Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow
The second album: a ten-minute title track and a gatefold sleeve with a visual pun.
Funkadelic, 1970
- Released
- 20 July 1970
- Recorded
- Detroit
- Studio
- United Sound Studios, Audio Graphic Services and G-M Recording Studios, Detroit
- Label
- Westbound
- Producer
- George Clinton
Clinton described the sessions as an attempt to see whether the band could cut a whole album while everyone was tripping on acid. The title track takes a third of the album, and its lyric holds that the kingdom of heaven is within and that once the mind is freed the rest will follow. Tracks such as the title song and Eulogy and Light subvert Christian texts, including the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm, and satirize capitalism. The gatefold cover shows a woman with her arms raised to heaven who proves to be nude when the sleeve is opened.
The album reached number 92 in the US and number 11 on the black albums chart, the band's highest pop placing until One Nation Under a Groove. The single I Wanna Know If It's Good to You? reached number 82. Pitchfork found it more rock and less soul than the debut and compared the title track to a Sly Stone jam gone haywire. The album's title inspired En Vogue's 1992 hit Free Your Mind.
Track listing
- Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow10:00
- Friday Night, August 14th5:20
- Funky Dollar Bill3:14
- I Wanna Know If It's Good to You5:54
- Some More2:55
- Eulogy and Light3:29
Personnel
- George Clinton lead vocals
- Eddie Hazel guitar, lead vocals
- Tawl Ross guitar, lead vocals
- Billy Nelson bass guitar, lead vocals
- Tiki Fulwood drums
- Bernie Worrell Hammond organ, Vox organ, piano
- Ray Davis vocals
- Fuzzy Haskins vocals, lead vocals
- Calvin Simon vocals
- Grady Thomas vocals
More from Funkadelic
Funkadelic (1970), Maggot Brain (1971), Cosmic Slop (1973), One Nation Under a Groove (1978), Uncle Jam Wants You (1979)
Sources
- Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow, Wikipedia
- Funkadelic: Funkadelic / Free Your Mind / Maggot Brain / America Eats Its Young, Pitchfork
- Funkadelic - 10 of the best, The Guardian (2015-05-27)