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).
Let's Take It to the Stage
Funkadelic - Let's Take It to the Stage.jpg
Studio album by Funkadelic
Released April 21, 1975
Genre Funk rock
Length 35:57
Label Westbound
Producer George Clinton
Funkadelic chronology
Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
(1974)Standing on the Verge of Getting It On1974		 Let's Take It to the Stage
(1975)		 Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
(1976)Tales of Kidd Funkadelic1976

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
Source Rating
AllMusic 3.5/5 stars[5]
Blender 5/5 stars[3]
Christgau's Record Guide A–[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music 4/5 stars[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 4/5 stars[7]
Spin Alternative Record Guide 9/10[8]
The Village Voice B+[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. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Good to Your Earhole"   George Clinton, Grace Cook, Fuzzy Haskins 4:30
2. "Better By the Pound" (released as a single-Westbound 5014) Clinton, Cook 2:40
3. "Be My Beach"   Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell 2:35
4. "No Head, No Backstage Pass"   Clinton, Ron Bykowski 2:36
5. "Let's Take It to the Stage" (released as a single-Westbound 5026) Clinton, Collins, Garry Shider 3:32
6. "Get Off Your Ass and Jam"   Clinton 2:00
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
7. "Baby I Owe You Something Good"   Clinton 5:43
8. "Stuffs and Things" (released as the B-side of "Better By The Pound") Clinton, Cook 2:11
9. "The Song Is Familiar"   Clinton, Collins, Worrell 3:05
10. "Atmosphere"   Clinton, Shider, Worrell 7:05

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ DeCurtis, Henke & George-Warren 1992, p. 269.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Christgau 1981, p. 145.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Frere-Jones et al. 2004, p. 316-17.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Frere-Jones et al. 2004, p. 316–17.

Bibliography

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External links

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