How Loose Is Your Booty
“You gotta just naturally be funky. Funk is about knowing the rhythm to make the audience move. Funk is about the rhythm within.”
Jerome Brailey
Jerome “Bigfoot” Brailey started his musical career on trombone, soon making one of the greatest decisions of all time to swap to the drums at Armstrong High School, Virginia. It wasn’t long before he was making his recording debut on The Unifics album, “Sitting In The Court Of Love”. The Unifics, formerly Al & The Vikings and The Unique 5, were formed at Howard University, Washington, D.C. and their biggest hit was 1968's "Court of Love”, arranged by another Howard graduate, the late, lamented Donny Hathaway.
“Yes I met Donny, and Leroy Hut(chin)son who replaced Curtis Mayfield in The Impressions. We were all together at Howard University. We used to rehearse at Drew Hall .“
“Court Of Love” peaked at number three as well as making Number 25 on the Pop chart. A second single, "The Beginning of My End," also reached the R&B Top Ten peaking at number nine. One of the highlights of the debut LP on Kapp was "It's All Over" on which Jerome blistered along with some funky licks. They enjoyed two other mild hits in 1969, "It's a Groovy World" and "Toshi Sumasu," but would never again to be in the top bracket. Before that became apparent their drummer had already moved onto bigger and better things. In 1969 Jerome Brailey joined forces with Keni Burke and his syblings, better know as The Five Stairsteps. To many punters The Stairsteps were the first family of Soul, formed in 1966 and recording first for Curtis Mayfield’s Windy C label before moving onto Mayfield’s Curtom label. Away from the guidance of Mayfield, The Five Stairsteps, with Jerome on drums, gained popularity through such timeless classics as “Ooh Child” in 1970 on the Buddha label which gave the group its only Gold seller.
It wasn’t long before Jerome Brailey’s funky drumming was heard by The Chambers Brothers, a group that had started in Mississippi back in 1954 but who, by the 1970’s, had begun to inject Rock and Funk influences into their music. Jerome Brailey spent the next five years as a member of The Chambers Brothers sharing bills with, amongst others Ike & Tina Turner. His rainbow painted platform shoes showed that his liberation had already begun way before he made his next move to the outer regions of sanity and to the inner sanctum of the Funk Overlord, George Clinton.
The rise and fall of the P-Funk Empire has been well documented but what sometimes gets lost in the telling is the contribution of the individuals who made up the collective known as The Funk Mob. By the mid-70’s Clinton’s group had already been established for some twenty years under one guise or another and the five original vocalists, The Parliaments, had evolved into something ‘not of this world’ as the experiences of 60’s America took a hold on their minds and stretched them far beyond anything so far attempted by funk bands. The casualties were already starting to show though and new recruits were being brought in to the fold. Glen Goins, a gospel taught guitarist who originated from Plainfields, New Jersey, where, incidentally the original Parliaments had also sprung from some two decades earlier, came in as did Jerome Brailey. The existing drummer, Tiki Fullwood was beginning to struggle with a combination of drug and health problems and Jerome Brailey answered the call as Clinton’s concept of Pure Funk, or P-Funk, became a reality, courtesy of The Mothership Connection. It’s hard to imagine the sound of this momentous album without the fluid drumming of Jerome Brailey who also co-wrote the track that epitomised the sound of Parliament, “Tear The Roof Off The Sucker”. When it was released as a single “Sucker” smashed its way to the top Soul spot in June, 1976, collecting a Gold disc along the way.
From 1975 through to 1978 Brailey was the predominant backbeat of George Clinton’s P-Funk organisation, sharing the rhythm chores with such luminaries as Bootsy Collins on Bass, Bernie Worrell on keyboards and guitar legends Eddie Hazel, Gary Shider, Mike Hampton and Glen Goins.
Along the way Brailey had contributed to give P-Funk some of its most successful and memorable moments with seven Gold and Platinum records to prove it. Who in the funk hasn’t heard of “Mothership Connection”, “Clones Of Dr Funkenstein”, “Funkentelechy Vs The Placebo Syndrome”, or “One Nation Under A Groove”? As well as contributing to Parliament and Funkadelic’s output Jerome was also to be heard on the albums by Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns as well as Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Sadly the gold became tarnished as Clinton’s failure to pay his team the money they expected slowly chipped away at the once unbreachable fortress and after the road manager chalked up on the board at the front of the bus,
“There will be know more asking about money!”
there was more than just this written on the wall. The first group members to jump the (Mother)ship were Jerome Brailey and Glen Goins. On a snowy night in Pittsburgh Mutiny took place and so it is only fitting that we start our true tale of Mutiny here.
The two mutineers joined forces to help create Quazar for Arista Records. Sadly on July 30th, 1978, Glenn Goins died, aged 24 of Hodgkin’s Disease before the album could be completed and his brother Kevin stepped in to complete the project, ably supported by Jerome Brailey. “Funk With A Bigfoot”, “Funk With A Capital G” and “Funk And Roll” flowed along in a style that only went to emphasise the importance that the young guns had played in the Clinton camp.
When “Mutiny On The Mamaship” was released by Columbia in 1979 it was dedicated to the memory of Glen Goins and on the sleeve as well as in the grooves there were plenty of opportunities to criticise the organisation, or
dis-organisation, of George Clinton, or “George Penitentiary”, as he was dubbed on “Lump”. The inside sleeve showed a cartoon of Captain Hymbad
(Jerome Brailey) forcing clones of Dr Funkenstein to walk the plank while shouting out, “We can’t cut the funk!”, in the distance a flag bearing the word “Mothership” with the ‘S’ being formed by the dollar sign was a chance for another poke at the “Good” Doctor. “Lump” was track 3 on the debut set but the biography of Brailey began with track 1, “Go Away From Here”.
“There I was on the Mother..
Thinking of a way to get out of here
Down in the depths of my illusions
So far .... but yet so near”
The second track moves away from the pain of personal memory but remains painful in the sense that the lyrics talk about leaving love behind. “What More Can I Say” is supplemented with some superb rolling horns courtesy of “Major” Darryl Dixon who had also worked on the Quazar album. The acidic humour returns with “Funk ‘N’ Bop”,
“Sworn to fun and loyal to none
And that’s how it goes in the land of no thrills”
Clinton had always said that behind the banal lyrics and concepts there were serious issues to be discussed and yet , even as we speak, a debate rages in America as to whether Clinton actually took the wrong turn with funk. Jimi Hendrix was planning to collaborate with Miles Davis in a move that is now seen the way things should have happened did Clinton trivialise what African-Americans view as an important time in political and artistic development? We will never know. The mutiny on the Mamaship concluded with “Romeo”, yet another alias of Jerome’s and with the chant of “Hope you feel much better now” he had fired his first broadside at the remaining P-Funkers as well as signalling his intent to be around for a long time.
The debut album was followed in 1980 by “Funk Plus The One” which served up more fluid funk. “Funk Plus The One” opened with the infectious “Will It Be Tomorrow?” with the second track, “Anti-Disco”, hitting out at Disco’s destruction of Funk with its chant of “Antidiscosyncapatedolympicwinners of the Boogie Groovement” urging people to stay loyal to the Funk. This time around when humour was aimed at the opposition buckshot was used, with Rick James, The ADC Band, Ray Parker Jr, Kool And The Gang and Cameo being peppered along with Parliament.
The third album from this period, “Night Out With The Boys” featured material used in the William Friedkin directed movie, “Cruising”, 1980 starring Al Pacino. At the time “Cruising” was seen as a controversial film about a police investigation that used the Gay scene as a backdrop and explored how one cop could be affected by his work. “Night Out With The Boys” kept the funk flowing full pelt with “One On One”, “Funk ‘N’ Roll”, the track from which this compilation takes its name, “How Loose Is Your Booty”: and if it isn’t already loose then the evocatively titled, “Electric Hot Dog” will shake it ‘til it drops off!
I guess it’s hard to shake off your own history and why try? Jerome Brailey will live forever in P-Funk lore but whereas the Funk Mob preferred to stay loyal to “The One” Jerome. by the simple fact that he mutinied, clearly wished to prove himself as an artist outside of that star-filled company.
“We used to laugh when we used to do these big ones. The beat was just the one and the four, but check out what’s going on between the one and the four. It was fun.”
Jerome “Bigfoot-Jromeo-Captain Hymbad-Rome-Dog” Brailey!!
Cover art and sleevenotes by Howard Priestley