Revisiting Parliament's Gloryhallastoopid & Trombipulation

So I've been going deep into Parlianent and Funkadelic on Spotify as MOG lately – and am particularly fascinated by the work they did just as it all fell apart. But where there a numerous defenders of The Electric Spanking of War Babies, there aren't many who will stand up for these, the final two Parliament albums, which are generally regarded as the auditory consequence of George Clinton's empire falling apart amidst too many drugs and/or side projects.

While nobody will necessarily confuse these records for Mothership Connection or Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome in terms of consistency or popularity, I beg to differ.

For one, the playing and arrangements are outstanding – Bernie Worrell and Junie are on fire on both of these and while they were criticized for sometimes showing a bit less density than what pervaded the previous records, in reality very little sounds anything like straightforward funk – they're still deeply weird. And like later Summer/Moroder further explored and refines the soundworld they discovered with "I Feel Love," these tracks take the template of "Flash Light" and "Aquaboogie" to the next level -- the Moog bass on cuts like "Let's Play House" is unreal and "Long Way Around" has an excellent vocal arrangement. These records sound great.

There are a number of great, even classic cuts present. "Party People" may go on too long but "Theme from the Black Hole," "Big Bang Theory" and "Agony of Defeet" are all worthy to classic singles. And there are several great deep cuts as well, like the ensemble vocals on the title track to Gloryhallastoopid kills ("Pin the tail on the funky!") to the awesomely skipping beat on "New Doo Review."

Lastly, the concepts at play here. "Theme from the Black Hole" on Gloryhallastoopid has Sir Nose defeating Starchild which feels right when you think about where disco and, say, James Brown were in 1979...whereas Trombipulation ends the story with Sir Nose Jr. coming to the realization that his ancestors were the originators of funk and embracing dance.

What say ILM of these two rather poorly received and considered Parliament works?

"Gloryhallastoopid" is under rated but apart from "Agony Of Defeet" I'd say "Trombipulation" is the sound of the river running dry...I like Junie Morrison (and Ron Dunbar and Ron Ford) but I think they changed the formula (more soul flecked?) a little too much...I really like the first couple of GC solo albums tho..."You Shouldn't Bit Fish" in particular...

What say ILM of these two rather poorly received and considered Parliament works?

I'd say the poor reception was largely justified, there are some great tracks on "Gloryhallastoopid" though. I can't actually remember how any of the tracks on "Trombipulation" go, I think that says it all... apart from "Agony of Defeet" that is and the vocals on that track have always annoyed me.

While I think both of these records are more to be experienced as a whole rather than cut-by-cut, "Agony..." has grown on me considerably over the years, in part because it's got super solid production and playing, In particular some great synth (which feel to me like Junie rather than Bernie) and a sick Michael Hampton solo. Trombipulation in general has a really tight sound overall where Gloryhallastoopid has a disco-ier feel.

BTW, not to veer off my own topic but does anyone else feel like the proper way to really absorb all these Parliament records is with all the big gatefolds? I'm generally scaling back on buying physical product these days but I would def. shell out for a big Parliament box that reproduces all the Pedro Bell cartoons and liners in big book form. Given what an unbelievable narrative this all is (and what a money whore Clinton is supposed to be), I'm kind of stunned that hasn't happened yet. I think it would go a long way to putting these two releases (the latter of which is OOP) in context as well.

I think to be fair he's a money whore prolly cos he ain't got any...shame really...apparently he's doing a reality show ala "The Osbornes"...was in London this weekend doing some kind of "in the studio with" event...

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