Let's Take It to the Stage

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This article is about the album. For the song, see Let's Take It to the Stage (song).
Untitled

Let's Take It to the Stage is the seventh album by American funk/soul/rock band Funkadelic. It was released in April 1975 on Westbound Records. The album charted at number 102 on the Billboard 200 and number 14 on the R&B Albums.[1]

Music and lyrics

Let's Take It to the Stage is a funk rock album.[2] The closing track "Atmosphere", which begins with a monologue by George Clinton about "dicks and clits",[3] appropriates an extended organ coda from Johann Sebastian Bach.[4] The album's title track has been sampled on several hip hop hits, including Brand Nubian's "Slow Down", Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise", and N.W.A's "100 Miles and Runnin'".[1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Blender[3]
Christgau's Record GuideA–[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[8]
The Village VoiceB+[9]

In a contemporary review, Billboard magazine called Let's Take It to the Stage a collection of Funkadelic's "usual good mix of soul and jazz sounds, mixed in with singing and street raps", citing the title track and "Baby I Owe You Something Good" as highlights.[10] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said Funkadelic finally does on record "what they've always promised to do in the hype—make the Ohio Players sound like the Mike Curb Congregation."[9] In a 1981 review, he wrote that despite the group's "disturbingly occultish bent", he is "inclined to trust the music, which is tough-minded, outlandish, very danceable, and finally, I think (and hope), liberating",[4] later writing in Blender that it was their "tightest album ... all 10 tracks rock on."[3]

AllMusic's Ned Raggett found Let's Take It to the Stage to be one of the band's most comical records with "more P-Funk all-time greats as well, making for a grand balance of the serious and silly."[5] Sasha Frere-Jones, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), said it was "a summing-up of everything Funkadelic had done to date, and is still their most playable record." He felt that, although Clinton's "sexual politics weren't at their best" on tracks such as "No Head No Backstage Pass", the album is exemplary of the band's musicianship.[11]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Good to Your Earhole"George Clinton, Grace Cook, Fuzzy Haskins4:30
2."Better By the Pound" (released as a single-Westbound 5014)Clinton, Cook2:40
3."Be My Beach"Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell2:35
4."No Head, No Backstage Pass"Clinton, Ron Bykowski2:36
5."Let's Take It to the Stage" (released as a single-Westbound 5026)Clinton, Collins, Garry Shider3:32
6."Get Off Your Ass and Jam"Clinton2:00
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Baby I Owe You Something Good"Clinton5:43
8."Stuffs and Things" (released as the B-side of "Better By The Pound")Clinton, Cook2:11
9."The Song Is Familiar"Clinton, Collins, Worrell3:05
10."Atmosphere"Clinton, Shider, Worrell7:05

Personnel

References

  1. ^ a b Robert of the Radish (March 11, 2012). "Hip-Hop Tracks That Sample Funkadelic's Let's Take It To The Stage". Yahoo! Music. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  2. ^ DeCurtis, Henke & George-Warren 1992, p. 269.
  3. ^ a b c Christgau, Robert (August 2008). "The Guide: Back Catalogue: Funkadelic". Blender. New York. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c Christgau 1981, p. 145.
  5. ^ a b Raggett, Ned. "Let's Take It to the Stage – Funkadelic : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  6. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 2241. ISBN 0857125958.
  7. ^ Frere-Jones et al. 2004, p. 316-17.
  8. ^ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Funkadelic". Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  9. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (October 27, 1975). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  10. ^ "Billboard's Recommended LPs". Billboard. Los Angeles: 51. June 14, 1975. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  11. ^ Frere-Jones et al. 2004, p. 316–17.

Bibliography

External links

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