"I just want to tell you all before we go any further: I'm higher than a motherfucker. Y'all got to bear with us — we got a new drummer here tonight — Tyrone! We're going to get it together anyhow, and we're gonna pee on your afro." Who else but Funkadelic could deliver such a message and it sound absolutely thrilling? The performance captured when Funkadelic played the Meadowbrook on Sept. 12, 1971 is more than a little bit clunky.
This is after all a live recording that begins with the introduction "George 'Chief Cokehead' Clinton is going to sprinkle funk from one end of this pavilion to the other." The drummer had maybe rehearsed once with the band before the set, and the sound is blown-out. But it really has its moments, I think, especially towards the end.
The live set has been available as a CD and download for 20 years now, but it's about to get the vinyl collector treatment thanks to the Tidal Wave label, which is distributed by Light in the Attic. The live album is available at local stores that carry new records, or online right here. The same label is also reissuing that double album compilation of Funkadelic's music from 1970-76, Finest. "Both albums are double LP sets that come with OBI-strip. Each is limited to 1000 copies." Man, some people love their OBI-strips.
Live - Meadowbrook, Rochester, Michigan - 12th of September 1971 contains a unique snapshot of Funkadelic’s live performance at the height of their powers and is the only official in-concert recording from their early career. The crystal clear recordings provide an overdose of free-floating psychedelic black rock and spaced-out jams: ‘Jimi Hendrix, James Brown & Sun Ra making a love-child live on stage’.
