Tear the Roof Off: 1974-1980
"We shall overcome! We got to shoot them with the Bop Gun!" The Parliament end ofGeorge Clinton's '70s empire provided him with a wide screen on which to purvey a vision so, well, visionary, that the use of 3-D sunglasses was practically mandatory. Preaching free thought, warning against the effects of thePlacebo Syndrome, hijacking NASA concepts in the interest of black empowerment, and alluding toT.S. EliotbeforeMarvin Gaye'sLet's Get It Oninner-sleeve quote ("Once I was a hollow man, in which a lonely heart did dwell"), the crew did it all with a musical panache that included jazzy horns, layered vocal harmonies, and, of course, beats at once hefty and bouncy.Tear the Roof Offcondenses nine albums into a rich two-and-a-half-hour ride to a spiritualChocolate City.--Rickey Wright