1979’s This Boot Is Made For Fonk-N was the fourth and last album credited to Bootsy’s Rubber Band before he went ‘solo’ with many of the same musicians. (Then there was Bootsy’s New Rubber Band in ’95.) 

Many P-Funk bandmates play on the album. There’s the Horny Horns of Fred Wesley,  Maceo Parker, Rick Gardner, and Richard "Kush" Griffith; guitar from Bootsy’s elder brother Catfish, Michael Hampton, and Garry Shider; and Bootsy’s close friend Bernie Worrell on synths.

‘Shejam’ (streaming services have inserted a space in that first word) was written by Bootsy, George Clinton (who co-produced), and Ron Dunbar. It’s one of many songs in the P-Funk catalogue where lines about butts are treated with an unusual reverence. “Music for the feet is for the booty too” is sung less like a line for the dance floor and more like one from a lullaby or hymn.

The rest of the vocals are typical Rubber Band pass-the-mic lead vocals; according to Daniel Bedrosian’s excellent The Authorized P-Funk Song Reference, Mudbone Cooper and Robert Peanut Johnson (core Rubber Band members), Bootsy, Maceo, George, and Greg Thomas all sing. (Bedrosian has been P-Funk’s keyboardist for 20 years and interviewed band members for over 66 hours to record decades of credits.) Some of the bouncy, joyful lines sound pitched up: “Right around the corner” and the percussive “Da-da-da”s during Bootsy’s second verse.

Joel Johnson joins Bernie on synths. Johnson was another key Rubber Band player and a latter day P-Funk member, playing on albums like Parliament’s Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome and The Brides of Funkenstein’s Funk Or Walk. Carl Butch Small plays percussion and handclap boards. It’s unclear what handclap boards are exactly, but this was the era of P-Funk’s greatest handlcaps, as in ‘One Nation Under a Groove’ and ‘Aquaboogie’.

The synth strings towards the end sound a little circus-like. They have a similar flavour to later Parliament horns like Trombipulation’s ‘Body Language’. That section’s (and the intro’s) bassline has a bit of circus vibe too. Bootsy’s songs often had a playful, childlike energy. Clinton wrote in his memoir that by the time of Bootsy’s second record, 1977’s Ahh ... the Name Is Bootsy, Baby!, “It was clear that we had to extend him further into cartoon land, while keeping him legitimate as a romantic figure.” Usually that innocence came across in his voice but in those intro/outro sections it’s in his bass too.

Away from those sparser sections, Bootsy plays more quick fills. When the vocal notes are extended, his bass’s are quick and hurried, though he makes sure to always play on the One.