Album of the Day — June 10
Bootsy’s Rubber Band — Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band
Bootsy’s Rubber Band — Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band
10.June.2020
Bootsy’s Rubber Band
Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band
1976
When Bootsy Collins asked his mother why she named him “Bootsy” he explained: “She just said, ‘Because you looked like a Bootsy.’ I left it at that.”
You can’t argue with brilliance.
However, with a nickname like “Bootsy”, your career options can be narrow, but William Earl “Bootsy” Collins did what he was born to do … the only thing he could do, he caught up with Dr. Funkenstein and enrolled in the “Phsychoticbumpschool” and earned his Ph.D. in funk.
In 1968 when Bootsy was 17, he and his brother Phelps “Catfish” Collins — using the Collins family nicknaming logic, we can guess what Phelps looked like — formed a funk band, The Pacemakers.
By 1970, The Pacemakers got a new name, The J.B.’s when they became the Godfather of Soul, James Brown’s backing band.
During their short 11 month tenure with Brown, Bootsy and The J.B.’s played on several Brown’s hits including one of his biggest, “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine”.
After leaving Brown, Bootsy and Catfish relocated to Detroit, where they connected with George Clinton (Dr. Funkenstein) in 1972 and joined his band Funkadelic or Parliament-Funkadelic or just P-Funk — an American funk music collective.
With Clinton’s affinity for characters, and his P-funk mythology, there was no other band that guys with nicknames like Catfish and Bootsy could’ve joined.
Clinton conceived Funkadelic as a hybrid of Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone and Frank Zappa. Stylistically, P-Funk most resembles Zappa’s because of the original use of technology and lyrical playfulness. But P-Funk, like Jimi’s Band of Gypsy’s, Sly’s and Zappa’s, would become legendary for its rotating group of top-notch musicians.
After a few albums with Funkadelic, Bootsy disembarked from Dr. Funkenstein’s motherhsip and stepped out on his own … with the good Dr.’s blessing and encouragement.
Released in 1976, Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band finds Collins taking one of his alter-ego’s — Casper the Funky Ghost — and, well, stretching out. But doing so while carefully maintaining the Funkadelic ethos of having a good time.
Songs like “Stretchin’ Out (In a Rubber Band)”, “Psychoticbumpschool” and “Another Point of View” are not meant as lyrical ciphers for listeners to decode and discuss race relations of political situations.
These songs are to get your ass shaking.
The Rubber Band does slide off into some airier territory with “I’d Rather Be With You”, “Physical Love” and “Love Vibes” … but even those songs don’t lose their “Bootsy-ness.”
The mood on the first half of the album is fun and the second half is a little playful and seductive so it’s possible, in the right situation, with the right person, the last song “Vanish In Our Sleep” could serve as nice nightcap … provided everyone consents.
With his cosmic bass and his flamboyant look and style Bootsy Collins is one of the chief architects of funk and puts the “fun” in funk.
I may have misspoken when I said there was NO message on Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band. There are two, they’re simple and easily found on “Psychoticbumpschool” — the two messages of this album are:
Have fun.
Bump, bump, bump, bump, baby
Bump, bump, bump
To be clear, while Bootsy gets the most of the spotlight, The Rubber Band is a band. There was the core group, Bootsy (bass, vocals), his brother Catfish (guitar), Frankie Waddy (drums), Gary “Mudbone” Cooper (drums), Robert Johnson (vocals), Leslyn Bailey (vocals).
But as with all Fuckadelic projects, there was a rotating group of P-Funk all-stars like Maceo Parker (saxophone) and Bernie Worrell (keyboards) … and The Horny Horns, of course.
The Dean of American Rock Critics, Robert Christgau said that Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band had “Good songs, good textures, good riffs” — he’s right, it does.
Where u = you:
u>40
You might recognize Bootsy Collins from Deee-Lite’s 1990 hit “Groove Is In the Heart” video and song (even if the bass track is NOT Bootsy but a sample from Herbie Hancock’s “Bring Down the Birds”).
You may also recognize “I’d Rather Be With You” from Eazy-E’s song “I’d Rather Fuck You” from his 1991 album Niggaz4Life.
u<40
You may recognize “I’d Rather Be With You” from Childish Gambino’s hit song “Redbone” from his album Awaken, My Love! in 2016.
This is not to say you can’t enjoy the music if you skew north or south of either of those demographics. A good groove defies the limitation of age … and time.
Produced by Bootsy and George Clinton the sound on Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band is in line with Funkadelic’s signature blend of funk, R&B, soul, joy, and trippy technology. A sound that would eventually make its way west to Dr. Dre and evolve from P-Funk to G-Funk … although G-Funk employed a different kind of joy, joy nonetheless.
So take it from Bootsy Collins and the good Dr. Funkenstein, if you need some medicine* to block out the shit cycle we’re currently in, even if only for 40 minutes, the prescription reads: Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
*(side effects may include: ass shaking, foot-tapping, leg moving, feeling good, joy, laughter, and random acts of love and kindness)