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Baker's Dozen

Staying On The One: Bootsy Collins' Favourite LPs
Julian Marszalek , November 2nd, 2017 11:52

Bootsy Collins helped define the sound of funk, working with Parliament and James Brown, who taught him the mysterious concept of The One. In this Bakers Dozen, he talks to Julian Marszalek about those times & why he couldn't leave home without dropping acid and listening to Hendrix

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Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
Oh man! I had no idea what this was about but it took me further and further and further away! I mean, wow can you get any further than listening to Jimi on acid? Then you gotta listen to Bitches Brew! It don't compete but this is the one thing that can really keep you out there. I was looking for things that would keep me out there because Jimi had already took you out there. So it was like, “OK, so how do I stay out here?” And Bitches Brew is a good start!

Once you start tripping, you need something to hold onto and so these were the songs that I would always go back to when I didn't know what else to do. I'd start my day with it and I'd get to the point where I'm tripping so bad I'd play these songs to bring me back a little bit and I would be cool again.

And the music Miles was making then most definitely had an influence over me. I wasn't analysing what he was doing because in my mind I don't think I knew how to analyse what people were doing; that wasn't in my make up. Y'know, if I loved something then I just loved it for what it was. I wasn't trying to figure it out because the pleasing thing for me was how it made me feel. The idea that somebody could do this were the appealing things to me; that somebody could actually do this and that kinda opened doors for me. My stuff wasn't even a scratch in the wall but if these cats were doing this, then I could do anything. That's the thing that kept coming to me. I just had to stay on it and stay at it and one of these trip might bring up something. That was the thing that kept coming to me.

The last trip that I did, I got so sick. It was such a bad trip that I stopped doing it. But it was after the fact when I was got everything that I was supposed to get because acid was going out and cocaine was coming in. But that's a whole 'nother story…

But Bitches Brew sure worked its magic.