A classic album can be a classic albums for many reasons. It may just be so popular it is known to everyone. Or maybe the music is so good that alone gives it its status. Or maybe the importance of the album musically and historically takes it there.

Funkadelic, the band's first self-titled album from 1970, is a classic on several levels. The Temptations may have had the notion to integrate some psychedelic/Hendrix influences on

. But it was George Clinton and his Funkadelic vehicle that soul and funk could be as psychedelic, as windowpane dipped, as counter-cultural as any white rock. Funkidelic the band was one of the first soul bands that didn't even make a pretense as playing it straight. They just didn't care.

"If you suck my soul, I will lick your funky emotions." was not a line that would get a soul band on to Ed Sullivan in 1970. But it is how Funkadelic started their career, and this album. "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic," is the track this line opens, with a booming eccho, and it only gets more strange from there.

At nine minutes, this song made no stab at AM radio. The track is filled with eccho, wha wha guitars, dark bass, and ghostly backing vocals. The black people here speak like black people. There is a pant, a sexuality to the heavy breathing.

They're throwing your own stereotypes in your face--and not being cute about it. America was still desegregating in 1970. In all its absurdity and humor, this stuff was dangerous.

The album itself alternates between this not so absurd absurdity and more conventional soul numbers, which Clinton cut his teeth on. Even these have a rock edge. Layers and layers of guitars and voices. Musically and socially textured at every level

Albums like this just did not get made in 1970. In 2010, I am still hard pressed to find much like it.

Okay, so I bought this remastered version because I am a freak and must always have the newest version of a product if it seems like it is the best. I just got this CD, opened it and listened to it, and it didn't sound so great. I had the previous edition of Fundadelic, and this one seems to sound worse by comparison. The remaster sounds tinny to me, and it seems like they boosted the volume, without cleaning up the sound as much as they could have. The mix sounds less even than the previous edition. Maybe I'm crazy, and it doesn't matter, I would have bought it anyway for the bonus tracks.

My general impression of this album is summed up in this following passage (this is purely for fun!);

There was a time when I tried to escape this music - I thought it was for the old school folk who lost their groove along with Stella! So I indulged myself into the sigh life of Ghetto Flabulousness. Sportin' the latest fashions from the lights of Crockawear, Foolbu, and Smelle Smelle (Pelle Pelle), I simped walked my way into Moon Shallow nightclub every Friday and Saturday night (free *submission before midnight). As I stepped on the dancefloor and got my slack on with a few featherheads, they thought I was cool with my tailor made ebay jewelry completed with the plastic diamonds, but I myself had no groove because I was one of the star children neutralized by the atoms of the blah syndrome. As of a couple of months I would purchase the whole Funkadelic catalog that will have the funkadafied power to harvest the star children into planet one.

Tongue in cheek George Clinton imitation aside, simply put, Funkadelic's music is more stoned than a bonfire after party at Woodstock. For those who's used to the rockier side of their later releases will enjoy hearing these fellas in a more straight forward bluesy fashion. There's evidence of the George's surreal humor in "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic" and "Music for my Mother", extended phyche out jam sessions in "Good Ol Music", and the band's more subversive side in "What is Soul". In the production, the tripped out synth effects and studio trickery, which will become better defined on later releases, are also intact.

While this album lays down the foundation of the Funkadelic sound, I sounds simplier than the more complex jams on albums like "Let's take it to the Stage" and "One Nation under a Groove". It would probably be the easiest Funkadelic album to listen to along with "Standing on the Verge". While they are an acquired taste, anyone who has the nerve to say that "Soul is a joint rolled up in toilet tissue" deserves a curious ear or two.

Great early funk. Great grooves. Not for the faint of heart. Gets to the root of early funk. I recommend it.

Stylistically, this debut album has little in common with later Funkadelic albums like "One Nation Under A Groove". Nonetheless, fans of those albums will immediately recognize George Clinton's bizarre sense of humor in the opening and closing tracks, "Mommy What's A Funkadelic?" and "What Is Soul?" The latter is a particularly catchy call-and-response, where a chorus repeatedly asks "What Is Soul? I Don't Know!" and Clinton provides various pungent metaphors to describe it. Other highlights include "I'll Bet You" and "I've Got A Thing".

My one criticism of this album would be its slight monotony. Despite spanning a broad range of genres, the band tends to take a similar approach to every song on this album: slow psychedelic grooves with extended jamming, prominent chanting, lots of panning and echo effects, and wailing guitar solos way up in the mix. "I've Got A Thing" is the one fast, straightforward song, providing a much-needed respite halfway through the album.

Still, the songs are all uniformly strong and at 47 minutes (not including the bonus tracks), this is by far one of Funkadelic's most generous offerings. For fans of Funkadelic's middle and late albums, it might take a while to appreciate this album's style, but it's certainly worth the effort. I'd also recommend it to anyone who enjoys the wilder, stranger side of Jimi Hendrix.