Maggot Brain

Maggot Brain, Funkadelic, Rolling Stone Magazine's #486

exile staff consensus: Top 500 album

the breakdown:
3.5 cannons - lenbarker
2.0 cannons - angryyoungman, venerableseed, and eurowags
1.0 cannon - polchic

the essays:
10/18 - LenB is up again with his more complimentary take on Maggot Brain along with a 1983 video performance of the title track done from Columbia, Maryland.

10/17 - Its me again: tell us what you really think about Maggot Brain.

10/15 - Next up the Ancient Scientist's Rising from the Sh!t: Is a guitar solo enough for canonization? Well, is it?

the introduction (done with the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime):
After a week of OK Computer's numbing familiarity (a/k/a no alarms and no surprises) the next two albums, Funkadelic's Maggot Brain and the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime, are sure to jolt us back to their disparate realities. Just how disparate? Lets just look at the raw facts:

Origin:
DNotD: San Pedro, California
MB: Parts unknown

Band Members:
DNotD: Three permanent members. Drums, Guitar, Bass
MB: Too many to count

Album Length:
DNotD: 81 minutes
MB: 37 minutes

Number of Songs:
DNotD: 45
MB: 7

Average Song Length (Longest Song):
DNotD: 1:46 (3:05)
MB: 5:15 (10:20)

And that's before we get into the sound, the politics, the album covers, the spirit, the time, the genres, the dance-ability, the audience, the attitude, and the legacy.

Despite all their surface differences, these albums both rock, are both underappreciated, and have both become wonderful treasures for legions of devoted fans. They both also carry on the message of the forthcoming apocalypse that OK Computer began so well.

Why else did we connect the two? Believe or or not Minutemen bassist Mike Watt covered Maggot Brain's title track on his own debut solo album, with J Mascis on guitar and Funkadelic's own Bernie Worrell on keyboards. (We'd be a lot prouder of our combo if we'd have known that fact before the choice was made.)

Poll Results
question:
is Maggot Brain's title track:
pantheonic - 75%
overindulgent - 37%
so amazing - 25%
unending (in a good way) - 12%
unending (in a bad way) - 37%