Mothership Connection
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Mothership Connection
| type = studio
| artist = Parliament
| cover = ParliamentMothershipConnection.jpg
| alt =
| released = December 15, 1975
| venue =
| studio = United Sound, Detroit, Michigan, and Hollywood Sound, Hollywood, California
| genre = *Funk
- R&B[http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/20754-parliament-up-for-the-down-stroke-chocolate-city-and-mothership-connection Review: Mothership Connection] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206145543/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/20754-parliament-up-for-the-down-stroke-chocolate-city-and-mothership-connection |date=February 6, 2009 }}
- funk rock{{cite book|first= Wayne |last= Robins |year= 2016 |title= A Brief History of Rock, Off the Record |publisher= Routledge |page= 286 |isbn= 978-0-415-97472-1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PfvdCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA286}}
- disco{{cite web|url=http://www.superseventies.com/spparliament.html |title=Review: Mothership Connection |publisher=Superseventies.com |access-date=2013-07-14}}
- progressive soul{{cite journal|last=Keister|first=Jay|title=Black Prog: Soul, Funk, Intellect and the Progressive Side of Black Music of the 1970s|journal=American Music Research Center Journal|volume=28|year=2019|url=https://www.colorado.edu/amrc/sites/default/files/attached-files/109701_cu_amrcjournal_cover_prf.pdf|via=colorado.edu|accessdate=January 29, 2021|pages=5–22}}
| length = 38:18
| label = Casablanca
{{small|NBLP 7022}}/Def Jam
| producer = George Clinton
| prev_title = Chocolate City
| prev_year = 1975
| next_title = The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein
| next_year = 1976
| misc = {{Singles
| name = Mothership Connection
| type = studio
| single1 = P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)
| single1date = 1976
| single2 = Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)
| single2date = 1976
| single3 = Star Child (Mothership Connection)
| single3date = 1976
}}
}}
Mothership Connection is the fourth album by American funk band Parliament, released on December 15, 1975, on Casablanca Records. This concept album is often rated among the best Parliament-Funkadelic releases, and was the first to feature horn players Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, previously of James Brown's backing band the J.B.'s.
Mothership Connection became Parliament's first album to be certified gold and later platinum.{{Certification Cite|region=United States|artist=Parliament|type=album}} It was supported by the hit "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)," the band's first million-selling single. The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2011, declaring that it "has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music."{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/registry/nrpb-2011reg.html |title=Registry Choices 2010: The National Recording Preservation Board (Library of Congress) |publisher=Loc.gov |access-date=2013-07-14}}
Concept
{{main|P-Funk mythology}}
The album is held together by an outer-space theme. Describing the concept, 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."{{cite web |last=Niesel |first=Jeff |url=http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-09-13/music/music.html |title=Cleveland - Music - Turn This Mutha Out |publisher=Clevescene.com |date=2013-06-26 |access-date=2013-07-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017051541/http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-09-13/music/music.html |archive-date=2015-10-17 }} The album's concept would form the backbone of P-Funk's concert performances during the 1970s, in which a large spaceship prop known as the Mothership would be lowered onto the stage.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/smithsonian-acquires-parliament-funkadelic-mothership/2011/05/18/AFHMvj6G_story.html |title=Smithsonian acquires Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership |first=Chris |last=Richards |date=May 18, 2011 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=December 14, 2013 |archive-date=December 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216214624/http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-05-18/lifestyle/35232787_1_smithsonian-george-clinton-african-american-history |url-status=live }}
BBC Music described the album as a pioneering work of Afrofuturism "set in a future universe where black astronauts interact with alien worlds."{{cite web |last1=McAlpine |first1=Frasier |title=8 afrofuturist classics everyone needs to hear |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/0ebecc1d-d08b-465f-924e-ee037e9231ab |website=BBC Music |date=2 March 2018 |access-date=8 April 2021}} Journalist Frasier McAlpine stated: "As a reaction to an increasingly fraught 1970s urban environment in which African-American communities faced the end of the optimism of the civil rights era, this flamboyant imagination (and let's be frank, exceptional funkiness) was both righteous and joyful."
Reception
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r14885|first=Jason|last=Birchmeier}}
| rev2 = Billboard
| rev2Score = (favorable){{cite web|url=http://www.superseventies.com/spparliament.html |title=Review: Mothership Connection |publisher=Superseventies.com |access-date=2013-07-14}}
| rev3 = Blender
| rev3Score = {{Rating|5|5}}[http://www.blender.com/guide/reissue/51133/up-for-down-strokechocolate-citymothership-connection.html Review: Mothership Connection] {{dead link|date=May 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
|rev4 = Christgau's Record Guide
|rev4Score = A−{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: P|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=P&bk=70|access-date=March 10, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}
| rev5 = Pitchfork
| rev6 = PopMatters
| rev6Score = (favorable){{cite web|last=Bowden |first=Marshall |url=http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/p/parliament-mothership.shtml |title=Review: Mothership Connection |publisher=Popmatters.com |access-date=2013-07-14}}
| rev8 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
| rev9 = Spin Alternative Record Guide
| rev10 = Sputnikmusic
| rev10Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=3381 |title=Review: Mothership Connection |publisher=Sputnikmusic.com |access-date=2013-07-14}}
}}
On release, Rolling Stone called the album a "parody of modern funk" and stated that "unlike the Ohio Players or Commodores, the group refuses to play it straight. Instead, Clinton spews his jive, conceived from some cosmic funk vision."{{cite magazine |url= https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/mothership-connection-19760325 |title=Mothership Connection | Album Reviews | Rolling Stone |first=Joe |last= McEwen |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=March 25, 1976 |access-date=13 November 2011}} In a positive review, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau stated that Clinton "keeps the beat going with nothing but his rap, some weird keyboard, and cymbals for stretches of side one," and described "Give Up the Funk" as "galactic."
Retrospectively, Mothership Connection has been widely acclaimed, and it is typically considered to be one of the best albums by the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. Rolling Stone
The album has received many retrospective accolades, including being named VH1's 55th greatest album of all time. In 2012, it was ranked at number 276 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time; it was featured again on the 2020 edition, at number 363.{{cite web |year=2012 |title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/parliament-mothership-connection-173103/ |access-date=September 10, 2019 |publisher=Rolling Stone}}{{Cite magazine|date=2020-09-22|title=The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/|access-date=2021-06-24|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}} Vibe listed Mothership Connection in their "Essential Black Rock Recordings" list, and it was included in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Track listing
{{Track listing
| headline = Side One
| title1 = P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)
| writer1 = George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell
| length1 = 7:41
| title2 = Mothership Connection (Star Child)
| writer2 = Clinton, Collins, Worrell
| length2 = 6:13
| title3 = Unfunky UFO
| writer3 = Clinton, Collins, Garry Shider
| length3 = 4:23
| total_length = 18:17
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side Two
| title4 = Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication
| writer4 = Clinton, Collins, Shider, Worrell
| length4 = 5:03
| title5 = Handcuffs
| writer5 = Clinton, Glenn Goins, Janet McLaughlin
| length5 = 4:02
| title6 = Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)
| writer6 = Jerome Brailey, Clinton, Collins
| length6 = 5:46
| title7 = Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples
| writer7 = Clinton, Collins, Shider
| length7 = 5:10
| total_length = 20:01
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = 2003 CD remaster bonus track
| title8 = Star Child (Mothership Connection)
| note8 = Promo Radio Version
| length8 = 3:08
| writer8 = Clinton, Collins, Worrell
| total_length = 41:26
}}
Personnel
- Vocals - George Clinton (lead on "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" and "Mothership Connection (Star Child)"), Calvin Simon, Fuzzy Haskins, Ray Davis, Grady Thomas, Gary Shider (co-lead on "Handcuffs"), Glenn Goins (lead on "Unfunky UFO" and "Handcuffs"), Bootsy Collins
- Horns - Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Boom, Joe Farrell
- Bass guitar - Bootsy Collins, Cordell Mosson
- Guitars - Garry Shider, Michael Hampton, Glenn Goins, Bootsy Collins
- Drums and percussion - Tiki Fulwood, Jerome Brailey, Bootsy Collins, Gary Cooper
- Keyboards - Bernie Worrell (Minimoog, Wurlitzer electric piano, ARP Pro Soloist and String Ensemble, RMI Electra Piano, Hammond organ, grand piano, Fender Rhodes, Clavinet D6)
- Backing vocals and handclaps - Gary Cooper, Debbie Edwards, Taka Kahn, Archie Ivy, Bryna Chimenti, Rasputin Boutte, Pam Vincent, Debra Wright, Sidney Barnes
;Production
- Produced by George Clinton
- Engineered by Jim Vitti (in Detroit, Michigan), Ralph (Oops) Jim Callon (in Hollywood, California)
- Mastered by Allen Zentz
- Photography by David Alexander
- Art Direction and Design by Gribbitt!
Chart positions
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Chart (1976)
!Peak |
|---|
| US Billboard 200{{allMusic|class=album|id=r14885|tab=charts-awards}}
|align=center| 13 |
| US R&B Albums
|align=center| 4 |
Certification
{{Certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|title=Mothership Connection|artist=Parliament|type=album|award=Platinum}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=yes}}
See also
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:648444 Mothership Connection: Banging hip-hop from worlds away] at The Austin Chronicle
{{Parliament}}
{{P-Funk}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Parliament (band) albums
Category:Casablanca Records albums
Category:Science fiction concept albums
Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings