Revisiting Parliament's Gloryhallastoopid & Trombipulation

tom d otm

Listened to "Gloryhallastoopid" today, the biggest problem is "Party People", which is 10 minutes of nothing, absolutely no hooks (musical or lyrical) anywhere in sight. Actually "Color Me Funky" is equally as bad but at least it isn't as long. "The Freeze" is an interesting track, woefully underwritten though it is, in that I don't think it soumds anything like Parliament BUT if they'd turned the guitars right up it might have made a smoking Funkadelic track! "May We Bang You" is OK though doesn't live up to the promise of its title! The other three tracks are great though (as is the "Prologue").

I'm not as impressed w the conceptualization behind Trombipulation. The debt to Sun Ra is made too obvious, and the imagery is reduced to that silly elephant nose mask, which seems a bit slight compared to what came before.

that being said, the well was definitely not dry yet and there's good cuts on both of these (and there would be more on GC's solo output as noted)

I do agree that a fair number of the arrangements get pretty far from standard funk templates - Skeet and the drummers really getting downright proggy in places

Listened to "Gloryhallastoopid" today, the biggest problem is "Party People", which is 10 minutes of nothing, absolutely no hooks (musical or lyrical) anywhere in sight. Actually "Color Me Funky" is equally as bad but at least it isn't as long. "The Freeze" is an interesting track, woefully underwritten though it is, in that I don't think it soumds anything like Parliament BUT if they'd turned the guitars right up it might have made a smoking Funkadelic track! "May We Bang You" is OK though doesn't live up to the promise of its title! The other three tracks are great though (as is the "Prologue").

"May We Bang You" is a total grower. I love the "Do re mi/kind of cherry bomb!" descending bit – and the the guitar/bass interplay during the Carly Simon-ish bit around 2:30 or so is the kind of ridiculous stuff only Parliament could pull off.

I think the other three tracks you mention are, in fact, the reason the record isn't held in particularly high esteem – tho I feel each bears their share of charms.

I always assumed the vapidity of "Party People" was some Placebo Syndrome parody – "It's about big fun/All about big fun!/Oogie boogie!" Am I wrong? Isn't it supposed to be kinda mindless? It's hardly unlistenable – I spend most of this song listening to the crazy organ textures Bernie is laying down anyway.

Agree that "The Freeze" and "Color Me Funky" are the other two "underwritten" cuts here – tho the latter has a great "Uncle Jam's coming for you" coda, while the former seems a pastiche of a James Brown vamp right down to the vocal albeit one that features a sax solo JB never would have allowed Maceo to play. Noting the similarity on these tracks to latter-day Funkadelic isn't off – there's a ton of space here for Hampton, Bernie, Junie and the Horny Horns to stretch out.

None of which is to suggest Clinton wasn't running out of gas here – just that his empty is still more enervated, offbeat and inspired than 98% of his peers.

Trombipulation is on Spotify now.

oh cool someone else who won't pay George Clinton

I actually prefer The Electric Spanking of War Babies to either of these records. For me, Funkadelic have the edge from Funkadelic up to Let's Take It To The Stage, then I switch to Parliament from Mothership Connection up to Motor Booty Affair and then back to Funkadelic for One Nation Under A Groove onwards.

man me and the baby had a music-room dance to Trombipulation yesterday and it's no Motor-Booty or anything but it's plenty fun to dance around to some

rocking Gloryhallastupid in the same company this morning - its peaks sound closer to classic Parliament but Trombipulation is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be imo

eh I don't think too many P-Funk heads sleep on it. it is a little bit of an anomaly arrangement-wise, like I said upthread it gets downright proggy in places

“Let’s Play House” is so terrific.

https://youtu.be/5MwElIvxZ44