Tear The Roof Off The Sucker (Give Up The Funk)

The P-Funk section of my record collection begins and ends with this '76 single on the Casablanca label. Obviously it's better than nothing, if not by much. I did once also own a copy of Funkadelic's Maggot Brain on CD, but that got lost somewhere along the way. It's a shorter version of a track from their '75 album Mothership Connection. where it went by the reversed title 'Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)', as it likewise did on some other releases of the 7".

I learn from an annotation on genius.com that "If you listen to 'Give up the Funk' as a single, outside the context of Mothership Connection, it’s just a good funk dance track with lyrics that seem to serve no purpose beyond rallying you to the dance floor. In the Mothership Connection story, though, this is the climax of an alien invasion..." Having not heard the album, I was unaware of that subtlety.

Even so, it does work remarkably well as just a good funk dance track: no context necessary. Out of an expertly-confected musical mélange, Bootsy Collins' bassline strikes me as the choicest ingredient, though there's plenty else to savour. The B-side is 'P Funk', an edit from 'P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)': another track from Mothership Connection.

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This is a Recording

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