The second Parliament album, Up for the Down Stroke, was released on July 3, 1974 through Casablanca Records. And the date is significant because a week later, the also-George–Clinton-led Funkadelic would release Standing on the Verge of Getting it On, bringing the two concurrent projects into their closest alignment up that point, like galaxies starting to pull each other’s gravity before merging.

It’s a crucial moment for what eventually would become Parliament-Funkadelic, p-funk, Clinton and his cohort, players like keyboard/organist Bernie Worrell, a returned bassist Bootsy Collins, guitarist/vocalists Eddie Hazel and Garry Shider, Ramon “Tiki” Fulwood on drums, and singers Raymond Davis, Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas, as they continued to hammer out the definition of ‘funk’ as a genre through their songwriting. No, they were not at all alone in that endeavor by 1974 — Betty Davis‘ They Say I’m Different came out the same year; we’re talking peak-era for what it was at the time — but they were distinguished among practitioners in concept and execution, influential, and for Parliament on Up for the Down Stroke, they’d hit the moment where they figured out how to be in two simultaneously operating bands and how to carve an identity for each.

But it’s a party any way you go. And that’s the point.

A nigh-on-unparalleled-in-the-catalog trilogy of bangers launches Up for the Down Stroke, beginning with the title-track. Hazel and Clinton share lead vocals and the groove has definitely been to New York City to get slick and get its hair laid. Its hi-hat alone is funkier than the catalogs of entire bands trying to hit that mark. It, “Testify” and the mellow-groover “The Goose” — complete with a nine-minute jam that sounds like the skull from whence three-quarters of Brant Bjork‘s solo catalog sprang; that’s a compliment to Bjork and a cover I’d love to hear him do, though I’m not sure he’s taking requests — with a characteristically down-for-screwing vocal from Clinton nestled comfortably in the mix, and more psychedelic guitar flourish in its jam than even Funkadelic had shown since Maggot Brain (discussed here), which was three years, like four albums, and at least five lifetimes earlier.

“Testify,” with an absolute treasure of an ascending hook — borrowing from the gospel music it’s referencing, but it’s love that’s holy — had been around for years, and had been performed by Clinton with The Parliaments, the New Jersey-based doo-wop precursor to Funkadelic and Parliament, in a less funkified version. “The Goose” and the later “All Your Goodies are Gone” — which flows like a companion-piece for “The Goose,” but is on the other side of the relationship — had similar origins, and featuring here, one can only agree Clinton and the group were right to keep them in-pocket for as long as they did. The level of realization on those songs, or even just the guitar-led hard-funk strutter “I Can Move You (If You Let Me),” which wasn’t a The Parliaments tune, runs under three minutes and is given the arduous task of regrounding the proceedings after “The Goose,” though with “I Just Got Back (From the Fantasy; Ahead of Our Time in the Four Lands of Ellet)” subsequent, that grounding doesn’t last much longer than the track’s own 2:48.

And fair enough for the odd, lush and fantastic-in-the-fantasy sense bit of escapism. Clinton had already pioneered Afrofuturism as a post-psych path for Funkadelic, but “I Just Got Back,” with Peter Chase‘s whistling, the folkish storytelling of the lyrics, intricate acoustic guitar and instrumental meander, is quietly over-the-top. It forces one to ask the question of how long one human being ever needs to listen to another human being whistle — I’ll gladly posit less than in the song — and pairs with the Hazel-fronted key-and-bass shuffle highlight closer “Presence of a Brain,” which is basically Parliament calling the entire world morons without any ability to connect with each other in a meaningful way. So yes, relevant.

Before that finale, though, comes “Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good,” tucked in after “All Your Goodies Are Gone” has smoothed-soul’ed you with its piano-driven title-line repetitions, and again finding Worrell banging away on piano keys. In arrangement terms, “Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good” is more about its highlight bluesy guitar solo and the somewhat saccharine fluidity of its lovey-dovey vocal line — it is cloying in a way that feels like parody — but its the harmonized vocals that sell it, not just in following “All Your Goodies Are Gone,” but as its own dug-in statement as well. It’s a jam by the finish, which ends in another fade as they transition to the weirdo, more sci-fi groove of “Presence of a Brain,” and the sound is somewhat akin to the mirror-flip of prog rock’s enduring fascination with funk, given the technical nuance of the capper’s rhythm. It’s not surprising that Parliament could nail it, as these players had long since shown a propensity for doing, but it’s not always something they reinforce either.

In that way, Up for the Down Stroke is prescient of the next couple years and albums Parliament and Funkadelic would put together. How I generally think about it is that this is the moment P-funk, as a collective, figured out it was hot shit and decided it was time the world found out about it. Not that they were ever short on swagger, but saying and showing are two different things, and this record continues to show a lot about who and what Parliament/Funkadelic were becoming, that ongoing process, while also serving as a landmark for its songs, from the nascent, repetition-based dance modus in the second half of “Up for the Down Stroke” through the intertwining voices fading out as “Presence of a Brain” comes down. A stride was being hit.

It’s hard, as someone who wasn’t there, to appreciate how much momentum might have been on their side at this point, but hindsight is a gift in understanding the project Parliament were undertaking and its conversation between soul, rock, and the funk of its own making. If you believe fun can be beautiful, it’s an argument in your favor.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

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How ’bout that Quarterly Review, huh? It was a busier week for writing than for posting, of course, but remarkably easy to get through. The music was good. That’s always the thing.

My plan was to be in Croatia today, this weekend, for Bear Stone Festival. That was my plan pretty much since I left Slunj last year thinking it was an event I never wanted to miss again. I’ll be staying off social media as much as possible the next few days. Which is to say not staying off at all and just being sad at the pictures of good bands and gorgeous Croatian countryside, the video, lights, etc. Maybe next year, if I’m lucky.

We were in Connecticut the last few days, came back last night to host family today for a mellow fourth of July, celebrating the fuck knows what about this shithole country. Its founding, I guess. Saw fireworks. Going to see more fireworks. Hooray for fireworks. Hooray for everything. Beat me in the head with a hammer.

A lot of news to catch up on for Monday and a video I wanted to post this week and didn’t get to, so that’ll be there as well. I’ve got a Cosmic Reaper premiere booked and I want to review the Electric Citizen before they come through my very own hometown to play in like a week and a half. Very much looking forward to not having to drive to and most especially home from Brooklyn to actually see a gig. It’s been I think since Freedom Hawk came through Jersey with The Atomic Bitchwax, and this is closer to my house than that.

Haven’t done a Zelda update in a while so here’s one: I finished with The Wind Waker, which I very much enjoyed. I was thinking of starting Ocarina of Time on my phone or trying to mod it on the PC for various quality-of-life facilitations — which is to say, cheats — but haven’t really had time. Going to and from Freak Valley, I had the Switch with me on the plane and played Tears of the Kingdom pretty much the whole flight both ways, so I guess I’m back in that, but it’s been a few days at this point. The Switch 2 has older games in its online catalog for streaming. I’ve enjoyed The Minish Cap before, and there’s always the original NES game, though if I’m honest there’s no way I’m playing that for much more than the music.

Which, if you want to talk about the songs that shaped your life, Zelda music. Mario music. The theme to Street Fighter II. No question I’ve listened to that music more than Black Sabbath, Kyuss and Sleep and anyone else you want to namedrop put together. Strange that the sound is so incidental to the experience, compared to everywhere else in my life where my brain is like “WHY ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO A RECORD RIGHT NOW YOU SHOULD BE.”

Gonna punch out and wish you a great and safe weekend. Tonight, fireworks. Tomorrow, surely more horrors in this age of them. Be as well as you can. It’s pretty much all we’ve got, and it’s going to keep getting worse out there. The boot on your neck forever, and such.

FRM.

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