Let's Take It to the Stage

by Funkadelic

Overview

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

Product Details

Release Date:	04/25/2005
Label:	Westbound
UPC:	0029667009324
Rank:	47913

Tracks

1. Good to Your Earhole
2. Better by the Pound
3. Be My Beach
4. No Head No Backstage Pass
5. Let's Take It to the Stage
6. Get Off Your Ass and Jam
7. I Owe You Something Good
8. Stuffs & Things
9. The Song Is Familiar
10. Atmosphere
11. Baby I Owe You Something Good

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Funkadelic   Primary Artist
U.S. Music   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Grace Cook   Composer
Gregory Cook   Composer
Jim Callon   Engineer
Pedro Bell   Art Direction,Design
Bernie Worrell   Composer
Bootsy Collins   Composer
Ron Bykowski   Composer
Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins   Composer
Jim Uitti   Engineer
Ray Davies   Composer
Mike Hammond   Composer
"Boogie" C. Mosson   Composer
George Clinton   Design,Composer,Producer
Calvin Simon   Composer
Ramon Tiki Fulwood   Composer
Garry Shider   Composer
Grady Thomas   Composer
Sir Lleb of Funkadelia   Liner Notes