''Chocolate City'' is the third album by the

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

band

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, released in 1975. It was a "tribute to

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

", where the group had been particularly popular. The album's

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

includes images of the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

, the

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...

, and the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...

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.

Track listing

Side One

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

Side Two

# "Let Me Be" (Clinton, Vivian Lewis) – 5:37 # "If It Don't Fit (Don't Force It)" (Clinton, Gary Shider, Worrell) – 2:07 # "I Misjudged You" (Clinton, Ernie Harris, Fuzzy Haskins) – 5:14 # "Big Footin'" (Clinton, Haskins, Shider) – 4:50 (released as the B-side to "Ride On") A 2003 CD

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or Single (music), single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New aud ...

of ''Chocolate City'' contained three

bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

s, 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 Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civil ...

Personnel

* Jim Callon – Engineer * George Clinton – Arrangements, vocals, production *

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading n ...

– Bass, guitar, Arrangements, drums * Raymond Davis – Vocals *

Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood (May 23, 1944 – October 29, 1979) was an American musician. He was the drummer for the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, as well as a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other membe ...

– Drums *

Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins Clarence Eugene "Fuzzy" Haskins (born June 8, 1941) is a former singer with 1950s and 1960s doo-wop group, The Parliaments. He is a founding member of the groundbreaking and influential 1970s funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, also known as ...

– Vocals *

Eddie Hazel Edward Earl Hazel (April 10, 1950 – December 23, 1992) was an American guitarist and singer in early funk music who played lead guitar with Parliament-Funkadelic. Hazel was a posthumous inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in ...

– Guitar, vocals (Lead Vocal on "Let Me Be") *

Prakash John Prakash is a common given name in Asian, Hindu, Sanskrit names and widely used in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. Prakash is generally used as a masculine name. The word prakash is derived from the Sanskrit word "prakāśa", meaning "bright light" or " ...

– Bass * Tyrone Lampkin – Drums * Man In The Box – Drums *

Cordell Mosson Cordell "Boogie" Mosson (born Cardell Mosson; October 16, 1952 – April 18, 2013) was an American bassist who was a member of Parliament (band), Parliament-Funkadelic. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy in 2019. Mosson was born i ...

– Bass, guitar *

Billy "Bass" Nelson William "Billy Bass" Nelson (born January 28, 1951) is a U.S. musician, who was the original bassist for Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. Caree ...

– Bass * Lucius Tawl Ross – Rhythm guitar * Gary Shider – Rhythm guitar, vocals *

Calvin Simon Calvin Eugene Simon (May 22, 1942 – January 6, 2022) was an American singer who was a member of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 along with fifteen other members of Parliame ...

– Vocals *

Grady Thomas Grady Thomas (born January 5, 1941, in Newark, New Jersey, United States) is a former member of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funk ...

– Vocals * Jim Vitti – Engineer *

Bernie Worrell George Bernard Worrell, Jr. (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016) was an American keyboardist and record producer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Roll ...

– Synthesizer, arrangements, keyboards *

Mallia Franklin Rosalind Mallia Franklin (March 1, 1952 – February 5, 2010), also known as The Queen Of Funk, was a vocalist of the American funk band Parliament-Funkadelic. She introduced friends George Clinton and Bootsy Collins in 1971, and brought ex- Ohi ...

- vocals * Debbie Wright- vocals *

Jeanette Washington Jeanette Washington is a funk vocalist best known as a member of the band Parliament. Washington appeared as a background singer on recordings by James Brown in 1975. That year she joined Parliament with Debbie Wright, becoming the first femal ...

- vocals * Gary “Mudbone” Cooper - Vocals

Music

''Chocolate City'' features the classic

P-Funk Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive ...

lineup with George Clinton,

, and

. The

Brecker Brothers The Brecker Brothers were a jazz fusion music duo consisting of siblings Michael Brecker, Michael and Randy Brecker, Randy. Michael played saxophone, flute, and EWI (musical instrument), EWI, and Randy played trumpet and flugelhorn. The brothers ...

, Michael and Randy, joined the band as did vocalist

Glenn Goins Glenn Lamonte Goins (January 2, 1954 – July 29, 1978), also known as Glen Goins, was a singer and guitarist for Parliament-Funkadelic in the mid-1970s. Goins is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, posthumously inducted in 1997 with fift ...

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 ''Motor Booty Affair'' is the seventh album by funk band Parliament. Released on November 20, 1978. It contains two of the group's most popular tracks, "Rumpofsteelskin" and "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)" which went to numbe ...

''. The album is full of the

uptempo A variety of musical terms are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special mus ...

that the band would be known for as well as the vocal harmonies of

The Parliaments The Parliaments were an American vocal quintet from Plainfield, New Jersey, United States. Originally formed in the back room of a barbershop in 1956, the quintet was named after the cigarette brand. The Parliaments initially performed doo-wop ...

. "Let Me Be" draws on

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

as well as

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

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.

"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 WOL (1450 AM) is an urban talk radio station in Washington, D.C. This is the flagship radio station of Radio One. It is co-owned with WKYS, WMMJ, WPRS, and WYCB and has studios located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The transmitter site i ...

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 ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' in 1998 "Chocolate City for me was the expression of D.C.'s classy funk and confident blackness." George Clinton used the concept in the title track using the black domination of the inner city populations as a positive message in contrast to concern over

White flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...

. 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 Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

, we got Gary/Someone told me we got L.A./ And we're working on Atlanta / But you're the capital C.C." Clinton's lyrics referred to Chocolate City as "my piece of the rock" as opposed to the "

40 acres and a mule Forty acres and a mule was part of Special Field Orders No. 15, a wartime order proclaimed by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865, during the American Civil War, to allot land to some freed families, in plots of land no la ...

" that slaves were promised after the Civil War. He contrasted Chocolate City with the "vanilla suburbs" of the city, a term first used on the track. 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

, 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 The Unifics were an American soul group from Washington, D.C. History In 1966 a group of students at Washington D.C.'s Howard University formed the group Al & the Vikings. Consisting of singer/songwriter Al Johnson, Michel Ward, Greg Cook and ...

, a Washington R&B ballad group.

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Release history
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

* Song Review: "Chocolate City"at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{Authority control 1975 albums Parliament (band) albums Casablanca Records albums Concept albums