Funkadelic’s ‘Maggot Brain’ Rises Again
Inside Org Music’s excellent new reissue
I was introduced to Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain through Mike Watt’s version of the title track on his 1995 solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?.
With Watt on bass and Bernie Worrell on Hammond B3, guitarist J. Mascis channeled Eddie Hazel’s mournful improvisation with an-almost superhuman power. It was the closest any guitar player has come to emulating Eddie’s original solo on the original LP back in 1971. Hazel had passed away three years prior of liver failure two days before Christmas 1992, and Mascis, Watt and Worrell did a mammoth tribute to him by introducing his genius to a new generation of fans.
The last time I heard “Maggot Brain” was earlier this year via Flea’s radical reworking of the composition on the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist’s imaginative solo debut Honora, where he interprets Eddie’s tearful six-string through his trumpet in a truncated version of the tune.
I can’t remember when I first heard the original “Maggot Brain” and the masterpiece it spearheads. It was definitely sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s when I picked up the album on vinyl for a ridiculously cheap price — I think it was at Mondo Kim’s on St. Marks if my memory serves me correctly. But I do remember when I dropped the needle on that record in the radio station at SUNY New Paltz, it was a transportational experience in a way few albums I listened to at the time had impacted me.
Unfortunately, for as great as the music was, the succession of vessels that carried Maggot Brain for the last 50 years have largely been marred with inferior sonic quality, especially when it was released in CD form.
That is, however, until this Friday when Org Music, in conjunction with Westbound Records, gave Maggot Brain the audio rehabilitation it so richly deserves with their definitive edition of the third Funkadelic LP — the last of which to feature the original lineup of Hazel, Worrell, bandleader George Clinton, Tawl Ross (guitar), Billy Nelson (bass), and Tiki Fulwood (drums).
For this 2026 reissue, the album was mastered directly from analog tape, preserving the raw power, depth, and atmosphere of the original recordings with extraordinary detail.
Not since its original pressing in ‘71 has Maggot Brain sounded so majestic. You’re hearing little nuances previously buried in the mix. Bookended by two lengthy jams in the aforementioned title cut and its more polyrhythmic counterpart “Wars of Armageddon,” Funkadelic delivered some of the catchiest material in their catalog, namely the warm, Hot Buttered Soul-assisted “Can You Get to That,” the Bernie-blessed “Hit It And Quit It,” the interracial harmony hymn “You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks” and the propulsive “Super Stupid,” covered by Audioslave as a bonus track to their Out of Exile LP.
In a genius marketing move to coincide with the release, Org Music has partnered with Detroit’s own Corky’s Coffee to create a limited edition medium roast meant to be sipped while listening to the album.
“A 60/40 blend of Brazilian beans from Minas Gerais and washed Guatemalan from Lake Antigua, with notes of peanut butter, cacao and berries,” the press statement says. “Smooth and rich with a wild streak, just like the record. You don’t gulp this one. You put on the album, you sit down, and you let both of them work.”
Regardless of where you first or last heard Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain, this essential remaster is a must-own if you want to listen to it in a whole new way.
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