Parliament

On Chocolate City, George Clinton's Parliament set the template for the forward-thinking, funky afro-futurism that would become their trademark. The spoken-word casualness of the title track gives way to the bass-buoyed glory of "Ride On" and "Together." "Don't worry about being right," the singers implore. "Just worry about being real."

After George Clinton's Funkadelic crashed and burned -- taking the whole era of
psychedelic funk-rock with it -- up sprouted Parliament, an astonishing new group building
wonderlands of fun and sass and ass and horns and keyboards. Whereas the old,
guitar-centered band glowered at the straight world from its freak-trench, Parliament
found a way to party with it -- and still bring their own Babel of stoned jokes, inv... More >

On the first side A DJ who reminds me of original AM scatman Jocko Henderson jive-raps on the satisfactions of suffrage and then gives way to a danceable, listenable, forgettable groove. On the second side, interesting but hookless off-harmony excursions, two of them too slow and/or too long, break into some heavy funk for the ages. (Grade - B)