What's So Great About Maggot Brain?
submitted by davidj
Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time.
For y'all have knocked her up.
I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe.
I was not offended.
For I knew I had to rise above it all or drown in my own ****.
After George Clinton's spoken word, with no music behind, this little 'colour my world' kind of arpeggio starts going and a 10 minute guitar solo fires up.
The rumour is that the guitar player was told to play the first part of the solo like he had just found out that his mom had died. He was told to play the second half of the solo like he just found out she was alive.
This song used to get played every Saturday night at midnight on Cleveland radio station WMMS, 100.7 FM. It was a beacon of light for all the whacked-out partiers across Northern Ohio. I remember precisely the moment when someone said to me "You've never heard Maggot Brain???" with that incredulous look of surprise on their face. As though it were inconceivable that me of all people I hadn't heard it. Clevelanders used to go from hearing Born To Run, Shift Into Glide and I Don't Want To Work on Fridays at Five to Maggot Brain Saturdays at Midnight. And the party happened in between.
I made it a point to listen to it as soon as possible. That meant hearing it at midnight. Hear it I did and have been in love with it ever since.
It's a song you only have to feel. There's no singing along, just feeling along. It's like the funk version of 'Sunday Morning, Coming Down' but with no words. For what it's worth, I don't this is the greatest guitar solo ever. Specifically from a technical point. From a gut feeling point? Absolutely.
I once selected this song as one of three songs that I would want to have with me if I were ever stranded on a desert island.
Truth be told, I don't think I would need the other two.