The intro to "Red Hot Mama". I love it. I had part of it in my sig at one point acually. And those lyrics are also in the Funkadelic song "America Eats Its Young".

I'm not sure what's about exactly. A bit of nonsense is what I always thought, and it fits in with that whole psychedelic, bombed-out on acid vibe that Funkadelic does so well. Maybe someone else here has a different view on it.

I never thought of it as a negative thing so much, just strange. Funkadelic always had more of an experimental, sinister edge to their music than P-Funk did though IMO. P-Funk does have more of a "positive party" vibe yes, but "Standing on the Verge..." is pure Funkadelic.

Anyway, I always thought that intro might just be about an insecure, jealous woman with some clever word-play thrown in. I don't know, maybe it's much deeper than that though.

typo edit
[Edited 1/28/07 4:53am]

minneapolisgenius said:

I know what it is now; yes it's from 'america eat's it's young' that's what the song is called so i would guess it's about america. The lyrics basically describe america in p funks' weird rugged out way
Who is this young Vic Tanny bitch
Who wish to be queen for a day?
Who would sacrifice the great grandsons and daughters of her jealous mother
By sucking their brain until their ability to think was amputated
By pimping their instincts
Until they were fat, horny and strung-out
In a neurotic attempt to be queen of the universe
America wants to control the world most would say.
[Edited 1/28/07 5:09am]

...

It is about America...

'America Eats its Young' marks a point when George realized that the 'Peace Love and Happiness, and Brotherhood' facade of the sixties was faded and gone, as he has pointed out in some interviews. This was post-Altamont, post-Kent State, post-Martin Luther King, and Malcom X and Kennedy deaths, Urban riots, and Chicago Democratic Convention riots. The "Establishment" had cracked down, People were feeling the after effects of Vietnam, and the inner city was seeing a rise in crime and drugs. Although there was definitely still gonna be a sense of fun on the albums, George also had some issues he wanted to talk about now....

The album title, America Eats it's Young, makes the statement itself. Also, look at some of the other titles and lyrics:



in Biological Speculation:

"We're just a biological speculation
Sittin' here, vibratin'
And we don't know what we're vibratin' about

And the animal instinct in me
Makes me wanna defend me
It makes me want to live when it's time to die

Y'all see my point?
I don't mean to come on strong but I am concerned

I believe in god
Though I know that law and order must prevail
Oh, if and when the laws of man
Is not just, equal and fair
Then the laws of nature will come and do her thing

Oh, she does not think
She just rectifies
She comes and balances the book
Y'all see my point?
Y'all see my point?"
Some of you, you might not be aware
That some of us don't eat
Some of you don't, you don't even care

Oh, if and when the system
Creates hunger and hate
Then the laws of nature will come and do her thing
Oh, yes, oh!

She does not think
She works by instinct
Survival is her thing
Do y'all see my point? (ohh!)
Y'all see my point?...."

If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce The Cause even looks at some of the hypocrisy with those that made a show of protest but don't really want change:

" You say you don't like what your country's about (yeah)
Ain't you deep
In your semi-first class seat
You picket this and protest that
And eat yourself fat
Ain't you deep
In your semi-first class seat

If you don't like the effects
don't produce the cause...."


Or, in Everybody Is Going To Make It This Time

"Our mothers and our fathers
They had lives to live
Oh, and today, is proof that mistakes were made
There's not a doubt in my heart
They've done the best that they know how
And there's still time for us to make a change

We got to learn from the mistakes that were made in the past
We got to clean so that we can clean our minds
'Cause in order to get it together
We got to get our heads together
Everybody is going to make it this time

Our country and our cities, they have been betrayed for money
Ooooh, and somehow, the people, they will make a change, yeah
There's not a doubt in my mind
If hunger and anger place the blame
There won't be a country left to change

We got to see what we're doing in the name of comfort
We've got to see, we've got to feel the warning signs
But in order to get it together
We've got to get our heads together
Everybody is going to make it this time..."



...
[Edited 1/28/07 10:38am]

I personally, love the hell out of this intro. One of the best ever and is classic Funkadelic. Very much in the same vein as the intro to the song "Maggot Brain". George is plainly speaking about the plight of not only America, but BLACK America. All of Funkadelic's album from 69 on up to 81, deal specifically from the Black perspective. Parliament did too, but Funkadelic was closer to the street. Drugs, junkies, pimps, unemployment, politics and how it effected the plight of Blacks in America, that was the centerpiece of George's lyrics in many of Funkadelic's songs and concepts.

yeah great stuff! I haven;t got that album; worth buying?

...

It is about America...

'America Eats its Young' marks a point when George realized that the 'Peace Love and Happiness, and Brotherhood' facade of the sixties was faded and gone, as he has pointed out in some interviews. This was post-Altamont, post-Kent State, post-Martin Luther King, and Malcom X and Kennedy deaths, Urban riots, and Chicago Democratic Convention riots. The "Establishment" had cracked down, People were feeling the after effects of Vietnam, and the inner city was seeing a rise in crime and drugs. Although there was definitely still gonna be a sense of fun on the albums, George also had some issues he wanted to talk about now....

The album title, America Eats it's Young, makes the statement itself. Also, look at some of the other titles and lyrics:



in Biological Speculation:

"We're just a biological speculation
Sittin' here, vibratin'
And we don't know what we're vibratin' about

And the animal instinct in me
Makes me wanna defend me
It makes me want to live when it's time to die

Y'all see my point?
I don't mean to come on strong but I am concerned

I believe in god
Though I know that law and order must prevail
Oh, if and when the laws of man
Is not just, equal and fair
Then the laws of nature will come and do her thing

Oh, she does not think
She just rectifies
She comes and balances the book
Y'all see my point?
Y'all see my point?"
Some of you, you might not be aware
That some of us don't eat
Some of you don't, you don't even care

Oh, if and when the system
Creates hunger and hate
Then the laws of nature will come and do her thing
Oh, yes, oh!

She does not think
She works by instinct
Survival is her thing
Do y'all see my point? (ohh!)
Y'all see my point?...."

If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce The Cause even looks at some of the hypocrisy with those that made a show of protest but don't really want change:

" You say you don't like what your country's about (yeah)
Ain't you deep
In your semi-first class seat
You picket this and protest that
And eat yourself fat
Ain't you deep
In your semi-first class seat

If you don't like the effects
don't produce the cause...."


Or, in Everybody Is Going To Make It This Time

"Our mothers and our fathers
They had lives to live
Oh, and today, is proof that mistakes were made
There's not a doubt in my heart
They've done the best that they know how
And there's still time for us to make a change

We got to learn from the mistakes that were made in the past
We got to clean so that we can clean our minds
'Cause in order to get it together
We got to get our heads together
Everybody is going to make it this time

Our country and our cities, they have been betrayed for money
Ooooh, and somehow, the people, they will make a change, yeah
There's not a doubt in my mind
If hunger and anger place the blame
There won't be a country left to change

We got to see what we're doing in the name of comfort
We've got to see, we've got to feel the warning signs
But in order to get it together
We've got to get our heads together
Everybody is going to make it this time..."



...
[Edited 1/28/07 10:38am]

paligap said:

Tell them, pali! Honestly, I don't know how u can be a true Funkadelic fan and not know these things. It's as clear as Hazel's playing.

blackguitaristz said:

Well, some of us Funkadelic fans aren't black, and therefore listening to it as kids and teenagers, never really related with the lyrics on a personal level. I had to draw my own conclusion as to what it might be about. It can be interpreted different ways especially when you are listening to it out of context, and for me, that means hearing it for the first time in the 80s, and NOT during the time it was first produced.

(I'm just talking about the intro that is mentioned in the subject of this thread. Not about America Eats Its Young as a whole.)

I hate it when people become condesecending to others and imply that they aren't "true fans" or whatever because they don't "get it" like they're supposed to. I don't know, it just really rubs me the wrong way.

run-on sentence edit

minneapolisgenius said:

I'm not speaking for bgz, but I don't think it was meant to come off quite that way.....

and for the record, I didn't get all of what it was about at the time, either! ( I was only 7 when this Eats it's Young came out!) All I knew was that that album cover scared the hell outta me when I was little, ...But it wasn't until I grew up and started checking them out more closely over the years , and actually listening to the lyrics, over time...

and the things George was talking about here weren't exclusively about the black experience, if you look at the lyrics. He was talking about how he saw the the system as a whole...the haves vs, the have nots, The Powers that be vs. the common man, and really how we react to one another on an individual level, as well! In other words the same stuff that Neil Young, Bob Dylan and all the Rock artists were talking about...It's just that Funkadelic had such a wild vibe, anything they did was probably gonna gonna be looked at that way by lots of folks, white and black. In Fact ,even a great deal of Pfunk's black fans probably still think that George always wrote silly, weird nonsense stuff--

But I also think that's the way George ultimately intended it, meaning that you could take this stuff on any level that you wanted to...If you just wanted the party vibe that was there...and for those who wanted to look at it on another level , they would see some solid concepts and themes....everyone can take it how they want to take it...



...
[Edited 1/29/07 8:54am]

I remember it "all making sense" to me at the time. And yeah, for me as well, looking at those album covers was pretty freaky. Not recommended while on acid.

minneapolisgenius said:

Yeah, now that's the thing I didn't experience! Everybody back in the day, Older friends and cousins, etc. would always talk about gettin' high and trippin' on these records back then! Now that had to be some truly Other Shit,

My first experience at a P-funk concert wasn't until The Motor Booty Affair tour, in 79. I just remember being in the audience of this huge arena (Capital Center, in Landover, MD) , and having this huge wave of marijuana smoke flow over the entire auditorium -- you got caught up in it whether you wanted to or not, !!!




...
[Edited 1/29/07 9:20am]

minneapolisgenius said:

I'm not speaking for bgz, but I don't think it was meant to come off quite that way.....

and for the record, I didn't get all of what it was about at the time, either! ( I was only 7 when this Eats it's Young came out!) All I knew was that that album cover scared the hell outta me when I was little, ...But it wasn't until I grew up and started checking them out more closely over the years , and actually listening to the lyrics, over time...

and the things George was talking about here weren't exclusively about the black experience, if you look at the lyrics. He was talking about how he saw the the system as a whole...the haves vs, the have nots, The Powers that be vs. the common man, and really how we react to one another on an individual level, as well! In other words, the same stuff that Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield, and Marvin Gaye and others were talking about...It's just that Funkadelic had such a wild vibe, anything they did was probably gonna gonna be looked at that way by lots of folks, white and black. In fact, even a great deal of Pfunk's black fans probably still think that George always wrote silly, weird nonsense stuff--

But I also think that's the way George ultimately intended it, meaning that you could take this stuff on any level that you wanted to...If you just wanted the party vibe that was there...and for those who wanted to look at it on another level , they would see some solid concepts and themes....everyone can take it how they want to take it...



...
[Edited 1/29/07 9:00am]

paligap said:

Damn.....anyway pali, again, very well said. Thanx for giving me the benifit of the doubt as well. I was most DERFINATELY speaking in general. The cold part about it is that I didn't even read any of Minnie's post before I posted so....u know. I was little as hell when those albums were released so of course I didn't understand the logic behind them. I've mentioned this on here in the past, I too was scared of their album covers when I was little, but digging them at the same time. But even being that little, I loved the music and the overall sound. It wasn't untill in the early 80's when I was 11 and 12 that I started getting into the lyrics. And still I didn't really understand the concept, lyrically, untill I was in early high school. Which was still in the 80's. So.....

blackguitaristz said:

Derfinately?! Excuse the "r". Slip of the typing finger, but uh, pali, u know where I'm coming from.

Dig it pali; I haven't been on here for quite some time. This is one of the first threads I had even posted on and what am I welcomed back with? I'm accussed of some bullshit that couldn't even hold a glass of water. Yeah Val, it's nice to see u too and shit.

blackguitaristz said:

Well, if you read back down the thread, you can clearly see why I might think that comment was directed at me since I was the only person on this thread that said I didn't know what the lyrics were about. How could I know that you didn't read the thread before posting?

minneapolisgenius said:

Yeah yeah, I know all that. U said that already in an earlier post. I just wonder if it was somebody else on here who had posted the exact same thing that I posted, would you have jumped to conclusions on them like u did me. I bet money if it was Rip or The Audience who posted what I did, u wouldn't have said shit. Which is cool too. Now I know.

blackguitaristz said:

Why would it matter who said it? That's why I found it strange that you would post something like that, because it seemed like a pointed dig at what I had posted earlier. And what you said wasn't in a joking manner anyway, so how would I take it any other way than seriously?

This is what you said:

"Tell them, pali! Honestly, I don't know how u can be a true Funkadelic fan and not know these things. It's as clear as Hazel's playing."

Tell them. Well that implies everyone on the thread that didn't know what Pali was saying. It just seemed like not really a cool thing to say to anyone really, that they weren't true fans if they didn't know that. No matter who is was directed at. It just sounded smug to me.

What do Rip and tA have to do with it? They're not even on this thread. The only thing Rip and I do is joke anyway, so yeah, if he said something like that I most likely would have taken it as a joke. And tA hasn't talked to me in ages anyway. But then, he's been gone for a while too.

Just because you get along w/ people on here, or are friends with them, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to agree with everything they post. I didn't agree with what you posted because I thought it was directed at me, so I told you so. It's not because of some personal vendetta against you or something.

minneapolisgenius said:

Yeah, I get all of that. I don't ever want anyone to agree with shit I say just because we may happen to be friends. I love when folks disagree with me. Especially if their shit is valid. Maybe they can hip me to an angle that I didn't see before. But let's get back to the "tell them" part. That's just a simple phrase that I use all the time. I use it to death on this very site. "Tell em' funkpill." Tell em' Aud. "Tell em Spyz". I use it with anybody who has made an excellent point in one of their posts. This time was no different. The "tell em'" is me saying "Go head player, preach!" "Tell em" isn't directed towards anybody except for the person that just made an excellent post. THAT"S who it is directed too. And yeah, I meant what I said about how can anyone be a TRUE fan without being hip to that element of Funkadelic, i.e., the symbolism in the lyrics, album covers, etc. It was far from a knock to anyone. I wasn't even thinking of any one person. It was strictly in GENERAL terms. Like I posted from the get go, I didn't even noticed that u had posted on the thread when I posted. So, if u don't mind now, I'm going to leave the cast of "All My Children" cuz I can't handle the drama on this soap opera.

blackguitaristz said:

Well if it's become a "soap opera" to you, it's only because what you said came out sounding sort of elitist and condescending in general, and I responded to it. You may not have meant it that way, but that's what I thought when I read it so I posted about it.

minneapolisgenius said:

Right. Which takes me right back to the point I made earlier. If somebody else had said it, u would have gave them the benifit of the doubt and not said anything. But with me, u automatically assumed I was refering to u. Even pali told u that that's not what I meant. But nah, u didn't want to hear that shit.

blackguitaristz said:

Now who's the one making accusations? How do you know what I would have said to anyone else if they had made the same comment? You act like I was just waiting to jump on you for any little comment you made. I would have made the exact same post no matter who posted it. Not just because it was you that said it.

And I reiterate again: I thought you were talking to me because I was the ONLY one that posted on the thread saying that I didn't know the lyrics were about America.

(And Pali said he didn't want to speak for you and that he didn't think that's what you meant.)


I can't explain it any clearer. But now you're the one who's not listening.

minneapolisgenius said:

Trust me, I'm a bright bulb. U don't have to make ANYTHING clearer to me and I've been listening. I hear perfectly well.