Saturday 14 February 2015

Maggot Brain - Eddie Hazel and Funkadelic, 1971



Feel the Parlance and Shit

When I checked, I was surprised I hadn't written about this song before. That said, if you like guitar music, especially psychedelic guitar and you know this 10 minute gem, there isn't really anything I can write that will add to your existing awe. If you haven't heard it before, then you can't really like psychedelic guitar music because you don't know this epitome of the genre. There's Hendrix of course at the apex, but this is a singular contribution by Eddie Hazel right up there on a level par.


George Clinton speaks the opening lyrics to this otherwise instrumental body-and-mind musical massage:

Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time
For y'all have knocked her up.
I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe
I was not offended
For I knew I had to rise above it all
Or drown in my own shit.
Come on Maggot Brain
Go on Maggot Brain


and what follows moves between scream and caress where fuzz and wah wah and delay, coupled with an acoustic underlay but most importantly the sweetest melody to - in the parlance of the day, and without the need for other enhancement - blow you away.



The YouTube version below cuts out the spoken introduction, which is fine.

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