Uruk-Hai:
Bootzilla - Bootsy Collins
So.........this freaking thing.
Bootsy and his brother Catfish (& others) had the great fortune to get hired to be in James Brown's band in the early 70s after Brown fired the entire previous (great) band because they b1tched that he was ripping them off (narrator: they were right). They became known as the J.B.s and were one of the hottest bands of the era.
Bootsy and his brother Catfish also had the great misfortune of deciding to drop acid before a concert when they got a little too cocky (James was also ripping THEM off and was basically the soul version of Vince Lombardi at that point). Collins said his arms turned into snakes on stage. James fired them.
After - and I can't even imagine this happening, but would pay a year's salary to see it - turning down an offer to join The Spinners (WTF???), Bootsy was a bit adrift. So who swooped in to the rescue? Only the most stable person in rock history - George Clinton!!!!
JFC, to go from a Marine Drill Sgt to someone who made someone like Jim Morrison LOOK like a Marine Drill Sgt in comparison. And he passed on Thom Bell (probably a wise move, because Bootsy singing lead on "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" may not have turned out as well as it did without him).
Anyway, Collins got his sea legs under him. He became a superb bassist and wrote some of the greatest songs of the '70s, including "Flashlight" (which has NO bass guitar in it and is probably Parliament's most well-known record).
He also got his own spinoff group - Bootsy's Rubber Band - with Catfish and Mudbone Cooper (and every other person in the P Funk orbit). Bootsy's LPs in the 70s were funky and even funnier than George's (George didn't give a damn). He outdid Pink Floyd with "Munchies For Your Love". He outdid the Isley's bedroom ballads with "What's A Telephone Bill". He outdid the punks with "Roto Rooter", a song so crazy I didn't have the gonads to post it here. He released an album in the early '80s called
Ultra Wave which skewered New Wave so perfectly that, while also loving that music, sank like a stone.
Then there was this one. It's almost got too many hooks in it. There are
quadruple-entendres. The time changes shouldn't work, but damned if they don't. There's not a lot of Bootsy's Space Bass here. He's gone wild with his vocal line - not exactly "singing" - and Mudbone is doing all of those high-register inserts. The horns are doing Glenn Miller/Duke Ellington stuff.
I doubt many will like this - and that's great! - but I had to have it on my list. Ranking it was the hardest. I was 16 and driving when it hit and it packs a ton of memories to me.
Teddy Bears and Barbie Dolls don't boogie down.