Diggin' Ain't EZ, chapter 1

[This will be a semi-regular feature on the "Music on the One" webpage: a look at some of the cool funk I find here and there. The title is a bit disingenuous, since the massive wave of funk reissue labels have made digging way too easy. Perfect for someone like me, who collects only so I can play & appreciate & share the things I love — so it doesn't matter to me if it's rare or original or anything like that...]

Chapter One: U.S. Music with Funkadelic (Westbound Records, 2009)

Originally recorded in 1972 on Detroit's Westbound Records, then-home of Funkadelic and The Ohio Players, this LP went unreleased after its recording. Only a single 45 was pressed ("I Miss My Baby" b/w "Baby I Owe You Something Good," Westbound, 1972), but the full album was abandoned, as its driving members left the band to join the P-Funk Thang.

U.S. stands for United Soul, and the band consisted of several younger musicians from Plainfield, NJ associated with George Clinton's conk shop and barbershop group, including Garry Shider (1953-2010) and Cordell "Boogie" Mosson (1952-2013), who were drawn into the P-Funk orbit in the early 70s. Both Shider and Mosson were recruited to join Funkadelic when the original members (basically everybody but Bernie Worrell) abandoned Clinton over financial disputes. Other members included Mosson's brother Larry, Peggie Turner, Ben Edwards, "Slim" Edwards, and Harvey McGhee. (Shider appears on several early Parliament and Funkadelic recordings, including the Osmium sessions (ca. 1970) and Maggot Brain (1971).)

Garry Shider, who always wore it best

Cordell "Boogie" Mosson, bassist extraordinaire for Funkadelic's classic period

I paid way too much for this, but it's a real keeper. Haven't heard it yet, but it looks like a drippingly great record. I'll have a lot of fun sharing this one with my "Music on the One" family.

Track listing:

A) This Broken Heart - 4:33 (a cover of an original by the Sonics [1959], later redone on Cosmic Slop [1973])

Baby I Owe You Something Good - 3:50 (later redone on Let's Take It To The Stage [1975])

Be What You Is - 3:45

B) I Miss My Baby - 5:02

Rat Kiss the Cat on the Naval - 7:32 **

** Best track by far, a classic unknown

"Be What You Is" is also available on the Gettin' It Off compilation (Westbound UK, 1996), and smacks of a perfectly crunchy early Funkadelic with typical Clinton-eque clever lyrics. The version on this LP is mastered slightly differently — still great, just not the same.

Every track but the first on side B is dank and foul, some familiar, all very early Funkadelic. "Rat Kiss the Cat on the Naval" will scare the shit out of you, but you won't be able to turn away. Think "Wars of Armageddon" in the schoolhouse, though a bit slower tempo.