While I do love a bit of the old vintage George Clinton, that’s not the reason I bought this piece of vinyl. Instead, I bought it because the whole thing is massive “borrowing” (with appropriate thanks in the liner notes) of Church of the SubGenius schtick. The center graphic, with Clinton’s face over the legend “Inspired madman or complete jackass?” is classic Ivan Stang. I have yet to listen to this, the graphics were enough to make me get it…as with many of my vinyl purchases, when you’re flipping through the bargain used bin, any strange thing that grabs your eye is enough to justify buying. That’s how I got Pop Against Pope, which I will have to review and post MP3s for next week, once I’ve relocated it in the stacks. It’s also how I discovered 4 Out of 5 Doctors, Pictures on a String, Comateens, and the much reviled Lung Overcoat

This George Clinton album gets high ratings by some fans, so I am hoping it’s a roof-shaker. Of course, I’m the guy who can listen to Funkadelic’s “DooDoo Chasers” more than once, so maybe in this case my judgement is a bit faulty. How can you NOT be at least slightly amused by the late-night bong hit ravings of Clinton and company, to the tune of Bootsy’s guitar noodling? Clinton’s utterly adolescent phrase “Count the calories in your farts!” will echo in your brain for days in spite of your best attempts to grow up.

If you look closely enough at the album cover for You Shouldn’t Nuf Bit Fish, you’ll see the Subgenius riffs, but you will also see where Snoop Doggy Dogg stole his ideas for much of his cover art…not to mention the “bow wow wow” chant on one of his earliest hits. Clinton does it better, Snoop.