Bring The Funk Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples Parliament Funkadelic

Funkadelic Bring The Funk Album: Mothership Connection (1975)
Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples Album: Mothership Connection (1975)
by Parliament

The collective's origins date back to the doo-wop group the Parliaments, formed by Clinton during the late 1950s in suburban New Jersey. By the late 1960s, Clinton had gained experience as a producer-writer for Motown Records and, inspired by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and Frank Zappa, he relocated to Detroit and enlisted musicians from his New Jersey days in his own two sister bands Parliament and Funkadelic; the first would go on to develop a commercially successful style of science fiction–inspired funk, while the second pursued a heavier sound which blended funk with psychedelic rock. The name "Parliament-Funkadelic" became the catch-all term for the dozens of related musicians recording and touring different projects in Clinton's orbit, including the female vocal spinoff groups the Brides of Funkenstein and Parlet.

Mothership Connection is the fourth album, released on December 15, 1975 on Casablanca Records. This concept album is often rated among the best Parliament-Funkadelic releases, and was the first to feature horn players Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, previously of James Brown's backing band the J.B.'s.

Mothership Connection became Parliament's first album to be certified gold and later platinum. It was supported by the hit "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)," the band's first million-selling single. The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2011, declaring that it "has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music."

"Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" is a funk song by Parliament. It was released as a single under the name "Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)". It was the second single to be released from Parliament's 1975 album Mothership Connection (following "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)"). With its anthemic sing-along chorus, it is one of the most famous P-Funk songs. It also became Parliament's first certified million-selling single, going Gold in 1976.

The album is held together by an outer-space theme. Describing the concept, George Clinton said "We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang." The album's concept would form the backbone of P-Funk's concert performances during the 1970s, in which a large spaceship prop known as the Mothership would be lowered onto the stage.

BBC Music described the album as a pioneering work of Afrofuturism "set in a future universe where black astronauts interact with alien worlds." Journalist Frasier McAlpine stated: "As a reaction to an increasingly fraught 1970s urban environment in which African-American communities faced the end of the optimism of the civil rights era, this flamboyant imagination (and let's be frank, exceptional funkiness) was both righteous and joyful."

Vocals - George Clinton
Horns - Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Boom, Joe Farrell
Bass guitar - Bootsy Collins, Cordell Mosson
Guitars - Garry Shider, Michael Hampton, Glenn Goins, Bootsy Collins
Drums and percussion - Tiki Fulwood, Jerome Brailey, Bootsy Collins, Gary Cooper
Keyboards - Bernie Worrell (Minimoog, Wurlitzer electric piano, ARP Pro Soloist and String Ensemble, RMI Electra Piano, Hammond organ, grand piano, Fender Rhodes, Clavinet
Backing vocals and handclaps - Gary Cooper, Debbie Edwards, Taka Kahn, Archie Ivy, Bryna Chimenti, Rasputin Boutte, Pam Vincent, Debra Wright, Sidney Barnes