Or deeper still, the Mothership Connection.

[kiki_eng]

Good evening.
Do not attempt to adjust your radio, there is nothing wrong.
We have taken control as to bring you this special show.
We will return it to you as soon as you are grooving.

Welcome to station W-E-F-U-N-K, better known as We-Funk,
Or deeper still, the Mothership Connection.
Home of the extraterrestrial brothers,
Dealers of funky music.
P.Funk, uncut funk, The Bomb.

That's how the first track off Mothership Connection starts, and oh, did I have issues finding a reasonable cut off point for that, because P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up) is an awesome song and it has some fantastic lyrics. It is some fantastic music in general; you should listen to it.

George Clinton, who heads Parliament-Funkadelic, has said of the album something like We wanted to put black people where where no one thought they could be, so we put them in space. There is this whole P-Funk mythology spanning several years and albums.

They toured with a space ship. One of the lyrics off this album is "We have returned to claim the Pyramids." There is a song called "Night Of The Thumpasorous Peoples". It is kick-awesome. This is a rec; this is an enthusiastic rec. You need to listen to this album.

I'm really not doing Mothership Connection justice, and I'm not framing it at all within the context of music history. It did things, it was part of things, and it is remembered when people sit down and write lists.

I nominated it for eruthros' Top one hundred speculative fiction works, because it's a sci-fi concept album, because it was and continues to be influential, and because I think its awesome. The long list poll to pare that nominated list down from about 1,000 to 250 works is running right now, closing Thursday at noon, EST. It's an interesting list, being created in response to the predictability of NPR's list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels and eruthros "wondering what that kind of list would look like if a bunch of fannish people made it instead and if the definition of scifi and fantasy were looser." (You should go vote for Mothership Connection things!)

Comments

[calvinahobbes]

OMG Space Radio? What even is that? One of my favorite parts of The Fifth Element (and OMG ALL the parts are my favorite, I am sad right now because I don't remember voting for it ;_;) was the wacky space radio.

You know the beginning of the movie even has aliens coming to unlock a secret vault in the Pyramids? Basically the movie stole all the cool parts from that album? Hee!

[kiki_eng]

It is funk in space and it "ain't nothing but a party, y'all." (I have been watching performance clips from then and that seems entirely accurate - there are like 20+ people on stage singing, dancing, playing, and having a fabulous time. Also: 70s fashion: awesome.)

I have such a terrible weakness for made-up radio (I think part of that was a reaction to P-Funk not getting a lot of radio play at the time, actually?) and music from space and aliens. (See also votes for: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Velvet Goldmine.) I have not seen The Fifth Element, though, I don't think? (It looks like lolsy 90s sci-fi?)

...and the alien-pyramid thing. Oh, the alien-pyramid thing is fantastic. I think that is kind of really old, though, and in the same boat as conspiracy theories about Stonehenge?

...and, um, apparently no one nominated Verne or Wells for that list? (I was just thinking about War of the Worlds because of the radio adaptation, and, yeah.) Also: Jurassic Park.

[calvinahobbes]

That is so funny! Now that you mention it, I realize that nobody thought to nominate Verne or Wells. That is --- I'm not sure what that is? Thinking someone else would do it? Or people honestly not caring? Or, I actually think it's really likely, that many people aren't familiar with the staples? Certainly not in a fannish capacity, which seems to heavily influence that list...

I am actually reading War of the Worlds RIGHT NOW for class on Thursday. I like it. I am amazed at how iconic Well's martians have become.

Yes, I also think the alien-pyramid thing is an old conspiracy theory (now I wonder whether there's a distinct starting point to that myth). I love the start of the Fifth Element, with the professor studying hieroglyphs.

Anyway, I really really can't be objective about that movie, because I love it so much. I watched it on VHS back when it first came out, and I have loved it ever since. It is a pretty great action romp (explosions and humor in equal measure), and I highly recommend it.

[kiki_eng]

I think part of it is definitely the way that the list has been framed? It's the anti-NPR list, basically, and it's heavily fannish, so I think there's much less of a THESE ARE THE CLASSICS vibe going on? So that will have had a huge influence on the nominations? Like, you're building off of the list that other people are making, and if people aren't bringing up works like that I think its a lot less likely for them to occur to people? ...and I think part of the thing is that the audience is so different? I think to some extent fannish people interact differently with works than non-fannish people, and I'm not even talking about some geek/non-geek divide - I think that the audience for eruthros' poll is composed of people that will go, "Okay, so I was twelve, right? And I fell in love, because the Alanna books were awesome. So, yeah, I'm nominating that." I didn't nominate things for eruthros' list unless I was in love with them or they had completely taken me over when I was reading them or whatever.

Have you seen Stardust, by the way?

...hieroglyphs? I am being reminded strongly of The Mummy now and also every terrible/wonderful pseudo-archaeological thing ever. Is there history geekery in space?

[calvinahobbes]

Yes, I was definitely aware of not 'needing' to nominate things, because they were 'a given'. But I can also honestly say that I'm not familiar with Wells or Verne -- I never managed to finish 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when I was a kid. It comes down to canons and who makes them. I was thinking about that during intro class, because my prof kept referencing sci-fi 'classics' and I mostly felt bad for not knowing them -- I THINK (but am not sure) he's classic SF geek, and I'm really not. I think Fandom -- our female-dominated nook -- has some familiarity with some of the same texts, but I think our poll makes it pretty clear that we don't have the same canon at all. Btw, he said that "sci-fi" is what you say when you're not a fan; SF is for hardcore people. I have NEVER come across that, and now I'm wondering whether I'm just slow?

I have seen Stardust! I looked forward to it a lot, but it fell a little bit flat for me? It seemed to want to do many things, and it had some great allusions, but the plot didn't quite come through. It's been a while...

The archeology goes away a bit after the beginning, I'm afraid (the beginning also has Luke Perry. Just saying). But there is a secret brotherhood handing down their traditions through the centuries as they wait for the aliens to come back to Earth? And the fifth element -- the Perfect Being? -- is a woman, and sure she does end up getting saved a bit, but she is also played by Milla Jovovich, so I can't help it.

[kiki_eng]

...I am kind of boggling at the sci-fi/SF distinction. I've seen both, and I'm good with both, and I see where he's coming from, but, really, it's nomenclature. I have a hard time seeing that distinction as anything other than elitism. SF is for hardcore people.

What do you mean when you write "canons" here?

I went into Stardust with no expectations whatsoever and with no kind of previous exposure. So, for me, it was all Silly ghosts! A lightning ship! Robert DeNiro! Robert DeNiro you are my favorite now, and your crew is kind of awesome. ♥ It was fun.

I'm actually not really familiar with either actor, but it sounds like a fun space romp.

[calvinahobbes]

The worst part was that he said, "so we won't be saying sci-fi, because sci-fi is what outsiders say", while at the same time he held that we should approach the works from an academic stand-point. Sure, the definition of an acafan is that you are academic about your fannishness, but it didn't seem to me that that was exactly what he wanted to do either. He's alright, though, but yes -- boggling!

By canons I mean those constructed lists of works that are Important or Influential or Universally Salient.

Something about Robert DeNiro in a dress and the way that was played rubbed me wrong... I don't remember how any longer, but I can totally see what you mean about enjoying the fun of the whole thing.

I really hope you'll give it a chance at some point!

[kiki_eng]

Yeah, I think that the corner of fandom that I live in cares about different things than that kind of classic sci-fi place.

I think that would be that it was played for laughs. i.e. It's a man in a dress. Isn't that absurd. Isn't that hilarious. He's totally a sissy, but he pretends to be this manly pirate, what. That was highly skeevy. I liked the way, though, that, and I may well be re-interpreting this so that things are all nice in my head, his crew didn't care, and there wasn't a stop doing that thing, and they were all let's have fun! about things, and I think that extended to the cross-dressing as much as the dastardly pirate schtick. So that element worked for me?

I'm going to have to pick it up at some point.

[calvinahobbes]

I really like your way of looking at it. Because yes, the movie-POV is definitely "lolz, man in dress, wtf!" -- seeing it from an in-story perspective does give it a pretty different spin. I'll definitely think of that the next time I watch it!