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Mothership Connection is the fourth album by American funk band Parliament, released on December 15, 1975 on Casablanca Records. This concept album is often rated among the best Parliament-Funkadelic releases, and was the first to feature horn players Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, who had previously backed James Brown in the J.B.'s.

Mothership Connection
Studio album by Parliament
Released	December 15, 1975
Recorded	March–October 1975 [1]
Studio	United Sound, Detroit, Michigan, and Hollywood Sound, Hollywood, California
Genre	Funk[2] R&B[3] funk rock[4] disco[5] black prog[6]
Length	38:06
Label	Casablanca NBLP 7022/Def Jam
Producer	George Clinton
Parliament chronology
Chocolate City (1975) Mothership Connection (1975) The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976)
Singles from Mothership Connection
"P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up" Released: 1976 "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)" Released: 1976 "Star Child (Mothership Connection)" Released: 1976

Mothership Connection became Parliament's first album to be certified gold and later platinum.[7] The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2011, declaring "The album has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music."[8]

Concept

The album is held together by a loose, escapist outer-space theme.[2] Describing the concept, George Clinton said "We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang."[9] The album's concept would form the backbone of P-Funk's concert performances during the 1970s, in which a large spaceship prop known as the Mothership would be lowered onto the stage as part of Dr. Funkenstein's arrival.[10]

BBC Music described the album as a pioneering work of afrofuturism "set in a future universe where black astronauts interact with alien worlds."[11] Journalist Frasier McAlpine stated that "As a reaction to an increasingly fraught 1970s urban environment in which African-American communities faced the end of the optimism of the civil rights era, this flamboyant imagination (and let's be frank, exceptional funkiness) was both righteous and joyful."[11]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Billboard	(favorable)[5]
Blender	[12]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[13]
Pitchfork	(8.5/10)[3]
PopMatters	(favorable)[14]
Rolling Stone	(favorable)[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]
Spin	(10/10)[17]
Sputnikmusic	[18]

On release, Rolling Stone called it a "parody of modern funk" and stated that "unlike the Ohio Players or Commodores, the group refuses to play it straight. Instead, Clinton spews his jive, conceived from some cosmic funk vision."[15] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said, "That DJ from Chocolate City, or maybe it's the Chocolate Milky Way, keeps the beat going with nothing but his rap, some weird keyboard, and cymbals for stretches of side one. And later produces the galactic 'Give Up the Funk' and a James Brown tribute that goes 'gogga googa, gogga googa'—only believe me, that doesn't capture it."[13]

Retrospectively, it gained high regard. Rolling Stone's 2003 review gave the record 5 stars: "The masterpiece, the slang creator, the icon builder, the master narrative--or 'the bomb,' as Clinton succinctly put it before anyone else." AllMusic called it "the definitive Parliament-Funkadelic album," in which "George Clinton's revolving band lineups, differing musical approaches, and increasingly thematic album statements reached an ideal state, one that resulted in enormous commercial success as well as a timeless legacy."[2] Dr. Dre famously sampled the songs "Mothership Connection (Star Child)" and "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" on his album The Chronic.

The album has received many accolades, including being named TV network VH1's 55th greatest album of all time. In 2012, it was ranked at number 276 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[19] It was featured again on the 2020 edition, at number 363.[20] Vibe listed Mothership Connection in their "Essential Black Rock Recordings" list, and it was included in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Track listing

Personnel

• Lead vocals - George Clinton (Lead in "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)", "Mothership Connection (Star Child)"), Calvin Simon, Fuzzy Haskins, Ray Davis, Grady Thomas, Gary Shider (lead in "Handcuffs"), Glenn Goins (lead in "Unfunky UFO", "Handcuffs"), Bootsy Collins
• Horns - Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Boom, Joe Farrell
• Bass guitar - Bootsy Collins, Cordell Mosson
• Guitars - Garry Shider, Michael Hampton, Glenn Goins, Bootsy Collins
• Drums and percussion - Tiki Fulwood, Jerome Brailey, Bootsy Collins, Gary Cooper
• Keyboards and synthesizers - Bernie Worrell (Minimoog, Wurlitzer electric piano, ARP Pro Soloist and String Ensemble, RMI Electra Piano, Hammond organ, grand piano, Fender Rhodes, clavinet D6)[1]
• Backing vocals and handclaps - Gary Cooper, Debbie Edwards, Taka Kahn, Archie Ivy, Bryna Chimenti, Rasputin Boutte, Pam Vincent, Debra Wright, Sidney Barnes

Production

• Produced by George Clinton
• Engineered by Jim Vitti (in Detroit, Michigan), Ralph (Oops) Jim Callon (in Hollywood, California)
• Mastered by Allen Zentz
• Photography by David Alexander
• Art Direction and Design by Gribbitt!

Chart positions

Chart (1976)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[21]	13
US R&B Albums[21]	4

Certification

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[22]	Platinum	1,000,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

• Afrofuturism
• Album era

References

External links

• Mothership Connection: Banging hip-hop from worlds away at The Austin Chronicle

На других языках

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- [en] Mothership Connection

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[es] Mothership Connection

Mothership Connection es el cuarto álbum del grupo de funk estadounidense Parliament, publicado en 1975. Se trata de un álbum conceptual en el que aparece buena parte de la Mitología P-Funk relacionada con Parliament y Funkadelic. Este disco es el primero de Parliament en contar con Maceo Parker y Fred Wesley, que habían dejado la banda de James Brown (The J.B.'s) recientemente. "Mothership Connection" se convirtió en el primer disco de oro y posteriormente de platino de Parliament.

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[ru] Mothership Connection

Mothership Connection (с англ. — «Соединение с кораблём Mothership») — четвёртый студийный альбом американской фанк-группы Parliament, выпущенный 15 декабря 1975 года лейблом Casablanca Records. Mothership Connection — это концептуальный альбом и он считается одним из лучших релизов Parliament-Funkadelic; также он был первым, в котором приняли участие валторнисты Масео Паркер и Фред Уэсли, которые ранее играли у Джеймса Брауна в The J.B.'s.

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