner and it’s inviting all of Black America to rally together as one (under a wave of crashing grooves), not to perform a coup (as hysterics snowflaked at the time…there was an actual and hilarious “controversy”!), but to embrace being part of a nation and also part of a separate identity, often regional but in practice national, that celebrates art and dance and music and literature coming out of Chocolate Cities while not forgetting that if you want to Make Your Funk The P-Funk, everyone is welcome at the party.

​Or maybe that’s just my take, and it’s a record about fast cars and groupies written by Sammy Hagar. Who can say? Either way, as anyone reading this already knows, Funkadelic is unassailable and beyond commentary. You just slam it on the platter and let it spin, nothing left to say. Oh hell yeh.