Song of the Day (12/15/09)

We're bringin' it all the way back to 1971 for today's Song of the Day, the year when Led Zeppelin released IV, Jim Morrison was taken from us far too soon, Lennon's "Imagine" tore up the charts, and Tupac Shakur was born. As legend has it, the guitar solo on this track was inspired by a LSD-tripping George Clinton imploring Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel to play the first half of the song like his mother had just died and the second half as if he had just discovered she was still alive. Whatever his motivation, Hazel hammered out this ethereal piece of music in one take with only the help of a wah pedal, a delay pedal, and a fuzzbox, clearly invoking something not of this world to fashion what the Rolling Stone considers the 60th best guitar song of all time. Without further ado, I give you the face-melting "Maggot Brain"...

Funkadelic: "Maggot Brain"
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