Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs was released in 1977, the only one of Eddie Hazel’s solo albums to be released while he was alive. Until its re-release in the 21st century, it was very rare and something of a holy grail for collectors.
As Eddie Hazel was Parliament’s lead guitarist, you can be sure that the godfather of P-Funk, George Clinton, would make an appearance or two. On this particular song, George Clinton is a co-writer with Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell.
The song is very much within the realms of P-Funk, but has a certain ordered chaos reminiscent of Free Jazz. There’s certainly some more serene moments full of catchy melodies and relatively simple rhythms, but also moments of spaced out craziness.
The lyrics are slow and trippy, but are secondary to the exquisite guitar playing. At the song’s most anthemic part, from about 22 seconds and 2 minutes 22 seconds, the guitar really soars!
It surprising that the song hasn’t been sampled more, but as it stands over 6 Hip Hop artists have sampled various parts of the song…