Bootsy's Rubber Band – Ahh...The Name Is Bootsy, Baby!

The Mother Ship has landed ladies & gentlemen …

As a friend once told me, “Free you ass and Bootsy will bring along your mind for a giggle,” and that about sums up Ahh … The Name Is Bootsy, Baby! just a lustrous essential bit of up tempo smoking hot funk and soul designed put a mile wide smile on your upturned face for no other reason than to show you a good time.

Bootsy’s has had a long and vivid career playing first with James Brown, then with the insanely brilliant Parliament Funkadelics, where his riff driven bass guitar, along with his tongue in cheek humorous vocals simply established him as the king of freaky funk. Collins genuinely believes music has the power to heal, saying “Funk just brings people together, from the ground up. It doesn’t have nothing to do with colour. It has nothing to do with status. It just brings you to ‘the one’, and the one thing that we all have in common is that we all just want to live. That’s what it’s really all about. It’s making something from nothing, like me.”

This is one of those albums that screams to be heard on vinyl, scratches pops and all, it’s an undisputed solid masterpiece laced with smooth rhythms pure funk and the swagger that only Mr. Collins and his ever-present star sunglasses can provide, putting music lovers right where they wish to be, all due to his revolutionary inspired clever patterns and progressions that reach out to caress your spine. What makes this album so grand, is that Bootsy reaches back to his session days, perfecting his airtight funk jams, due in no small part to his extensive hallucinogenic psychedelic drug use (claiming that he took LSD everyday for two years), where he lays out perpendicular danceable weirdness … at least that’s how I it from back in the 70’s. Though for my way of thinking, I do believe that he pioneered the use of effects: distortion, delay (at the time, this would have been a phase delay) and envelope filters. Every available space capable of studio technology, complete with tape overdubs and reverb tricks, is occupied. This was polyrhythmic funk, chocked full of hypnotic chord progressions, there are none of the heavy Afro futuristic theatrics evident in his music, making for a communal sound that was and could be embraced by all.

Bootsy is not streetwise, he’s metaphysical and spacewise. On a whole, the album is divided between slow jams and dance tracks that are not to be missed, a fabulous representation of the times, the freedom and the inspiration to be so far over the top there was no consideration of coming in for a landing.

*** The Fun Facts: Bootsy’s named his original bass Chocolate Star. Bootsy Collins fans are called Geepies.

Review by Jenell Kesler

The gentle funk ballads 'What's a Telephone Bill?' and 'Munchies for Your Love' are the highlights of this LP, the former for its acoustic guitars, major sevenths and whatnot, the latter for its lovely babymakin' vocal melody. 'Can't Stay Away,' a pretty Raydio-like shuffle, and 'Rubber Duckie,' an upbeat song of total vocal anarchy (choice lyric: 'Rob from the rich and give to po' little ol' me') are decent. 'The Pinocchio Theory' is a sort of ersatz stomp with the nagging refrain 'Rubber fans and funkateers.' The title track is a midtempo two-chorder with spoken intro, canned crowd noise, and Bootsy singing 'All of Me' quite badly. Closing cuts on each side are short instrumental pieces.