You and Your POLL, Me and My POLL: The P-Funk Results Poll

That's true.

I mean, I'm not much of an acid rock guy either, so there's that.

Just seeing this now. I thought Sexy Ways would be top 20 fer sure.

And...since Atomic Dog already placed, I'm guessing there will be no Free Alterations, which I should have had in my top 5

Anybody remember that SNL clip where Stevie Wonder is doing a British accent and praising Atomic Dog for being meaningless, as opposed to the preachy music of Stevie Wonder? It was kind of funny, but coming from a guy who had recently spawned "Ebony & Ivory" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You"....

Gee, I would have put Atomic Dog as #21 on my 20 song ballot to please Chuck Eddy. That song is swell. Another one of those I figured people would just vote for anyway.

The Goose in the top 40! Aside from 'you & your folks', my highest place yet --- and the last of my "eccentric" picks I'm afraid. My #1 comes so perfectly right after that on "up for the down stroke" yet many many placements on mix tapes shows it as playing well with others: "I Can Move You if you let me," which is one of their most succinct statements, should have been a radio hit. Every time I hear it I go around singing "but you were somewhere sharing fantasies, normal and/or otherwise"....

Seriously though Chuck, how can you claim the grooves on the great Parliament albums so obviously beat the elemental perfection of the groove, the concept, the sheer audacity of their let their be light moment: "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic"? Those background singers and the near hysteria of their singing along with that main line.

It's hardly like early Funkadelic is typical acid rock- most of which is comparably rhythmically challenged, to put it mildly.

All right, I'm placing my last hopes on "I Wanna Know If It's Good To You" because, well, I want to know if it's good to you? That song stands on the line between groove and chaos as well as anything --- that counterintuitive keyboard bit with the echoey phases section at the end justs sends it into the stratosphere. "Hit it and quit it" is another great one to be sure. But if "Tear the Roof Off" wins that will be okay too, because that was the very first one I heard, knowing nothing, as a ten year old AM radio listener: what IS this?

I'm not actually Chuck Eddy, btw. Hey, I voted for "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?" I even quoted it in my master's thesis!

Why do I prefer classic Parliament? It's denser - from the verbal and musical allusions to the arrangements, there's just more there there. And it moves me physically - I'm not saying the grooves on the Bootsy-era stuff are deeper, but they've got more angles and kinks in them for sure. Whether you prefer music to zone out or shake your ass to is down to personal quirks of taste, I know, but if you ask me the best of the mid-to-late 70s stuff is both more eccentric and more accessible than the earliest Westbound stuff, and that's no mean feat. Maybe I'm wrong; I wasn't born until 1982, so I have no reference point for just how strange (or how conventional) any of the classic-era P-Funk records sounded when they were released.

You & Your Folks was my #2. The groove is so hard, the singing is great, and that drum sound is what made me think "Funkadelic is going to be one of my all-time favorite bands" from the first time I heard it.

The one I thought would poll higher was 'Sir Nose D'voidofunk'...I love Bernie Worrell's playing on it...it's his magnum opus...and that bassline is possibly my favourite ever...

Looking forward to seeing the results today. Hopefully shakey will start earlier.

25. Parliament - Ride On (652 points, 9 votes)
http://youtu.be/GJoHuXCy-Dc

24. Funkadelic - I'll Stay (726 points, 9 votes)
http://youtu.be/EYIWebkeFMg

great tracks

Was going to say I could probably predict the top 25, if not the order, but I didn't predict "Ride On", I did vote for it though.

23. Parliament - Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop) (760 points, 10 votes)
http://youtu.be/jb2Pk_-kl5s

^^^extended 12" version (of which I was previously unaware)

I CAN'T SWIM

22. Funkadelic - Funky Dollar Bill (761 points, 10 votes)
http://youtu.be/CfVSqQ7FcDY

I HATE WATER

21. Parliament - Funkentelechy (764 points, 9 votes)
http://youtu.be/UFalZJ5eEwY

I love the guitar line in "I'll Stay" more than "Maggot Brain."

Only 21st? No way!

20. Parliament - Up For the Down Stroke (790 points, 11 votes)
http://youtu.be/urhJ81E-Bog

Wow. I figured Up For the Down Stroke would be top ten.

19. Funkadelic - I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing (800 points, 11 votes)
http://youtu.be/zGVTEP0xoiw

way too low should be top 5

18. Funkadelic - I Wanna Know If It's Good to You (814 points, 10 votes)
http://youtu.be/11_h2WHkswo

"up for the down stroke" I sit through to get to the rest of that lp...

"Funkentelechy" revealing the previously unremarked Aristotelian bent - it was space Platonians coming back on the unfunky ufo to try to steal it.

Aargh!!! I Wanna Know tops out at #18. I go way now.

17. Parliament - Bop Gun (Endangered Species) (847 points, 10 votes)
http://youtu.be/UW-V3MZWr_g

Never cared for that song much.

16. Funkadelic - Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow (853 points, 10 votes)
http://youtu.be/hXLJpaZDAVc

15. Parliament - Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) (858 points, 11 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://youtu.be/ImI78s638hQ

16? 16?? that really should be top 3. much better than the likes of one nation under a grovve

14. Funkadelic - Hit It and Quit It (871 points, 13 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://youtu.be/EBXU2t4hodo

13. Funkadelic - I Bet You (888 points, 11 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://youtu.be/m794e9Z-4aw

Oh, didn't vote for that, should have!

LOVE I Bet You. I put it too low, should have been top 5.

12. Funkadelic - (Not Just) Knee Deep (942 points, 12 votes)
http://youtu.be/Z-20v1b5jKY

Had Motor Booty Affair and Mommy What's A Funkadelic running though my head all day in the office - it was a good day!

11. Funkadelic - Red Hot Mama (983 points, 13 votes)
http://youtu.be/GeNkRuYHy8k

my 2

now for the fun part where you guys all guess what the top 10 is

Unfortunately I'm going to miss this, I've got to go out.

but celtic missed out on champs league tom

I thought guessing top ten was frowned upon.

is that not only in the big eoy poll? Its something I've always encouraged.

except that they always wait until the top 10 is obvious before guessing rather than doing so at the beginning

"I'll Bet You" a.k.a. "I Bet You" was the early one I thought should make top 10. That's my jam. I can't knock "Maggot Brain," the song - it's a brilliant performance - but it's never moved me as much as it should. I realize that's probably my problem and not the song's, and my impression of the Eddie Hazel original is unduly affected by the fact that I heard, and loved, the live Michael Hampton version on One Nation years earlier. Still voted for it, just not in the upper reaches of my ballot. I say "Maggot Brain" or "One Nation Under A Groove" takes the top spot on the poll.

Nice to see the love for Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, which really is one of their peaks - it's among the handful of P-Funk LPs that smokes from start to finish.

Damn, a whole bunch of my top ten has already placed. I voted Groovallegiance at number 3 and "I Got a Thing" at Number 5.

Can't believe "Hit it and Quit It" missed the top ten.

10. Parliament - Chocolate City (1005 points, 13 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://youtu.be/DZaVA3NS7zE

9. Funkadelic - Super Stupid (1066 points, 14 votes)
http://youtu.be/oVHrvx-Ua68

such a great song

8. Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child) (1088 points, 14 votes)
http://youtu.be/sSERB93GYfw