Product Notes
The classic Funkadelic album - with plenty of Bootsy Collins - remastered from the original master tapes for the first time in 15 years. This is the album that saw Bootsy invent his classic "Casper" vocal style on the mighty 'Be My Beach', an album that provided Funkadelic with their sixth Top 20 R&B album. This release includes the original 10-track album and the original version of album track 'Baby I Owe You Something Good' taken from the earlier US Music with Funkadelic 45. This is now a $150 single. Includes in-depth notes from funk expert and series compiler Dean Rudland. These include a band history and details of the recording of this album. The booklet includes a full color reproduction of Pedro Bell's phenomenal artwork from the original album, as well as original adverts and rarely-seen band pictures. Westbound. 2005.
Product Reviews
One of Funkadelic's goofiest releases, Let's Take It to the Stage also contains more P-Funk all-time greats as well, making for a grand balance of the serious and silly. Perhaps the silliest is at the end -- there's not much else one can call the extended oompah/icing rink start of "Atmosphere." The title track is as much a call to arms as "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow" is, but with a more direct musical performance and a more open nod to party atmospheres (not to mention the source of one of Andrew Dice Clay's longest-running bits). The targets of the band's good-natured wrath are, in fact, other groups -- "Hey, Fool and the Gang! Let's take it to the stage!" There's no mistaking the track that immediately follows makes it even more intense -- "Get off Your Ass and Jam" kicks in with one bad-ass drum roll and then scorches the damn place down, from guitar solo to the insanely funky bass from Bootsy Collins. It may only be two and a half minutes long, but it alone makes the album a classic. Hearing Collins' unmistakable tones is usually enough to get anything on the crazy tip, but "Be My Beach" just makes it all the more fun, as does the overall air of silly romance getting nuttier as it goes. "Good to Your Earhole" sets the outrageous mood just right -- it's one of the band's tightest monsters of funk, guitars sprawling all over the place even as the heavy-hitting rhythm doesn't let one second of groove get lost. Of course, there's also one totally notorious number to go with it, but "No Head No Backstage Pass" has one of the craziest rhythms on the whole album, not to mention lip-smackingly nutty lines delivered with the appropriate leer. [The 2005 reissue features excellent remastered sound, a thick booklet, and a U.S. Music track that features Funkadelic.] ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi