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Friday Funk #26 – ‘One Nation Under a Groove’ by Funkadelic
Friday Funk #26 – ‘One Nation Under a Groove’ by Funkadelic
Friday Funk #26 – ‘One Nation Under a Groove’ by Funkadelic
This week’s Friday Funk pays tribute to Junie Morrison, who would have turned 70 today.
George Clinton wrote in his memoir, Brothas Be Yo, Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?, “[Junie Morrison] was known around the music world as a brilliant guy capable of doing almost anything: writing, arranging, playing keyboards, preparing a band for a tour.” Elsewhere in the book he calls Junie a “production and arrangement wizard”.
After some time with Ohio Players, co-writing songs like ‘Funky Worm’, Morrison joined Funkadelic as musical director. Morrison said, “Whenever I would run into Bootsy Collins during a recording session in Detroit, he would always say... ‘Yabba dabba doosie Junie Baba!!! You should come and do some tracks with P-Funk!’”
Bootsy has good ideas.
Morrison had co-writing credits on five tracks on 1978’s One Nation Under a Groove. The title track was written by Clinton, Morrison, and Garry Shider, with the three sharing vocal duties. As noted in Friday Funk #13, Shider took centre stage for many P-Funk gems, including Parliament’s ‘Getten' To Know You’ and Funkadelic’s ‘Can You Get To That’, ‘Cosmic Slop’, and ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’.
‘One Nation’ is one of several P-Funk classics with the best hand claps in the world. Clinton once wrote in a Reddit AMA that P-Funk made “the massive hand claps” with the harmonizer they used to make Sir Nose’s voice. “We’d put the hand claps through there and feed it back until it was overloaded.” Clinton says, “It was NOT a drum machine, even though hip hop ended up sampling it and adding it to drum machines.”
Bernie Worrell contributes a classic synth bass part in the manner of Parliament’s ‘Flash Light’. The main bassline establishes the emphasis on the One. For the first four and a half minutes, Worrell sticks to the line with minimal improvisation. At 4:28, there’s a sustained chord from the bass, lead synth, and guitar, which until this point have been dancing around each other in a pool of polyrhythms. Then the “Do you promise to funk?” section acts as a brief bridge, and from hereon the song is more unpredictable, with Worrell playing freely and the squeaky synth and guitar having more variation.
At times, Worrell leaves several beats empty of bass, with the handclaps seeming ever more prominent, and at other times he plays quick runs, filling up space. In these moments the tone is so deep, and Worrell’s notes so close in pitch, that what he’s playing seems less important than the sound of the Moog. From 6:33, Worrell plays a series of ascending lines which gives the final chorus a circular, hypnotic feeling.
With Worrell on bass duties, Bootsy Collins plays the drums. Bootsy has several drum credits in the P-Funk catalogue, and his playing tended to serve the song in an understated manner. In ‘One Nation’, the hand claps are the overpowering percussion element, but Bootsy provides momentum with quick drum fills at the end of bars. Listen from 2:53 and 3:26, when the song is slowing down slightly, with the more relaxed, “Here’s a chance...” Bootsy’s fills ensure there’s still forward momentum.
The opening lyrics of the song—”So wide you can’t get around it / So low you can’t get under it / So high you can’t get over it”—are taken from the hymn ‘Jesus’ Love Is Very Wonderful’.
Clinton had a fondness for aligning spirituality with funk. The bridge of Parliament’s 'Mothership Connection (Star Child)' lifts the chorus from an African American spiritual song, ‘Swing Down Sweet Chariot’. On the preceding song from the Mothership album, opener ‘P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)’, Clinton details funk’s power to heal: “If you got faults, defects, or shortcomings / You know, like arthritis, rheumatism or migraines / Whatever part of your body it is / I want you to lay it on your radio / Let the vibes flow through / Funk not only moves / It can re-move. Dig?”.
'One Nation’ is a devotional song to funk: “Here’s a chance to dance our way / Out of our constrictions”; “Gettin’ down on / The One which we believe in”. There’s a reference to a gospel song (‘I Shall Not Be Moved’ – “We shall all be moved”) and a ‘Funkentelechy’-esque twist on a popular culture phrase (“Do you promise to funk, the whole funk, nothin’ but the funk?”).
Clinton wrote that the chorus was inspired by something two girls, LaTanya and Darlene, said to him after a show in Washington, D.C. They told Clinton it was the greatest concert they’d ever seen. “It was like one nation under a groove.”
As noted in Friday Funk #5, P-Funk were masters of variations on vocal ideas. In this song, many of the lines are repeated but delivered in different tones and rhythms. This variation begins in the first 40 seconds, with Morrison and Clinton’s contrasting vocals. Morrison’s “This is a chance / This is a chance / To dance your way / Out of your constrictions” sounds strained and even alien. Morrison bends the word ‘chance’ into something much weirder. Clinton’s “Here’s a chance to dance our way” and singing for the next 30 seconds is much more laid-back. Small things like swapping the ‘your’ for ‘our’ ensure there’s constant change to go along with the main groove of Bernie’s bassline and the insistent hand claps.
On the outro, Clinton’s harsher voice when singing “Givin’ you more of what you’re funkin’ for” contrasts with the softer response. The “Do you promise to funk, the whole funk...” is left unfinished later in the song (4:39), and “Feet don’t fail me now” is sang in a relaxed manner before sounding urgent (6:09) and desperate (6:17).
The album contained a myriad of styles, and the greater presence of Michael Hampton meant there was a heavy guitar focus to go along with the dance-focused tracks. (The album also came with a four-track bonus EP that included Hampton’s live take on Eddie Hazel’s masterpiece, ‘Maggot Brain’.)
On the title track, though, the guitar (played by either Hampton or Shider) is very much based on groove. The guitar’s mixed to the right speaker, with a squeaky synth on the left side. The guitar strums are tight, other than a sole sustained, higher-pitched chord every two bars, sometimes at the same time, or fractionally before, the synth plays similarly. These two instruments contribute much of the twitchiness throughout the song, in contrast with the reliable claps on the two and four.
'One Nation’ has one of the best P-Funk choruses, but its constant variation makes the song so enjoyable after countless listens. No wonder ‘One Nation’ is still one of the most performed songs on P-Funk tours.
This week’s Friday Funk pays tribute to Junie Morrison, who would have turned 70 today.
George Clinton wrote in his memoir, Brothas Be Yo, Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?, “[Junie Morrison] was known around the music world as a brilliant guy capable of doing almost anything: writing, arranging, playing keyboards, preparing a band for a tour.” Elsewhere in the book he calls Junie a “production and arrangement wizard”.
After some time with Ohio Players, co-writing songs like ‘Funky Worm’, Morrison joined Funkadelic as musical director. Morrison said, “Whenever I would run into Bootsy Collins during a recording session in Detroit, he would always say... ‘Yabba dabba doosie Junie Baba!!! You should come and do some tracks with P-Funk!’”
Bootsy has good ideas.
Morrison had co-writing credits on five tracks on 1978’s One Nation Under a Groove. The title track was written by Clinton, Morrison, and Garry Shider, with the three sharing vocal duties. As noted in Friday Funk #13, Shider took centre stage for many P-Funk gems, including Parliament’s ‘Getten' To Know You’ and Funkadelic’s ‘Can You Get To That’, ‘Cosmic Slop’, and ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’.
‘One Nation’ is one of several P-Funk classics with the best hand claps in the world. Clinton once wrote in a Reddit AMA that P-Funk made “the massive hand claps” with the harmonizer they used to make Sir Nose’s voice. “We’d put the hand claps through there and feed it back until it was overloaded.” Clinton says, “It was NOT a drum machine, even though hip hop ended up sampling it and adding it to drum machines.”
Bernie Worrell contributes a classic synth bass part in the manner of Parliament’s ‘Flash Light’. The main bassline establishes the emphasis on the One. For the first four and a half minutes, Worrell sticks to the line with minimal improvisation. At 4:28, there’s a sustained chord from the bass, lead synth, and guitar, which until this point have been dancing around each other in a pool of polyrhythms. Then the “Do you promise to funk?” section acts as a brief bridge, and from hereon the song is more unpredictable, with Worrell playing freely and the squeaky synth and guitar having more variation.
At times, Worrell leaves several beats empty of bass, with the handclaps seeming ever more prominent, and at other times he plays quick runs, filling up space. In these moments the tone is so deep, and Worrell’s notes so close in pitch, that what he’s playing seems less important than the sound of the Moog. From 6:33, Worrell plays a series of ascending lines which gives the final chorus a circular, hypnotic feeling.
With Worrell on bass duties, Bootsy Collins plays the drums. Bootsy has several drum credits in the P-Funk catalogue, and his playing tended to serve the song in an understated manner. In ‘One Nation’, the hand claps are the overpowering percussion element, but Bootsy provides momentum with quick drum fills at the end of bars. Listen from 2:53 and 3:26, when the song is slowing down slightly, with the more relaxed, “Here’s a chance...” Bootsy’s fills ensure there’s still forward momentum.
The opening lyrics of the song—”So wide you can’t get around it / So low you can’t get under it / So high you can’t get over it”—are taken from the hymn ‘Jesus’ Love Is Very Wonderful’.
Clinton had a fondness for aligning spirituality with funk. The bridge of Parliament’s 'Mothership Connection (Star Child)' lifts the chorus from an African American spiritual song, ‘Swing Down Sweet Chariot’. On the preceding song from the Mothership album, opener ‘P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)’, Clinton details funk’s power to heal: “If you got faults, defects, or shortcomings / You know, like arthritis, rheumatism or migraines / Whatever part of your body it is / I want you to lay it on your radio / Let the vibes flow through / Funk not only moves / It can re-move. Dig?”.
'One Nation’ is a devotional song to funk: “Here’s a chance to dance our way / Out of our constrictions”; “Gettin’ down on / The One which we believe in”. There’s a reference to a gospel song (‘I Shall Not Be Moved’ – “We shall all be moved”) and a ‘Funkentelechy’-esque twist on a popular culture phrase (“Do you promise to funk, the whole funk, nothin’ but the funk?”).
Clinton wrote that the chorus was inspired by something two girls, LaTanya and Darlene, said to him after a show in Washington, D.C. They told Clinton it was the greatest concert they’d ever seen. “It was like one nation under a groove.”
As noted in Friday Funk #5, P-Funk were masters of variations on vocal ideas. In this song, many of the lines are repeated but delivered in different tones and rhythms. This variation begins in the first 40 seconds, with Morrison and Clinton’s contrasting vocals. Morrison’s “This is a chance / This is a chance / To dance your way / Out of your constrictions” sounds strained and even alien. Morrison bends the word ‘chance’ into something much weirder. Clinton’s “Here’s a chance to dance our way” and singing for the next 30 seconds is much more laid-back. Small things like swapping the ‘your’ for ‘our’ ensure there’s constant change to go along with the main groove of Bernie’s bassline and the insistent hand claps.
On the outro, Clinton’s harsher voice when singing “Givin’ you more of what you’re funkin’ for” contrasts with the softer response. The “Do you promise to funk, the whole funk...” is left unfinished later in the song (4:39), and “Feet don’t fail me now” is sang in a relaxed manner before sounding urgent (6:09) and desperate (6:17).
The album contained a myriad of styles, and the greater presence of Michael Hampton meant there was a heavy guitar focus to go along with the dance-focused tracks. (The album also came with a four-track bonus EP that included Hampton’s live take on Eddie Hazel’s masterpiece, ‘Maggot Brain’.)
On the title track, though, the guitar (played by either Hampton or Shider) is very much based on groove. The guitar’s mixed to the right speaker, with a squeaky synth on the left side. The guitar strums are tight, other than a sole sustained, higher-pitched chord every two bars, sometimes at the same time, or fractionally before, the synth plays similarly. These two instruments contribute much of the twitchiness throughout the song, in contrast with the reliable claps on the two and four.
'One Nation’ has one of the best P-Funk choruses, but its constant variation makes the song so enjoyable after countless listens. No wonder ‘One Nation’ is still one of the most performed songs on P-Funk tours.
This week’s Friday Funk pays tribute to Junie Morrison, who would have turned 70 today.
George Clinton wrote in his memoir, Brothas Be Yo, Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?, “[Junie Morrison] was known around the music world as a brilliant guy capable of doing almost anything: writing, arranging, playing keyboards, preparing a band for a tour.” Elsewhere in the book he calls Junie a “production and arrangement wizard”.
After some time with Ohio Players, co-writing songs like ‘Funky Worm’, Morrison joined Funkadelic as musical director. Morrison said, “Whenever I would run into Bootsy Collins during a recording session in Detroit, he would always say... ‘Yabba dabba doosie Junie Baba!!! You should come and do some tracks with P-Funk!’”
Bootsy has good ideas.
Morrison had co-writing credits on five tracks on 1978’s One Nation Under a Groove. The title track was written by Clinton, Morrison, and Garry Shider, with the three sharing vocal duties. As noted in Friday Funk #13, Shider took centre stage for many P-Funk gems, including Parliament’s ‘Getten' To Know You’ and Funkadelic’s ‘Can You Get To That’, ‘Cosmic Slop’, and ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’.
‘One Nation’ is one of several P-Funk classics with the best hand claps in the world. Clinton once wrote in a Reddit AMA that P-Funk made “the massive hand claps” with the harmonizer they used to make Sir Nose’s voice. “We’d put the hand claps through there and feed it back until it was overloaded.” Clinton says, “It was NOT a drum machine, even though hip hop ended up sampling it and adding it to drum machines.”
Bernie Worrell contributes a classic synth bass part in the manner of Parliament’s ‘Flash Light’. The main bassline establishes the emphasis on the One. For the first four and a half minutes, Worrell sticks to the line with minimal improvisation. At 4:28, there’s a sustained chord from the bass, lead synth, and guitar, which until this point have been dancing around each other in a pool of polyrhythms. Then the “Do you promise to funk?” section acts as a brief bridge, and from hereon the song is more unpredictable, with Worrell playing freely and the squeaky synth and guitar having more variation.
At times, Worrell leaves several beats empty of bass, with the handclaps seeming ever more prominent, and at other times he plays quick runs, filling up space. In these moments the tone is so deep, and Worrell’s notes so close in pitch, that what he’s playing seems less important than the sound of the Moog. From 6:33, Worrell plays a series of ascending lines which gives the final chorus a circular, hypnotic feeling.
With Worrell on bass duties, Bootsy Collins plays the drums. Bootsy has several drum credits in the P-Funk catalogue, and his playing tended to serve the song in an understated manner. In ‘One Nation’, the hand claps are the overpowering percussion element, but Bootsy provides momentum with quick drum fills at the end of bars. Listen from 2:53 and 3:26, when the song is slowing down slightly, with the more relaxed, “Here’s a chance...” Bootsy’s fills ensure there’s still forward momentum.
The opening lyrics of the song—”So wide you can’t get around it / So low you can’t get under it / So high you can’t get over it”—are taken from the hymn ‘Jesus’ Love Is Very Wonderful’.
Clinton had a fondness for aligning spirituality with funk. The bridge of Parliament’s 'Mothership Connection (Star Child)' lifts the chorus from an African American spiritual song, ‘Swing Down Sweet Chariot’. On the preceding song from the Mothership album, opener ‘P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)’, Clinton details funk’s power to heal: “If you got faults, defects, or shortcomings / You know, like arthritis, rheumatism or migraines / Whatever part of your body it is / I want you to lay it on your radio / Let the vibes flow through / Funk not only moves / It can re-move. Dig?”.
'One Nation’ is a devotional song to funk: “Here’s a chance to dance our way / Out of our constrictions”; “Gettin’ down on / The One which we believe in”. There’s a reference to a gospel song (‘I Shall Not Be Moved’ – “We shall all be moved”) and a ‘Funkentelechy’-esque twist on a popular culture phrase (“Do you promise to funk, the whole funk, nothin’ but the funk?”).
Clinton wrote that the chorus was inspired by something two girls, LaTanya and Darlene, said to him after a show in Washington, D.C. They told Clinton it was the greatest concert they’d ever seen. “It was like one nation under a groove.”
As noted in Friday Funk #5, P-Funk were masters of variations on vocal ideas. In this song, many of the lines are repeated but delivered in different tones and rhythms. This variation begins in the first 40 seconds, with Morrison and Clinton’s contrasting vocals. Morrison’s “This is a chance / This is a chance / To dance your way / Out of your constrictions” sounds strained and even alien. Morrison bends the word ‘chance’ into something much weirder. Clinton’s “Here’s a chance to dance our way” and singing for the next 30 seconds is much more laid-back. Small things like swapping the ‘your’ for ‘our’ ensure there’s constant change to go along with the main groove of Bernie’s bassline and the insistent hand claps.
On the outro, Clinton’s harsher voice when singing “Givin’ you more of what you’re funkin’ for” contrasts with the softer response. The “Do you promise to funk, the whole funk...” is left unfinished later in the song (4:39), and “Feet don’t fail me now” is sang in a relaxed manner before sounding urgent (6:09) and desperate (6:17).
The album contained a myriad of styles, and the greater presence of Michael Hampton meant there was a heavy guitar focus to go along with the dance-focused tracks. (The album also came with a four-track bonus EP that included Hampton’s live take on Eddie Hazel’s masterpiece, ‘Maggot Brain’.)
On the title track, though, the guitar (played by either Hampton or Shider) is very much based on groove. The guitar’s mixed to the right speaker, with a squeaky synth on the left side. The guitar strums are tight, other than a sole sustained, higher-pitched chord every two bars, sometimes at the same time, or fractionally before, the synth plays similarly. These two instruments contribute much of the twitchiness throughout the song, in contrast with the reliable claps on the two and four.
'One Nation’ has one of the best P-Funk choruses, but its constant variation makes the song so enjoyable after countless listens. No wonder ‘One Nation’ is still one of the most performed songs on P-Funk tours.