Stretchin' Out in Bootsy's Rubber Band

BOOTSY'S RUBBER BAND

(Collector's Choice)

One of the more successful spin-offs from George Clinton's gonzo music franchise, Bootsy's Rubber Band bowed in '76 with Stretchin' Out, a slab of heavy funk featuring members of the Clinton tribe, James Brown's horn players and other aces. Bassist William "Bootsy" Collins, the Clown Prince of Funk, warbles his way through the goofy lyrics in a tongue-in-cheek tenor, peppering with spoken asides. The three extended workouts that open the album overshadow a couple of ballads and medium tempo tunes, but, in all, this is an A1 party album. Stretchin' Out and three other Bootsy albums have been recently released on CD by Collector's Choice.

This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2007.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...