Chocolate City (album)

Chocolate City is the third album by the funk band Parliament, released in 1975. It was a "tribute to Washington D.C.",[9] where the group had been particularly popular. The album's cover includes images of the United States Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial in the form of a chocolate medallion, as well as sticker labeled "Washington DC". The album was very popular in the capitol city, selling 150,000 copies alone there.

Chocolate City
Studio album by
Parliament
ReleasedApril 8, 1975
GenreFunk[1]
Length36:42
LabelCasablanca
ProducerGeorge Clinton
Parliament chronology
Up for the Down Stroke
(1974)		 Chocolate City
(1975)		 Mothership Connection
(1975)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Blender[3]
Christgau's Record GuideB[1]
MusicTap[4]
Pitchfork Media(7.8/10)[5]
PopMatters(favorable)[6]
Rhapsody(favorable)[7]
Rolling Stone[8]

Track listing

Side One
  1. "Chocolate City" (George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell) – 5:37 (released as a single-Casablanca 831)
  2. "Ride On" (Clinton, Collins, Worrell) – 3:34 (released as a single-Casablanca 843)
  3. "Together" (Clinton, Collins, Worrell) – 4:07
  4. "Side Effects" (Clinton, Collins, Ahneua Hilson) – 3:13
  5. "What Comes Funky" (Clinton, Collins, Worrell) – 2:23

Side Two
  1. "Let Me Be" (Clinton, Vivian Lewis) – 5:37
  2. "If It Don't Fit (Don't Force It)" (Clinton, Garry Shider, Worrell) – 2:07
  3. "I Misjudged You" (Clinton, Ernie Harris, Fuzzy Haskins) – 5:14
  4. "Big Footin'" (Clinton, Haskins, Shider) – 4:50 (released as the B-side to "Ride On")

A 2003 CD reissue of Chocolate City contained three bonus tracks, including alternate mixes of "If It Don't Fit (Don't Force It)" and "I Misjudged You" and the previously unreleased song "Common Law Wife".[10]

Personnel

Music

Chocolate City features the classic P-Funk lineup with George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, and Eddie Hazel. The Brecker Brothers, Michael and Randy, joined the band as did vocalist Glenn Goins. Prakash John plays bass on several tracks. This album also marks the beginning of the pivotal songwriting team of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell, a partnership that would last until the 1978 release Motor Booty Affair.

The album is full of the uptempo funk that the band would be known for as well as the vocal harmonies of The Parliaments. "Let Me Be" draws on jazz as well as gospel influences. "Together" is a remake of "Together in Heaven" by Bootsy, Phelps, and Gary. Glen Goins makes his debut P. Funk performance on "Big Footin'".

Chart performance

Chocolate City reached number 18 on the Billboard soul LP charts in 1975 and reached No. 91 on the album charts. "Chocolate City", the title track and first single, reached No. 24 on the black chart and No. 94 on the Billboard Hot 100 while "Ride On" the second single reached No. 64 on the black chart.[11]

"Chocolate City" theme

The album takes its name from the term "Chocolate City," which had been used to describe Washington, D.C. where blacks had been becoming a majority through migration (as explained in the cover notes included with one recent CD release of the album). The term had been used by Washington's black AM radio stations WOL-AM and WOOK-AM since the early 1970s to refer to the city. Bobby "The Mighty Burner" Bennett, a DJ on WOL, told The Washington Post in 1998 "Chocolate City for me was the expression of D.C.'s classy funk and confident blackness."[12]

George Clinton used the concept in the title track, characterizing the black population's proliferation in American inner cities as a positive development, in contrast to concerns over White flight. The lyrics of the song refer to several such "chocolate cities" but focuses on D.C.: "There's a lot of chocolate cities around/We got Newark, we got Gary/Someone told me we got L.A./ And we're working on Atlanta / But you're the capital C.C."[13] There is also a reference to Chocolate City's "vanilla suburbs", which he asks God to bless in-kind.

Clinton's lyrics referred to Chocolate City as "my piece of the rock" as opposed to the "40 acres and a mule" that slaves were promised after the Civil War.

The lyrics also reflected Clinton's thanks for the capital's strong support for P-Funk, further shown by the album cover showing the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol, rendered in melting milk chocolate.

Other tracks on the album reflecting the influence of Washington are "Let Me Be" drawing from 1970s D.C. gospel and "I Misjudged You" a homage to The Unifics, a Washington R&B ballad group.[14]

Notes
  1. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: P". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 10, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  2. Allmusic review
  3. Blender review
  4. "MusicTap review". Musictap.net. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  5. Pitchfork Media review Archived February 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Kessler, Jordan. "PopMatters review". Popmatters.com. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  7. Schennault (January 1, 1975). "Rhapsody review". Rhapsody.com. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  8. Rolling Stone review Archived December 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  9. "'Up for the Down Stroke', 'Chocolate City' and 'Mothership Connection'". Pitchfork.
  10. Original track listing from Allmusic.com. Additional tracks in pop matters album.
  11. All chart listings from Billboard published on Allmusic.com.
  12. Carroll, Kenneth (February 1, 1998). "Reflections on Chocolate City: The Meanings of Funk". The Washington Post.
  13. Avila, Eric (2004). Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight. University of California Press. p. 5. ISBN 0-520-24121-5.
  14. "Popmatters Review". June 11, 2003.

References
  • Neal, Mark Anthony (1998). What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Popular Culture. UK: Routledge. pp. 103, 115. ISBN 0-415-92072-8.
  • Smitherman, Geneva (2000). Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner. Houghton Mifflin. p. 92.
  • Wesley, Fred (2002). Hit Me, Fred. Duke University Press. pp. 181, 182, 195, 198. ISBN 0-8223-2909-3.
  • Thompson, Dave (2001). Funk. Backbeat Books. pp. 89–97. ISBN 0-87930-629-7.
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