Wake Up

Artist: Funkadelic

Title of album: America Eats Its Young

Year of first release: 1972

This is the only fully-developed politically-oriented song off what is commonly considered a weak album.

Songwriters: George Clinton, James Wesley Jackson[?], Bernie Worrell

Memorable Lyrics:

• "You got to wake up/You're in the presence of your future/Wake up/See what you're doing in our sleep"

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

This song exhorts the listener to "wake up" to political and social action. Humanity is characterized as sleeping through oppression, ignoring (by choice) what would otherwise be scandals and outrages demanding immediate action.

Personnel:

• String and horn arrangements by Bernie Worrell