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Friday Funk #42 – ‘Psychoticbumpschool’ by Bootsy’s Rubber Band
Friday Funk #42 – ‘Psychoticbumpschool’ by Bootsy’s Rubber Band
Friday Funk #42 – ‘Psychoticbumpschool’ by Bootsy’s Rubber Band
Bootsy Collins has said that once he’d absorbed the lesson of the One from James Brown, he took it to George Clinton, who ran with it and took it further. Well Bootsy kept on running. ‘Psychoticbumpschool’ hits the One and hits it hard, almost comically so in places. The song is a co-write between the classic P-Funk trio of Bootsy, Clinton, and Bernie Worrell, and Bootsy’s elder brother Catfish Collins, who had been playing with Bootsy since before their days in James Brown’s original J.B.’s.
‘Psychoticbumpschool’ was track 2 on the debut of Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Stretchin’ Out In Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Clinton had recognised Bootsy’s star potential back when the Collins brothers were playing in Cincinnati. Bootsy's character concept grew with Mu-Tron-bass on tracks like Parliament’s ‘Ride On’ and his “gentle, cartoony falsetto” on Funkadelic’s ‘Be My Beach’.
In 1976, during their days hanging out in New York, Clinton “came up with a little lyrical hook: ‘Stretching out in a rubber band.’” Bootsy expanded on it, adding the “hanging loose” and the mighty “Hallelujah!” Clinton described Bootsy’s character as “almost like a human cartoon, but with a true-believer kind of evangelism about the power of the funk.”
The Rubber Band, in Clinton’s words, were “basically Bootsy’s group from Cincinnati—him, Catfish, and Frank Waddy—and we added in lots of P-Funk personnel: Garry Shider and Glen Goins and Bernie and myself. Boogie [Mosson], who played bass in the main group, switched over to drums on some of Bootsy’s recordings.” Singers Robert "P-Nut" Johnson and Gary "Mudbone" Cooper took on many of the leads on the album.
Fred Wesley helped Bootsy arrange the horns. The horn section was made up of Fred, Maceo Parker, Rick Gardner, and the Brecker Brothers, Michael and Randy, on saxophone and trumpet. The record was released a year after Parliament’s Mothership Connection and the same year as The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, the two records that were perhaps the peak of P-Funk hornery.
In the intro, after a chorus of kids have chanted something unidentifiable (sounding overjoyed to be at the Psychoticbumpschool), and Bootsy’s given a hint of things to come with unignorable bass, Randy’s trumpet comes in. But there are several fidgety stop-starts before we really get going after a minute. Mixed to the right speaker, the trumpet dovetails with the vocals: “All you’ve got to do is free your mind, free your mind.”
The band get to introduce themselves with pitch-shifted vocals (“I’m Rick / Maceo”) before “Here comes Fred” as Fred’s trombone blows. It’s also this section (1:35) where Bootsy introduces gnarly, deep, ringing bass notes that hint at things gearing up. He barely needs to play anything else after that deep note on the One. And it’s here that Michael Brecker starts playing the song’s main riff on his sax, almost two minutes on. It’s a P-Funk classic, one to keep you coming back for lessons on bumping. It’s so good the singers join in: “Dadadadada dahh-dadadada” (2:18).
A few lines echo the chorus of Parliament’s ‘Mothership Connection (Star Child)’—“If you hear any noise, it’s just me and the boys / Hit me. You gotta hit the band.”—as Bootsy tells us, “If you hear some funky fuss / It ain’t nobody but us / So get on down, baby.”
Bootsy joins Catfish in stepping on a wah pedal as he raps about psychotic bumps. There’s a couple of delicious quick licks (4:21 and 4:30) as Bootsy’s class of funksters party in the background. Bernie plays ‘Chameleon’-esque keys sounding like chirping birds as the class comes to a close.
P-Funk were on a roll, and Bootsy stepped out in front, becoming the biggest star of the P-Funk universe, partly powered by the success of the first Bootsy ballad, ‘I’d Rather Be With You’.
Clinton wrote that the album was the first time he understood what music industry people had told him: “that art needed something bright to pop so the people could see it.” Bootsy sure popped in that white suit and star glasses on his motorcycle. “Fans liked his persona, the way he came on like a cross between a blaxploitation movie character and a Saturday-morning cartoon.”
Bootsy Collins has said that once he’d absorbed the lesson of the One from James Brown, he took it to George Clinton, who ran with it and took it further. Well Bootsy kept on running. ‘Psychoticbumpschool’ hits the One and hits it hard, almost comically so in places. The song is a co-write between the classic P-Funk trio of Bootsy, Clinton, and Bernie Worrell, and Bootsy’s elder brother Catfish Collins, who had been playing with Bootsy since before their days in James Brown’s original J.B.’s.
‘Psychoticbumpschool’ was track 2 on the debut of Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Stretchin’ Out In Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Clinton had recognised Bootsy’s star potential back when the Collins brothers were playing in Cincinnati. Bootsy's character concept grew with Mu-Tron-bass on tracks like Parliament’s ‘Ride On’ and his “gentle, cartoony falsetto” on Funkadelic’s ‘Be My Beach’.
In 1976, during their days hanging out in New York, Clinton “came up with a little lyrical hook: ‘Stretching out in a rubber band.’” Bootsy expanded on it, adding the “hanging loose” and the mighty “Hallelujah!” Clinton described Bootsy’s character as “almost like a human cartoon, but with a true-believer kind of evangelism about the power of the funk.”
The Rubber Band, in Clinton’s words, were “basically Bootsy’s group from Cincinnati—him, Catfish, and Frank Waddy—and we added in lots of P-Funk personnel: Garry Shider and Glen Goins and Bernie and myself. Boogie [Mosson], who played bass in the main group, switched over to drums on some of Bootsy’s recordings.” Singers Robert "P-Nut" Johnson and Gary "Mudbone" Cooper took on many of the leads on the album.
Fred Wesley helped Bootsy arrange the horns. The horn section was made up of Fred, Maceo Parker, Rick Gardner, and the Brecker Brothers, Michael and Randy, on saxophone and trumpet. The record was released a year after Parliament’s Mothership Connection and the same year as The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, the two records that were perhaps the peak of P-Funk hornery.
In the intro, after a chorus of kids have chanted something unidentifiable (sounding overjoyed to be at the Psychoticbumpschool), and Bootsy’s given a hint of things to come with unignorable bass, Randy’s trumpet comes in. But there are several fidgety stop-starts before we really get going after a minute. Mixed to the right speaker, the trumpet dovetails with the vocals: “All you’ve got to do is free your mind, free your mind.”
The band get to introduce themselves with pitch-shifted vocals (“I’m Rick / Maceo”) before “Here comes Fred” as Fred’s trombone blows. It’s also this section (1:35) where Bootsy introduces gnarly, deep, ringing bass notes that hint at things gearing up. He barely needs to play anything else after that deep note on the One. And it’s here that Michael Brecker starts playing the song’s main riff on his sax, almost two minutes on. It’s a P-Funk classic, one to keep you coming back for lessons on bumping. It’s so good the singers join in: “Dadadadada dahh-dadadada” (2:18).
A few lines echo the chorus of Parliament’s ‘Mothership Connection (Star Child)’—“If you hear any noise, it’s just me and the boys / Hit me. You gotta hit the band.”—as Bootsy tells us, “If you hear some funky fuss / It ain’t nobody but us / So get on down, baby.”
Bootsy joins Catfish in stepping on a wah pedal as he raps about psychotic bumps. There’s a couple of delicious quick licks (4:21 and 4:30) as Bootsy’s class of funksters party in the background. Bernie plays ‘Chameleon’-esque keys sounding like chirping birds as the class comes to a close.
P-Funk were on a roll, and Bootsy stepped out in front, becoming the biggest star of the P-Funk universe, partly powered by the success of the first Bootsy ballad, ‘I’d Rather Be With You’.
Clinton wrote that the album was the first time he understood what music industry people had told him: “that art needed something bright to pop so the people could see it.” Bootsy sure popped in that white suit and star glasses on his motorcycle. “Fans liked his persona, the way he came on like a cross between a blaxploitation movie character and a Saturday-morning cartoon.”
Bootsy Collins has said that once he’d absorbed the lesson of the One from James Brown, he took it to George Clinton, who ran with it and took it further. Well Bootsy kept on running. ‘Psychoticbumpschool’ hits the One and hits it hard, almost comically so in places. The song is a co-write between the classic P-Funk trio of Bootsy, Clinton, and Bernie Worrell, and Bootsy’s elder brother Catfish Collins, who had been playing with Bootsy since before their days in James Brown’s original J.B.’s.
‘Psychoticbumpschool’ was track 2 on the debut of Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Stretchin’ Out In Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Clinton had recognised Bootsy’s star potential back when the Collins brothers were playing in Cincinnati. Bootsy's character concept grew with Mu-Tron-bass on tracks like Parliament’s ‘Ride On’ and his “gentle, cartoony falsetto” on Funkadelic’s ‘Be My Beach’.
In 1976, during their days hanging out in New York, Clinton “came up with a little lyrical hook: ‘Stretching out in a rubber band.’” Bootsy expanded on it, adding the “hanging loose” and the mighty “Hallelujah!” Clinton described Bootsy’s character as “almost like a human cartoon, but with a true-believer kind of evangelism about the power of the funk.”
The Rubber Band, in Clinton’s words, were “basically Bootsy’s group from Cincinnati—him, Catfish, and Frank Waddy—and we added in lots of P-Funk personnel: Garry Shider and Glen Goins and Bernie and myself. Boogie [Mosson], who played bass in the main group, switched over to drums on some of Bootsy’s recordings.” Singers Robert "P-Nut" Johnson and Gary "Mudbone" Cooper took on many of the leads on the album.
Fred Wesley helped Bootsy arrange the horns. The horn section was made up of Fred, Maceo Parker, Rick Gardner, and the Brecker Brothers, Michael and Randy, on saxophone and trumpet. The record was released a year after Parliament’s Mothership Connection and the same year as The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, the two records that were perhaps the peak of P-Funk hornery.
In the intro, after a chorus of kids have chanted something unidentifiable (sounding overjoyed to be at the Psychoticbumpschool), and Bootsy’s given a hint of things to come with unignorable bass, Randy’s trumpet comes in. But there are several fidgety stop-starts before we really get going after a minute. Mixed to the right speaker, the trumpet dovetails with the vocals: “All you’ve got to do is free your mind, free your mind.”
The band get to introduce themselves with pitch-shifted vocals (“I’m Rick / Maceo”) before “Here comes Fred” as Fred’s trombone blows. It’s also this section (1:35) where Bootsy introduces gnarly, deep, ringing bass notes that hint at things gearing up. He barely needs to play anything else after that deep note on the One. And it’s here that Michael Brecker starts playing the song’s main riff on his sax, almost two minutes on. It’s a P-Funk classic, one to keep you coming back for lessons on bumping. It’s so good the singers join in: “Dadadadada dahh-dadadada” (2:18).
A few lines echo the chorus of Parliament’s ‘Mothership Connection (Star Child)’—“If you hear any noise, it’s just me and the boys / Hit me. You gotta hit the band.”—as Bootsy tells us, “If you hear some funky fuss / It ain’t nobody but us / So get on down, baby.”
Bootsy joins Catfish in stepping on a wah pedal as he raps about psychotic bumps. There’s a couple of delicious quick licks (4:21 and 4:30) as Bootsy’s class of funksters party in the background. Bernie plays ‘Chameleon’-esque keys sounding like chirping birds as the class comes to a close.
P-Funk were on a roll, and Bootsy stepped out in front, becoming the biggest star of the P-Funk universe, partly powered by the success of the first Bootsy ballad, ‘I’d Rather Be With You’.
Clinton wrote that the album was the first time he understood what music industry people had told him: “that art needed something bright to pop so the people could see it.” Bootsy sure popped in that white suit and star glasses on his motorcycle. “Fans liked his persona, the way he came on like a cross between a blaxploitation movie character and a Saturday-morning cartoon.”