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Let's Take It to the Stage

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Let's Take It to the Stage is the seventh album by American funk rock band Funkadelic. It was released on April 21, 1975 on Westbound Records. The album charted at number 102 on the Billboard 200 and number 14 on the R&B Albums.[1]

Let's Take It to the Stage
Studio album by
Funkadelic
ReleasedApril 21, 1975
GenreFunk rock
Length35:57
LabelWestbound
ProducerGeorge Clinton
Funkadelic chronology
Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
(1974) 		Let's Take It to the Stage
(1975) 		Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
(1976)

Music and lyrics

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Let's Take It to the Stage is a funk rock album.[2] The opening track, "Good to Your Earhole", features extensive guitar parts and a pronounced funk groove played by the rhythm section.[3] According to Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton, the guitar solo for "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" was performed by "a smack addict" guitar player who had found his way into the studio. He asked Clinton if he could play for some cash and proceeded to play "like he was possessed", soloing over the entire duration of the song. He received $50 for his efforts without Clinton ever learning his name.[4] In a July 2009 interview with Vintage Guitar, guitarist Paul Warren said that he played the solo.[5]

The closing track "Atmosphere", which begins with a monologue by Clinton about "dicks and clits",[6] appropriates an extended organ coda from Johann Sebastian Bach.[7] "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" has been sampled on several hip hop hits, including Brand Nubian's "Slow Down", Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise", and N.W.A's "100 Miles and Runnin'".[1]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [3]
Blender     [6]
Christgau's Record GuideA–[7]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music     [8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide     [9]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[10]
The Village VoiceB+[11]

Reviewing the album in 1975, Billboard magazine called it a collection of Funkadelic's "usual good mix of soul and jazz sounds, mixed in with singing and street raps", citing the title track and "Baby I Owe You Something Good" as highlights.[12] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said Funkadelic finally does on record "what they've always promised to do in the hype—make the Ohio Players sound like the Mike Curb Congregation."[11] Years later, he wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981) that, despite the group's "disturbingly occultish bent", the music is "tough-minded, outlandish, very danceable, and finally, I think (and hope), liberating";[7] for Blender, he said it is their "tightest album ... all 10 tracks rock on."[6]

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Ned Raggett found Let's Take It to the Stage to be one of the band's most comical records with "more P-Funk all-time greats as well, making for a grand balance of the serious and silly."[3] Sasha Frere-Jones, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), said it was "a summing-up of everything Funkadelic had done to date, and is still their most playable record." He felt that, although Clinton's "sexual politics weren't at their best" on tracks such as "No Head No Backstage Pass", the album is exemplary of the band's musicianship.[13]

Track listing

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Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Good to Your Earhole"George Clinton, Grace Cook, Fuzzy Haskins4:30
2."Better By the Pound" (released as a single-Westbound 5014)Clinton, Cook2:40
3."Be My Beach"Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell2:35
4."No Head, No Backstage Pass"Clinton, Ron Bykowski2:36
5."Let's Take It to the Stage" (released as a single-Westbound 5026)Clinton, Collins, Garry Shider3:32
6."Get Off Your Ass and Jam"Clinton2:00
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Baby I Owe You Something Good"Clinton5:43
8."Stuffs and Things" (released as the B-side of "Better By The Pound")Clinton, Cook2:11
9."The Song Is Familiar"Clinton, Collins, Worrell3:05
10."Atmosphere"Clinton, Shider, Worrell7:05


"Good To Your Earhole" was sampled by Childish Gambino on the song "Riot".

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ a b Robert of the Radish (March 11, 2012). "Hip-Hop Tracks That Sample Funkadelic's Let's Take It To The Stage". Yahoo! Music. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  2. ^ DeCurtis, Henke & George-Warren 1992, p. 269.
  3. ^ a b c Raggett, Ned. "Let's Take It to the Stage – Funkadelic : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  4. ^ Giles, Jeff (20 October 2014). "George Clinton Shares the Mystery Behind One of Funkadelic's Greatest Guitar Solos". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  5. ^ Althaus, Werner (July 2009). "Peter Green: A Guitar For Greeny". Vintage Guitar. Retrieved May 11, 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Christgau, Robert (August 2008). "The Guide: Back Catalogue: Funkadelic". Blender. New York. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  7. ^ a b c Christgau 1981, p. 145.
  8. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 2241. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  9. ^ Frere-Jones et al. 2004, p. 316-17.
  10. ^ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Funkadelic". Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  11. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (October 27, 1975). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  12. ^ "Billboard's Recommended LPs". Billboard. Los Angeles. June 14, 1975. p. 51. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  13. ^ Frere-Jones et al. 2004, p. 316–17.

Bibliography

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