Happy 50th Anniversary to Funkadelic’s fourth studio album America Eats Its Young, originally released May 22, 1972.
As an Amazon affiliate partner, Albumism earns commissions from qualifying purchases.
Funkadelic’s fourth album, America Eats Its Young, is an early oddity from George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic collective. It sits between two of the group’s eras, coming after Funkadelic’s masterful initial three-album run and before Parliament’s “reboot,” when the second group repositioned itself to become a Funk/R&B colossus. Hence, it was probably as good of a time as any to release an ambitious double album.
Released 50 years ago, America Eats Its Young is a strange album to get your arms (and ears) around. In his autobiography, Clinton called the album “one of the richest stews we ever made.” Like many double albums of the 1970s, Funkadelic’s fourth LP goes a lot of different directions throughout its 14 songs and 70-minute run time. They modify their overall sound, going from acid-fueled psychedelic funk rock to more traditional strains of funk and soul.
Part of this shift in direction had to do with a change in personnel. Numerous members of Funkadelic left the group after Maggot Brain (1971), some to pursue other opportunities, some due to disagreements with Clinton, and others due to excessive drug use. Despite the new faces, however, the extra-long player still features much of Funkadelic’s traditional weirdness and subversive commentary. It doesn’t always work, but there’s a lot to like.
Clinton has said that America Eats Its Young is about “heroin in Vietnam.” He spoke of how young soldiers were picking up heroin overseas and bringing their destructive habits back with them, eventually infecting inner-city neighborhoods across the country, driving the populace to insanity. Funkadelic channels this pain and desperation throughout much of the double album. The album also reflects the disillusionment that could be felt as the “peace and love” era curdled into something uglier.
The malaise was apparent when America Eats Its Young became the subject of controversy for reasons beyond music. The album’s liner notes feature writings from The Church of Final Judgment. According to Clinton’s autobiography, the Church had started as a British-based offshoot of the Church of Scientology, and members of its Boston branch had hung out with Funkadelic for a year. The Church also provided some writing for the liner notes of Maggot Brain without incident.
However, around the time of America’s release, the Church became associated with Charles Manson, not long after his “family” had committed the Sharon Tate murders in 1969. It was said that some of Manson’s philosophy had been influenced by the Church. For what it’s worth, Clinton says many of the issues were due to a misunderstanding. He wrote that Manson adopted some teachings from a group with a slightly different name: The Final Church of Judgment. However, in the aftermath of the widely publicized deaths, people weren’t very interested in such a slight distinction. Regardless, it wasn’t good to be associated with Charles Manson in any form or fashion in 1972, and Funkadelic got a fair amount of shit for it.
On the brighter side, one of the most historically notable aspects of America Eats Its Young is that it’s the first Parliament-Funkadelic albums to feature the talents of bassist William “Bootsy” Collins. Collins and his guitarist brother Phelps “Catfish” Collins had come into Clinton’s orbit after working with James Brown. The Collins brothers, along with the rest of their band, the Pacemakers, had famously become Brown’s backing band, as the JBs, after the rest of the group chafed at the Godfather of Soul’s authoritarian control and issues with paying them what they said they were owed. While playing with Brown, the Pacemakers contributed to some of his best work in 1970.
It didn’t take long for Collins and crew to experience control and financial conflicts with Brown, and they soon split off to form the House Guests. In his autobiography, Clinton said he’d met Bootsy a few times through similar social circles, and eventually convinced him and the House Guests to join the Funkadelic collective. It became a good fit, though the crew is used somewhat sparingly throughout the album.
Like many other early Funkadelic albums, some of America Eats Its Young’s best entries say the most when they say little, lyrically speaking. Things start with “You Hit the Nail on the Head,” an extended jam with a few separate “movements,” including an extended blues riff. The song’s only lyrics are a few repeated chants, mostly in the form of “Just because you win the fight, don’t make it right!” “A Joyful Process” is a six-minute instrumental funk masterpiece, held together by a warped guitar solo and complex horn and string arrangements by Bernie Worrell.
The title track serves as the third part of a trilogy that included “Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow” and “Maggot Brain.” Much like “Maggot Brain,” it’s mostly instrumental, featuring a brief spoken word section. However, while “Maggot Brain” was turned into a showcase for guitarist Eddie Hazel, the title track is a showcase for multiple players in the band and the group’s genius arrangements. The haunting track starts off with a lengthy guitar solo, most likely by Harold Beane, backed by ghostly and sexually passionate moans. The song continues to build over six minutes, with horn and string sections slowly brought in to add to the song’s ethereal nature.
Funkadelic lays on some incisive social commentary with the deceptively upbeat “If You Don’t Like the Effects, Don’t Produce the Cause.” In a time of protests against the Vietnam War and for civil rights, Clinton and crew lambast those who decided to fight for what’s right but made no real sacrifices. “You say you don't like what your country’s about,” the group sings. “Ain’t you deep, in your semi-first class seat? / You picket this and protest that, and eat yourself fat.”
“Loose Booty” features incredibly funky guitar and organ grooves that could have easily been lifted from an early 1970s James Brown/JBs session. However, the subject matter is something that few groups beyond Clinton’s crew would attempt at the time. His voice layered in echo, Clinton flips nursey rhymes to describe heroin addicts’ unpredictable behavior. He neither condones nor condemns their addictions, mostly acting as a bemused observer, albeit one who is fluent in the vernacular of heroin users.
Collins and crew make their presence felt the most on “Philmore.” The track is the first P-Funk track fronted by Bootsy, and it’s essentially a House Guests’ record. It’s an upbeat party jam that sounds like an early draft of what Collins and Clinton would create with Parliament starting in the mid-1970s. It also represented the first inklings of the out-sized musical persona that Bootsy would become known for.
If there’s one thing that Clinton was a fan of on Funkadelic albums, it was remaking his old Parliament recordings, fitting them into a modern context. “That Was My Girl,” as originally recorded in the mid-1960s, was a Motown-influenced pop number. It becomes a solid funk jam on America, retaining some of its Motown influences, but with Clinton wailing the vocals in renewed anguish and pain.
“I Call My Baby Pussycat” is another reimagining of an earlier release, the album-opening track from Parliament’s debut album Osmium (1970), to be exact. The original version was a faster, rock-oriented song. Here, the group transforms it into a slinky, blues-inflected recording, where the vocals are muttered, rather than sung. This newer incarnation of the song is definitely the “sexier” recording. The track was credited as “Pussy” on the early pressings of the album, but was changed back to its original title due to label pressure.
“Miss Lucifer’s Love” is a similarly slinky entry, sung by Fuzzy Haskins, who croons about the destructive effects of being in lust with the wrong woman, dragging out each note in excruciating ecstasy. The track features a virtuoso performance on electric guitar by Eddie Hazel, who played with the group in a limited capacity on America. “When she come, I'll tell it on a mountain,” Hazel sings. “When she come, I'll drink from her unholy fountain.” There’s a very distinct possibility the song is about heroin use.
America does have its share of misses. Funkadelic is at its best when the group either tries to be humorous or disturbingly grim. Earnestness is not its strong suit. “We Hurt Too”—one of the worst Funkadelic songs ever—is a completely self-serious dedication to emotionally sensitive men and the depths of their psyches. I’m aware that “toxic masculinity” is currently receiving its deserved share of scorn, but “We Hurt Too” is a limp and treacly ballad that’s much more whiny than empowering.
America ends with “Wake Up,” another of the album’s missteps. Clinton and crew seem intent on channeling Sly and the Family Stone, as the song sounds like an inferior offspring of “Stand!” and “You Can Make It If You Try.” It’s also one of the few Funkadelic songs that overstays its welcome, feeling even longer than its six-minute and twenty-second run time. “Wake Up” might have worked better as a shortened pop single. Instead, it peaks at around the three-minute mark, and the band needlessly vamps for another three-and-a-half minutes.
After America Eats Its Young, Funkadelic continued to make music that reflected a country scarred by war and drug abuse. This approach led to another amazing three-album run by the collective comprised of Cosmic Slop (1973), Standing On The Verge of Getting It On (1974) and Let’s Take It To The Stage (1975), all of which I’ve paid tribute to for this site, as they remain among my favorite albums by the group. Funkadelic was able to take what resonated the most on America Eats Its Young and incorporate it into its musical repertoire moving forward. Though the double album doesn’t always fire on all cylinders, it presaged the future of the group and a country that gives into its baser urges.
Enjoyed this article? Read more about Funkadelic here:
Funkadelic (1970) | Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow (1970) | Maggot Brain (1971)
As an Amazon affiliate partner, Albumism earns commissions from qualifying purchases.
LISTEN: