| Uncle Jam Wants You | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Funkadelic |
| Cover: | UncleJamWantsYou.jpg |
| Released: | 1979 |
| Studio: | United Sound Systems, Detroit, Michigan |
| Length: | 41:43 |
| Label: | Warner Bros. |
| Producer: | George Clinton |
| Prev Title: | One Nation Under a Groove |
| Prev Year: | 1978 |
| Next Title: | Connections & Disconnections |
| Next Year: | 1980 |
Uncle Jam Wants You is a concept album by American funk rock band Funkadelic.[1] It was released by Warner Bros. Records in 1979, and was later reissued on CD by Priority Records.[2] It was produced by George Clinton under the alias Dr. Funkenstein. It is the first Funkadelic album since America Eats Its Young in 1972 not to sport a cover illustrated by Funkadelic artist Pedro Bell, though Bell did provide artwork for the album’s back cover and interior. Uncle Jam Wants You was the second Funkadelic album to be certified gold. The album peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[3]
Uncle Jam Wants You (a reference to the "Uncle Sam wants you!" US Army recruitment posters) may be a more militant sequel to the band's previous album, One Nation Under a Groove, with the band waging war against the rise of disco.[4] Its purpose is also (as the cover claims) to "rescue dance music from the blahs."[5]
The cover art depicts George Clinton in a Huey Newton-Black Panthers pose.[6] The album features the band's last big hit single, "(Not Just) Knee Deep", an edited version of which went to number one on the Billboard Soul singles charts. The album title was adopted by the DJ organization known as Uncle Jamm's Army.[7]
Samples of the 15-minute cut "(Not Just) Knee Deep" can be heard on Digital Underground's "Kiss You Back"; the track has also been used by De La Soul.[8] [9]
With a 4 out of 5 star rating, Paul Sexton of Record Mirror wrote: "Last year the Funkadelic battle campaign was based on the idea of having one nation under a groove. This year the plan is to Rescue Dance Music from the Blahs. No, I don't understand either, but once again this is marvellously enjoyable comic book funk." The Bay State Banner concluded that, "on Side Two and 'Freak of the Week', we find the sort of directionless noise that sometimes ruins Funkadelic concerts—rhythmic anarchy and vocal chipmunk-ism instead of the clean and nasty, low-register funk and howling, inconsolable guitar solos." The Globe and Mail determined that "the cover is misleading; one expects a record jammed with disco tracks and instead receives sensitive, even contemplative rhythm and blues."[10]
The New York Times noted that "Holly Wants to Go to California" "is the sort of social satire that Frank Zappa and the Mothers used to do so well."[11] Rolling Stone opined that "the strongest material here—notably the first ten minutes or so of '(Not Just) Knee Deep', with its snazzy synthesizer fills, razor-sharp Michael Hampton guitar solo, raucous vocals, and hook upon hook—is state-of-the-art black pop music."[12]
Ned Raggett of AllMusic stated that the album starts "out like a parody of patriotic recruitment ads before hitting its full, funky stride... It's still very much a disco effort, but one overtly spiking the brew even more than before with P-Funk's own particular recipe, mock drill instructors calling out dance commands and so forth."