Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow

This song is notable for the early use of feedback as part of a musical statement. Many of the songs (such as the titular track, described below, and Eulogy and Light) subvert Christian themes, including the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm[?].

Inspiration: "Let's see if we can cut a whole album while we're all tripping on acid" - George Clinton on the making of Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow.

On the Billboard Music Charts (North America), Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow peaked at #11 on the Black Albums Chart and #92 on the Pop Albums chart.

Track Listing

• Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow (George Clinton, Ray Davis[?], Eddie Hazel)
• Friday Night, August 14th (Clinton, Hazel, Billy Bass Nelson)
• Funky Dollar Bill (Clinton, Davis, Hazel)
• I Wanna Know If It's Good to You (Clinton, Clarence Haskins, Hazel, Nelson)
• Some More (Clinton, Ernie Harris[?])
• Eulogy and Light (Harris)

Personnel

• Lead Guitar: Eddie Hazel
• Rhythm Guitar: Tawl Ross[?]
• Keyboards: Bernie Worrell
• Drums: Tiki Fulwood
• Bass: Billy Bass Nelson
• Vocals: Parliament (George Clinton, Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, Grady Thomas[?])

--External Reviews==

• "another example of Funkadelic getting busy and taking everyone with it"
  • the All Music Guide (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Az7qvadokv8w6)

External Links

• the Motherpage reviews (http://www.duke.edu/~tmc/motherpage/albums_funkadelic/alb-fymind)

Title of song: Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow

Artist: Funkadelic

Album: Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow (see above)

Year of first release: 1971

This is a feedback drenched number (from Eddie Hazel), with a heavy spoken word quality.

Songwriters: George Clinton, Ray Davis, Eddie Hazel

Memorable Lyrics:

• "Freedom is free of the need to be free"
• "The kingdom of heaven is within"
• "I don't know what I feel/I can't feel me, I can't live me, I can't be me/My mind, it does not belong to me/I'm so confused/I'm so confused/I can't hear myself/I can't hear myself calling for help/I can't free my mind/So my ass can't follow"
• "Resurrection, free of charge"

Complete lyrics at the Motherpage (http://www.duke.edu/~tmc/motherpage/lyrics_funkadelic/lyr-fymind#lyr-s-fymind)

The song introduces the subversion of Christianity themes explored on later songs, and describes a mystical approach to salvation, in which the "Kingdom of heaven" is within and achievable through freeing one's mind, after which one's ass (perhaps representative of the base and mean aspects of oneself) will follow.

Personnel

Lead Vocals: George Clinton, Ray Davis[?]