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Friday Funk #35 – ‘Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)’ by Parliament
Friday Funk #35 – ‘Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)’ by Parliament
Friday Funk #35 – ‘Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)’ by Parliament
We’ve been underwater in August. If you’ve been away, dip your feet in: ‘Deep’, ‘The Motor-Booty Affair’, ‘Rumpofsteelskin’, and ‘Liquid Sunshine’. Or jump right in to this week’s boogie.
‘Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)’ made more waves than any track on Motor Booty Affair, hitting number one on the R&B chart in the US.
The song’s opening groove is similar to the start of ‘Rumpofsteelskin’. It really kicks into gear when the bass comes in, sounding just a touch wet, with a lovely rubberiness that suits the sliding notes. The bassline is major melodic component of the song while driving its rhythm. George wrote that Bernie Worrell “translated [the bassline] from a classical cello part”.
In the left speaker there’s a synth bass that joins the main, central bass for the “Underwater boogie baby” section.
Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk, having refused to dance on land, now refuses to swim. Is Sir Nose being carried by a bird? George Clinton makes crazy bird noises in the intro and outro, which may explain the cover art, in which Sir Nose is about to be eaten by a giant bird. George wrote in his memoir that Sir Nose “sees [swimming] as another form of dancing, something that interferes with his perpetual cool.”
Nose squeals, “I never will swim! Oh, put me down!” and “I hate water! Let me go! Put me down! You’re all wet!” Then later, “Oh, it feels so good! I am the Nose. Leave me alone!” It feels good, but he still doesn’t want to dance – Nose is too “cool”.
The “Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadooloop / A motion picture underwater starring most of you loops” refrain (one of many) is sung a little like the chants at P-Funk concerts that later became songs, like “Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam!”.
There’s not much guitar on this song, but the part really sticks with you. It’s a great example of the light right hand of Catfish Collins. Sometimes two strums sound like a false start as Catfish steps away for a few beats. The piano chords – often there when the guitar’s not – are played with a similarly light touch.
Listen to the guitar in the last section of the song from 5 minutes. Catfish plays just enough to add a ton of syncopation, fidgetedlly fitting in the spaces between handclaps. About half of what he plays is palm-muted. Catfish was from the James Brown school, after all, where everything was a drum.
The guitar was catchy enough to be sampled years later for Bernie Worrell’s ‘Time Was’, from the 1993 album Blacktronic Science on which a cast of key P-Funkers feature.
‘Aquaboogie’ contains some of P-Funk’s unbeatable handclaps, and they make up the bulk of the drums and percussion. So much space is taken up by the rubbery bass mixed front and centre, and more by the come-and-go keyboard, synth, and guitar – even before you get to the typical Motor Booty clam-packed vocal booth – that the drums don’t need to do a lot.
But the drums do add momentum in the right places. Just as the song appears to be winding down at 4:40, a drum roll sets up the return of the guitar, hand claps and, briefly, a synth that sounds like an alarm whose battery is dying. Then more George bird noises. He really loved them. George wrote that they were “from the old Tarzan movies—they all had the same bird.”
Clinton was also fond of long titles. He wrote in his memoir how ‘Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop’ equalled the record for the longest word in a song title: exactly the same length as ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ from Mary Poppins, and Isaac Hayes’s ‘Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic’. George said, “Great minds think alike, and think along.”
We’ve been underwater in August. If you’ve been away, dip your feet in: ‘Deep’, ‘The Motor-Booty Affair’, ‘Rumpofsteelskin’, and ‘Liquid Sunshine’. Or jump right in to this week’s boogie.
‘Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)’ made more waves than any track on Motor Booty Affair, hitting number one on the R&B chart in the US.
The song’s opening groove is similar to the start of ‘Rumpofsteelskin’. It really kicks into gear when the bass comes in, sounding just a touch wet, with a lovely rubberiness that suits the sliding notes. The bassline is major melodic component of the song while driving its rhythm. George wrote that Bernie Worrell “translated [the bassline] from a classical cello part”.
In the left speaker there’s a synth bass that joins the main, central bass for the “Underwater boogie baby” section.
Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk, having refused to dance on land, now refuses to swim. Is Sir Nose being carried by a bird? George Clinton makes crazy bird noises in the intro and outro, which may explain the cover art, in which Sir Nose is about to be eaten by a giant bird. George wrote in his memoir that Sir Nose “sees [swimming] as another form of dancing, something that interferes with his perpetual cool.”
Nose squeals, “I never will swim! Oh, put me down!” and “I hate water! Let me go! Put me down! You’re all wet!” Then later, “Oh, it feels so good! I am the Nose. Leave me alone!” It feels good, but he still doesn’t want to dance – Nose is too “cool”.
The “Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadooloop / A motion picture underwater starring most of you loops” refrain (one of many) is sung a little like the chants at P-Funk concerts that later became songs, like “Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam!”.
There’s not much guitar on this song, but the part really sticks with you. It’s a great example of the light right hand of Catfish Collins. Sometimes two strums sound like a false start as Catfish steps away for a few beats. The piano chords – often there when the guitar’s not – are played with a similarly light touch.
Listen to the guitar in the last section of the song from 5 minutes. Catfish plays just enough to add a ton of syncopation, fidgetedlly fitting in the spaces between handclaps. About half of what he plays is palm-muted. Catfish was from the James Brown school, after all, where everything was a drum.
The guitar was catchy enough to be sampled years later for Bernie Worrell’s ‘Time Was’, from the 1993 album Blacktronic Science on which a cast of key P-Funkers feature.
‘Aquaboogie’ contains some of P-Funk’s unbeatable handclaps, and they make up the bulk of the drums and percussion. So much space is taken up by the rubbery bass mixed front and centre, and more by the come-and-go keyboard, synth, and guitar – even before you get to the typical Motor Booty clam-packed vocal booth – that the drums don’t need to do a lot.
But the drums do add momentum in the right places. Just as the song appears to be winding down at 4:40, a drum roll sets up the return of the guitar, hand claps and, briefly, a synth that sounds like an alarm whose battery is dying. Then more George bird noises. He really loved them. George wrote that they were “from the old Tarzan movies—they all had the same bird.”
Clinton was also fond of long titles. He wrote in his memoir how ‘Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop’ equalled the record for the longest word in a song title: exactly the same length as ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ from Mary Poppins, and Isaac Hayes’s ‘Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic’. George said, “Great minds think alike, and think along.”
We’ve been underwater in August. If you’ve been away, dip your feet in: ‘Deep’, ‘The Motor-Booty Affair’, ‘Rumpofsteelskin’, and ‘Liquid Sunshine’. Or jump right in to this week’s boogie.
‘Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)’ made more waves than any track on Motor Booty Affair, hitting number one on the R&B chart in the US.
The song’s opening groove is similar to the start of ‘Rumpofsteelskin’. It really kicks into gear when the bass comes in, sounding just a touch wet, with a lovely rubberiness that suits the sliding notes. The bassline is major melodic component of the song while driving its rhythm. George wrote that Bernie Worrell “translated [the bassline] from a classical cello part”.
In the left speaker there’s a synth bass that joins the main, central bass for the “Underwater boogie baby” section.
Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk, having refused to dance on land, now refuses to swim. Is Sir Nose being carried by a bird? George Clinton makes crazy bird noises in the intro and outro, which may explain the cover art, in which Sir Nose is about to be eaten by a giant bird. George wrote in his memoir that Sir Nose “sees [swimming] as another form of dancing, something that interferes with his perpetual cool.”
Nose squeals, “I never will swim! Oh, put me down!” and “I hate water! Let me go! Put me down! You’re all wet!” Then later, “Oh, it feels so good! I am the Nose. Leave me alone!” It feels good, but he still doesn’t want to dance – Nose is too “cool”.
The “Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadooloop / A motion picture underwater starring most of you loops” refrain (one of many) is sung a little like the chants at P-Funk concerts that later became songs, like “Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam!”.
There’s not much guitar on this song, but the part really sticks with you. It’s a great example of the light right hand of Catfish Collins. Sometimes two strums sound like a false start as Catfish steps away for a few beats. The piano chords – often there when the guitar’s not – are played with a similarly light touch.
Listen to the guitar in the last section of the song from 5 minutes. Catfish plays just enough to add a ton of syncopation, fidgetedlly fitting in the spaces between handclaps. About half of what he plays is palm-muted. Catfish was from the James Brown school, after all, where everything was a drum.
The guitar was catchy enough to be sampled years later for Bernie Worrell’s ‘Time Was’, from the 1993 album Blacktronic Science on which a cast of key P-Funkers feature.
‘Aquaboogie’ contains some of P-Funk’s unbeatable handclaps, and they make up the bulk of the drums and percussion. So much space is taken up by the rubbery bass mixed front and centre, and more by the come-and-go keyboard, synth, and guitar – even before you get to the typical Motor Booty clam-packed vocal booth – that the drums don’t need to do a lot.
But the drums do add momentum in the right places. Just as the song appears to be winding down at 4:40, a drum roll sets up the return of the guitar, hand claps and, briefly, a synth that sounds like an alarm whose battery is dying. Then more George bird noises. He really loved them. George wrote that they were “from the old Tarzan movies—they all had the same bird.”
Clinton was also fond of long titles. He wrote in his memoir how ‘Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop’ equalled the record for the longest word in a song title: exactly the same length as ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ from Mary Poppins, and Isaac Hayes’s ‘Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic’. George said, “Great minds think alike, and think along.”