Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow

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Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow is the second studio album by American funk rock band Funkadelic, released in July 1970 by Westbound Records.<ref name="Rudland">Rudland, Dean. "Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow reissue liner notes". Westbound Records: 3. 2005.</ref> It charted at No. 92 in the US, the band's highest charting album release until 1978's One Nation Under a Groove, and included the No. 82 single "I Wanna Know If It's Good to You?"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Background

Template:Original research The album was recorded at United Sound Studios, Audio Graphic Services, and G-M Recording Studios in Detroit.<ref name="CD">Template:Cite web</ref> George Clinton described the recording as an attempt to "see if we can cut a whole album while we're all tripping on acid."<ref name="Rudland"/>

The album's gatefold cover forms something of a visual pun, echoing the sentiments of the album title. The woman holding her arms towards heaven in an ecstatic pose is found to be nude upon opening the sleeve.

The original 1970 issue's artwork featured the woman facing downward, and the "Free Your Mind..." title in brown. Reissues beginning in 1990 reversed the woman's direction (substituting an alternate photograph where her head is more inclined and her fingers are more widely fanned), and have varied the placement and color of the text.

Music and lyrics

The album and its title track, a feedback-drenched number taking a third of the album's length, introduces the subversion of Christian themes explored on later songs, describing a mystical approach to salvation in which "the Kingdom of Heaven is within" and achievable through freeing one's mind, after which one's "ass" will follow. Many of the songs, such as the title track and "Eulogy and Light", subvert Christian themes (including the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm) and satirize capitalism.<ref name="Rudland"/>

Reception

Template:Music ratings On the Billboard charts (North America), Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow peaked at #11 on the Black Albums Chart and #92 on the Pop Albums chart.<ref name="Rudland"/> The album and eponymous song influenced the band En Vogue, leading to the title of their hit song "Free Your Mind".<ref name="Brown2004">Template:Cite book</ref>

In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said this promising but ultimately confusing album has contradictory messages that might either promote "escapist idealism or psychic liberation", and a disorienting aesthetic that is most successful on "Funky Dollar Bill".<ref name="CG">Template:Cite book</ref> He later wrote that it is not surprising that the album became "a cult fave in slackerland," as "not only is the shit weird, the weirdness signifies."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In a positive review, AllMusic's Ned Raggett felt that both the album and title track are worthy of the credo and that the other songs range from "the good to astoundingly great."<ref name="Raggett">Template:Cite web</ref> Record Collector magazine's Paul Rigby called Free Your Mind a "superb" album which mixes "a dirty groove with wacked-out sound effects and razor-sharp lyrics.<ref name="RC">Template:Cite journal</ref> Pitchfork described it as "a lot more 'rock' and a little less 'soul'" than the band's debut, and compared the title track to "a Sly Stone jam gone haywire, with fuzzed out guitar and bass, distorto-organ, and spoken, chanted or otherwise freaked vox appearing all over the mix."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a retrospective review for Blender, Christgau opined that the album did not live up to the title credo.<ref name="Blender">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Track listing

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Notes

Track 9 is a mono recording.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Muze.<ref name="CD"/>

Funkadelic

George Clinton – lead vocals (tracks 1, 5, 6)
Ray Davis – vocals
Fuzzy Haskins – vocals, lead vocals (track 7)
Calvin Simon – vocals
Grady Thomas – vocals
Eddie Hazel – guitar, lead vocals (tracks 2, 4, 5, 7), backward vocal (track 6)
Tawl Ross – guitar, lead vocals (tracks 3)
Bernie Worrell – Hammond organ, Vox organ, piano
Billy Nelson – bass guitar, lead vocals (tracks 2, 4)
Tiki Fulwood – drums

Martha Reeves appeared on this project but was not credited. Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent, the singers to be known as Dawn, appear on "Friday Night, August 14th."