Listen Again: Mothership Connection by Parliament

A seminal text in Afrofuturism and a foundational document of funk in general, Parliament’s Mothership Connection finds George Clinton and his armada of allies firing on all cylinders. Featuring veteran James Brown backers Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley on horns, the 1975 album gave the band their first gold (and later platinum) album and a million-selling single: “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker).”

The album’s sci-fi concept was inspired by Clinton’s love of Star Trek, and the resulting aesthetic influenced the band’s stage production for years. Mothership Connection is essentially 46 minutes and 21 seconds of continuous groove, bouncing between terrific tracks like album-opener “P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” to the title tune, “Mothership Connection (Star Child).”

But the star of the album is indeed “Give Up the Funk.” Bootsy Collins lays down bass like there’s no tomorrow, and the combination of musicians results in one of the most ebullient tracks of the 1970s. To say that it’s danceable is to belabor the obvious. That song was made to fill the floor and to raise or, more to the point, tear the roof off. One of the peaks of the genre, Mothership Connection is a stone cold classic.

This article is featured in the November/December 2025 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.