Search - Funkadelic :: One Nation Under a Groove

Yet Another Funkadelic Best

BKenny | New Jersey | 09/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was too hot to handle if you were not into funk but the ever danceable "One Nation" made you get up. It was a National anthem for "us folks" and gave us some pride in knowing that we are "One Nation Under A Groove" and we had a voice. We had "Lift Every Voice " and now we got "One Nation" what more can you ask for. You have a wonderfully written dance song with the team of george Clinton, Gary Shider and the multi-talented Walter "Junie" Morrisson. "Grooveallegience" is another well done song withe the bass of Rodney "Skeet" Curtis..Another revamp of the funk mob but not noticeable only great music. The are puffing out their chests and saying "Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?"--The "Promental............enemasquad" was a hilarious treat and I am glad that they put the instumental on the album as it is a good music track--They just lacked the backing vocal tracks that was on "Promental". "Maggot Brain' the live version was very good Eddie or Mike I don't remember but excellent all of the same. This was the year for the Parliament/Funkadelic as they put a flag on the earth and then went underwater---I said it before, and I'll say it again, what a funk mob!!!"

Classic

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 11/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"P-funk is sometimes referred to as Clinton's funk collective, and One Nation Under A Groove is where this concept first becomes undisbutable. He had been running Parlament and Funkadelic for years as two units, but the more they shared musicians and ideas, the less the demarcation made sense. So why not gather the whole caravan together for a masterpeice: Here it is, the whole gang's gift to you.



If you think of it, the process that lead up to One Nation Under A Groove is not unlike what lead up to the Temptations Cloud Nine in 1969. Listen to all of the albums since Maggot Brain, and you'll notice that the music becomes more and more spacious. First to go were the wha whas and acid declorations, then the heavy eccho. A lot of this had to do with the 1960s ending.



But if taking out, also put in. All this new room allowed for more percussion, more back up vocals--sans the eccho--and fatter bass. The music became lean structurally, but a lot more smaller sounds like cowbells, synths. a random vocal overlap here and there, moved within these big song frames. You hear this on the first track, and on "Enima Squad." The music becomes more layered and textured than ever, once the outmoded was removed.



All this does not explain why this is a classic album. The band is extreamly tight, but extremely loose, very controled, but very spontainious. There is a lot of improvasation going on, and listening to the guitar crash into the vocals which bump against the bass and keybords give all this music a sense of jazzy, funky, over-the top celebration. Yet the rythms section is tight, stays to its pattern, and is extremely disciplined The concepts here are great, but it is the way everything jells once the tape is rolling that make One Nation the king of funk albums.



Music was getting more dancible by the day in 1978, when this arrived, and I am sure it would have been effortless for Clinton to get strings sections and pander. Instead, he gave Disco a big plastic finger, and created a music that was MORE driving, MORE foot stomping,

and MORE rump shaking. Yet it rocks with its heavy guitars and political attitude.



There is a reason disco is being sold, song by song, on TimeLife comps to aging yuppie moms, while young people are still listening to this ALBUM. They ask about 70s funk, and we hand them One Nation Under A Groove.



That, my friends, is called a Classic"