Let's Take It to the Stage is the seventh album by American funk rock band Funkadelic. It was released on April 21, 1975 on Westbound Records. The album charted at number 102 on the Billboard 200 and number 14 on the R&B Albums.

Music and lyrics

Let's Take It to the Stage is a funk rock album. The opening track, "Good to Your Earhole", features extensive guitar parts and a pronounced funk groove played by the rhythm section. In a July 2009 interview with Vintage Guitar, guitarist Paul Warren said that he played the solo.

The closing track "Atmosphere", which begins with a monologue by Clinton about "dicks and clits", appropriates an extended organ coda from Johann Sebastian Bach. "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" 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'".

| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev5Score =

| rev6 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev6Score = 9/10

| rev7 = The Village Voice

| rev7Score = B+ 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." Years later, he wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981) that, despite the group's "disturbingly occultish bent", the music is "tough-minded, outlandish, very danceable, and finally, I think (and hope), liberating"; for Blender, he said it is their "tightest album ... all 10 tracks rock on." 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.

Track listing

Personnel

  • Vocals: 'Cool' Cal Simon, 'Bad Bosco' Bernie Worrell, C 'Boogie' Mosson, Garry 'Dowop' Shider
  • Bass Vocals: 'Sting' Ray Davis
  • Genie Vocals: 'Shady' Grady Thomas
  • Werewolf Vocals: Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins
  • Maggot Overlord: George Clinton
  • Congas: Calvin Simon
  • Keyboards: Bernie Worrell
  • Bass: C Boogie Mosson
  • Percussion: R Tiki Fulwood
  • Guitar: Michael Hampton, Garry Shider
  • Alumni Funkadelic: Bootsy Collins (vocals), Billy Bass, Eddie Hazel, Ron Bykowski
  • Guest Funkadelic: Paul Warren, Reggie McBride, Frosty [Barry Frost, drummer for Rare Earth], Mello Garcia, Honeys, Denise Hurd, Delores whats-her-name, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, Parliament l, Mallia Franklin- uncredited

References

Bibliography

  • "Masters of the Form: Funkadelic, 1975 – Let's Take It to the Stage" by PopMatters
  • About the album