I was a bit concerned when I saw that Bootsy Collins and Jerome Brailey were not on the list of people that Danny used as references for the book. When I saw that line up for Munchies, my concerns were justified. That is definitely Jerome behind the kit on that track. That being said, I’m still waiting for my advance copy. Once I receive it, I’ll examine it thoroughly.
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The biggest surprises for me so far from the excerpts is the emergence of both Boog and Bone as drummers and the absence of The Parliaments from the Mothership era albums.
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Ron on May Day. The return of Ron. 
And in general, how many more songs Ron plays on than previously thought.
Same for Tyrone, who drums on far more tracks than I had been led to believe.
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One credit I’ve been thinking about is Mickey Atkins’ credit on Sgt Pepper. According to the book he plays organ on that track. On the 7” it says that it was recorded in 1967, but Mickey Atkins (if I remember correctly) didn’t join the P until 1968…
So either the credit it is wrong or it’s not from 1967. Or maybe he actually joined earlier, but I don’t think so.
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There are many examples of P-Funk members taking part in recording sessions before they became official members. Glenn Goins and Bone Cooper, while being featured on the Chocolate City album, didn’t become official members until after Mothership Connection and the birth of Bootsy’s Rubber Band. There are other examples I could cite.
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Yeah, that’s true. But I don’t believe that’s the case here. The way Mickey Atkins tells the story (like in this interview) it doesn’t seem like they knew each other before joining the group.
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Danny more than likely got that recollection from George himself. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
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I’ve actually started to make pencil notes in my copy of things that I am surprised by or that my ears tell me different.
A few things I’m surprised by/not sure about:
- AEIY: I was under the impression that Perkash John played a lot more on the album then is listed here, only on one song according to the book; on “Pussy” Garry and Harold Beane are listed as guitars but I coulda swore that was Eddie.
- LTITTS: Boogie is listed as bass on “Good to Your Earhole”, “Stuffs and Thangs”, and “Better by the Pound” but I’ve heard it repeated a lot over the years that Reggie McBride played on the first two and Billy Bass on the latter; they are both even listed in the album credits for whatever that’s worth.
- Smokey; sure sounds a LOT like Bigfoot to me even though Tyrone is listed here.
- Cholly; I’ve been confused about this one for years and the book doesn’t clear it up, it gives Skeet the credit but he said on the Funk n Stuff podcast that he didn’t play on it. Bootsy has the writing credit but I’ve also never heard him slap like that first half of the song, the end of the song sounds like 100% Bootsy so my ears tell me it’s both of them on different parts of the song.
- Mothership Connection (star Child): Book lists Garry and Glenn but I have the multitrack stems and there is definitely only one guitar track on the song which I guarantee is Garry.
The book gets a lot of other stuff totally correct though imho
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Skeet told me that it was the both of them. He said that it was common at this time (late 1978) for George to use two bassists on one track. I responded by saying that it is usually the assumption by most Funkateers that whoever is in the writing credit is also playing on the track. He told me that during this time, if you see Bootsy’s name in the writers credits, it could mean that he’s playing rhythm guitar on the track, not necessarily bass. An example of this is Aqua Boogie. Bootsy is in the writers credits, but he doing rhythm guitar on the track, along with Catfish and Garry.
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1967 is very early for a Sgt Pepper’s cover. The album didn’t come out til May ‘67.
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“Smokey” sounds like Bigfoot to me as well.
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According to Bigfoot Brailey, “This Is The Way We Funk With You” is Glenn Goins on drums and the basic track was cut in Atlanta, GA while on the road.
And though he’s not credited in the book, that’s Fuzzy on “Handcuffs,” too. ("What it is I’ve got to do. . . ")
But it’s a remarkable feat by Danny to cover so much ground per the P-Funk universe. I’m really impressed by the book.
-Dr. Spank
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The Parliaments were a little bit more Funkadelic than Parliament it would seem.
I inadvertently deleted my post. Not sure what happened, but I’ll try again.
Yeah, on Truth in Rhythm, Skeet said he’s not playing bass on Cholly. He said that’s Bootsy. And on the song Uncle Jam, Skeet said Bootsy is on bass, but he [Skeet] came in and overdubbed some parts after Bootsy was done.
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The book also credits Boogie on bass for “Placebo Syndrome” even though Billy Bass has the writing credit and is listed in the guest players section on the album, it also doesn’t sound particularly like Boogie to my ears.
I wasn’t there though and definitely don’t have the insight into this that Danny has, just what my ears and biases have been hearing for all these years!
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Jerome said on his Facebook he played the track and almost every drum track on the album. I think Bootsy did Pinocchio Theory. Its obvious from the very beginning its him when he’s playing the hi-hat. dude has perfect timing. Also thats how he always tuned his snare
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Agree about Cholly. I’m gonna go with both Bootsy & Skeet on that one, in particular Bootsy toward the end.
I’d add – To my ears, Into You is also Bootsy on bass, especially on the verses – thus the writing credit for Bootsy.
Agree on Mothership Connection. I have the stems too and there’s definitely one guitar track. I will allow for the possibility that they played separate parts of the same track, but I doubt anybody would remember a detail like that. I’m going with it being just Garry.
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I had been thinking about the part in my head, and was almost ready to accept it being Boog but upon actually listening to it – Yep, I am sure it’s Jerome. His signature style.
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In his recent interview with Scott Goldfine, Danny said that there were three people who refused interview requests. He said he tried to work around that with other sources as much as possible. Though he didn’t say who those who refused were, shortly after that in the interview, he talked about interviewing various members of Mutiny, but not being able to get accurate personnel for some of the later Mutiny releases…
Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker are also missing from the interview list as well as the thank you list for informal input.
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For what it’s worth – there’s a guitar synthesizer (the Avatar) throughout the first part of the song. (It’s much more noticeable in the instrumental version.) It’s not credited in the book but Mike is credited as Avatar player in the album liner notes.
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