Cosmic Slop

Cosmic Slop
Studio album by Funkadelic
Released July 9, 1973
Recorded 1972-1973
United Sound Studio, Detroit
Manta Sound Studio, Toronto
Genre Funk, psychedelic soul
Length 35:32
Label Westbound
WB-2022
Producer George Clinton
Funkadelic chronology
America Eats Its Young
(1972)		 Cosmic Slop
(1973)		 Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
(1974)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Blender[2]
Robert ChristgauB[3]
Mojo[4]
Q[4]
Rolling Stone[5]
Spin(9/10)[6]

Cosmic Slop is the fifth studio album by Funkadelic, released in 1973 on Westbound Records. While it has been favorably reevaluated by critics long after its original release, the album was a commercial failure, producing no charting singles, and making only #112 on the Billboard pop chart and #21 on the R&B chart.[7]

Cosmic Slop is the first Funkadelic album to feature artwork and liner notes by Pedro Bell, who assumed responsibility for the band’s gate-fold album covers and liner notes until the band’s collapse after 1981’s The Electric Spanking of War Babies. Bell’s liner notes to Cosmic Slop include small illustrations next to each song’s name, summarizing the song in a picture.

Track listing

Side One

  1. “Nappy Dugout” (George Clinton, Cordell Mosson, Garry Shider) – 4:33
  2. “You Can’t Miss What You Can’t Measure” (Clinton, Sidney Barnes) – 3:03
  3. “March to the Witch’s Castle” (Clinton) – 5:59
  4. “Let’s Make It Last” (Clinton, Eddie Hazel) – 4:08

Side Two

  1. “Cosmic Slop” (Clinton, Bernie Worrell)(released as a single-Westbound 218) – 5:17
  2. “No Compute” (Clinton, Shider) – 3:03
  3. “This Broken Heart” (William Franklin) – 3:37
  4. “Trash A-Go-Go” (Clinton) – 2:25
  5. “Can’t Stand the Strain” (Clinton, Hazel) – 3:27

Line-up

Mallia Franklin and Debbie Wright both contributed vocals and were not credited.

Songs

Nappy Dugout

“Nappy Dugout” is a slang term referring to the vagina.[8]

You Can’t Miss What You Can’t Measure

The singer explains why he is sad, because his woman has left him for someone else. He claims to have noticed water in his house and called a plumber, who told him that the water did not come from his sink, but from his tears. He also claims his "nerves are shot" and he has devoured most of his fingernails in his pain. This song is a reworking of the 1965 Parliaments single "Heart Trouble". The instrumental portion of this song was reworked into "Do That Stuff" for the 1976 album The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein.

March to the Witch’s Castle

This was one of the first P Funk songs to deal with the Vietnam War.

The song’s title refers to a meeting of Vietnam vets and President Nixon at the White House. An overtly political song, “March to the Witch’s Castle” concerns the tribulations of Vietnam veterans coming home to the United States, and deals with adjusting to a non-wartime society and addiction. The soldier has become addicted (presumably to heroin) and found that his wife, thinking he was dead, married someone else. The soldier did not understand why he was fighting the war, and why he gave so much of his life to fighting abstract concepts that he cared little about. Rock band My Morning Jacket reworked the main guitar part for the song "Run Thru" on their 2004 release, It Still Moves.

Let’s Make It Last

The singer of this song proclaims his desire for a long-standing love instead of a temporary fling.

Cosmic Slop

This is one of the most popular P Funk songs among fans of the group, and is often played in live shows. An updated recording of the song, recorded "live" during a rehearsal for the P-Funk Earth Tour, appeared on the 1976 album Hardcore Jollies. George Clinton later compared himself to the subject of the song (a woman who becomes a prostitute to feed her children) because he was forced to use his celebrity-status in commercials (such as for the IMac) due to severe financial difficulties.

The song is about an impoverished mother with five children who has resorted to prostitution in order to support her family. Although she tries to shield her children from the knowledge that they are poor and she is a prostitute, every night the narrator hears his mother beg God for forgiveness and understanding for doing what she has to do for the sake of her children.

This track was remade several times by future lineups of Parliament/Funkadelic. A live version (recorded during a rehearsal) appears on the 1976 Funkadelic album Hardcore Jollies. Several Parliament/Funkadelic members contributed to a full cover of the track for Bill Laswell’s Axiom Funk project, released on the 1995 album Funkcronomicon.

Another live version, from 1983 and released in 1990 on Live at the Beverly Theater, features Dennis Chambers on drums, Rodney Curtis on bass, and Eddie Hazel, Garry Shider, and Michael Hampton on guitar.

No Compute

The singer awakens from a dream horny, and goes in search of a sexual partner. He finds a woman who agrees but expresses worry over the possibility of getting pregnant. The singer says “spit don’t make babies” and the woman agrees. Afterward, looking at the person he has just had an encounter with, “breath smelling like a 1946 Buick”, the singer has “the guilties.”

This Broken Heart

This is a cover of a song by The Sonics (a 1950s doo wop group and not the later identically named garage band from the northwest) song by the same name.

The singer proclaims his love for a woman, and asks if she is planning on leaving him. He claims that no one will ever love her as much as he does.

Trash A-Go-Go

The singer is a man who is on trial for having pimped his girlfriend out as a prostitute. The judge and jury are not sympathetic, though he claims to love her deeply. The man is given 10–20 years in prison.

Can’t Stand the Strain

The singer of this song is suspicious that his lover is planning on leaving him, and he begs her not to leave because he will not be able to withstand the strain of his sadness if she did. This song features the same tune as an early song in the George Clinton stable, "Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good," released in 1968 under the name Rose Williams, George Clinton, & the Funkadelics.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Blender review
  3. ↑ "Robert Christgau: CG: Funkadelic". robertchristgau.com.
  4. 1 2 "Music: FUNKADELIC - COSMIC SLOP + 1 : REMASTERED by Funkadelic, 106840287". Tower.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  5. ↑ "The New Rolling Stone Album Guide". google.com.
  6. ↑ "Acclaimed Music - Cosmic Slop". Acclaimed Music.
  7. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r7888/charts-awards Allmusic.com - Cosmic Slop chart details
  8. ↑ http://www.rapdict.org/Nappy_dugout nappy dugout
  • Cosmic Slop album liner notes by Dean Rudland (2005). Westbound Records Inc. 
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