Full Clip: Daveed Diggs' Favourite Albums

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

2. ParliamentThe Clones of Dr. Funkenstein

I had to have a Parliament album and a Funkadelic album. This one’s a gospel album, almost – it’s a creation myth, and it ends with ‘Funkin’ For Fun’, which is one of the greatest songs ever written, a straight-up gospel song written to the parents of the funk generation, telling them, “Look, we’re out here having a good time – don’t worry about us”. It’s super sci-fi, and in the vein of what we were trying to accomplish with Dead Channel Sky –  but it’s really, really danceable. And the singing on it is insane. It’s my favourite example of what that band was great at – George would get great musicians and singers together, these cats who used to be with James Brown or whoever, and promise them that he was going to be a lot more fun than the band they had just left. He’d take all the restraints off: “I want you to do what you do best, and let me make that into a song, form that into something.” They got the best performances out of these artists. The collective was always greater than the sum of its parts.

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