Released December 15, 1975 Artist Parliament Label Casablanca Records Genres Funk, Funk rock | Length 38:06 Release date 15 December 1975 Producer George Clinton | |
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Recorded March–October 1975 at United Sound, Detroit, Michigan, and Hollywood Sound, Hollywood, California Mothership Connection
(1975) The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein
(1976) Similar Parliament albums, Funk albums | ||
Parliament mothership connection full album
Mothership Connection is the fourth album by American funk band Parliament, released on December 15, 1975 on Casablanca Records. This concept album of P-Funk mythology is usually rated as one of Parliament's best. Mothership Connection was the first P-Funk album to feature Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, who had left The J.B.'s, James Brown's backing band. Mothership Connection became Parliament's first album to be certified gold and later platinum. The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2011, declaring "[t]he album has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music."
Contents
Parliament give up the funk tear the roof off the sucker
History
Describing the album, George Clinton said "We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang."
Dr. Dre sampled the songs "Mothership Connection (Star Child)" and "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" on his album The Chronic.
Reception
In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Mothership Connection the 55th greatest album of all time.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 276 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Rolling Stone (5/1/03, p. 59) - 5 stars out of 5 - "The masterpiece, the slang creator, the icon builder, the master narrative--or 'the bomb,' as Clinton succinctly put it before anyone else."
Vibe (2/02, p. 87) - Included in Vibe's "Essential Black Rock Recordings".
The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Personnel
Singles released
Songs
1P Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)7:41
2Mothership Connection (Star Child)6:14
3Unfunky UFO4:24