FUNKADELIC 'Get Off Your Ass and Jam' 1975 HQ

"Get Off Your Ass and Jam" is a song by Funkadelic, track number 6 to their 1975 album Let's Take It to the Stage. It was written by George Clinton, although the lyrics are made up entirely of repetitions of the phrase, "Shit! Goddamn! Get off yo' ass and jam!", interspersed with lengthy guitar solos. Critic Ned Raggett reviewed the song as one that "kicks in with one bad-ass drum roll and then scorches the damn place down".

[bumsharvest]

For 1975, this lyrical content was quite ahead of its time.

[ascensionhernandez]

They use to play this at the house parties.. my neighbors were black (I'm Chicano) and they use hip me up to all the latest funk music that was coming out at the time ( the 70s).. those were some great times. I miss those days, because that was real music.. if you didn't or don't get off your ass and jam you must be dead..

[yossarian]

I'm from a small PA town that's whiter than printer paper, but we rocked our asses off to all those old funk greats. Back in the 'day one of the local radio stations was a doing a live feed from a big teen dance at Dorney Park, a major local amusement park, and "inadvertently" played this over the air and was promptly slapped with a huge fine from the FCC. People from crappy towns are always the best dancers and listen to the best music!

[reggiemurray]

Done played this song about 15 times straight I can't get enough it. guitarist straight nasty.

[kathleenvalenti]

I haven't heard this since I was a little kid! Funkadelic was great

[anikasway]

I was for and this song got me in trouble. Lol 🤣🤣🤣

[jasonrodriguez]

Our family was stationed outside Madrid when this came out..Our dad shipped his green 72 Chevrolet Monte Carlo over.Man imagine that 350 v8 engine riding by those 1.5 liter fiats, renaults etc.

[paistecat]

Yes...it was what they played in the discos in 1975...and man it sounded fantastic through giant speakers! Another one from that period...is "I Can Understand It"

[MsBrooklynn]

After all these years it still sounds good. When bands played their songs and didn't use a computer for the music. Originality at it's Best! I needed to hear this song during this Pandemic.

[alejandrojerez]

My high school teacher played this song in class in 1987.

[Apollo_Blaze]

Yes!! I remembered this song and here it is LOL....we loved this one when it came out...

[CarlaTaylorextraordpassion]

Seen them in concert...almost lost my wig**)!

[abeeftec]

I remember being 4 years old and my aunt and uncle playing this song like it was the best song ever. lol.

[larryd]

What Wiki says about the guitar: The guitar solo on "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" is uncredited, a practice that was typical of Funkadelic records of the 1970s. In several interviews and in his 2014 autobiography, Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You?, Clinton has said that the guitarist is unknown:

We finished one take, took a smoke break or something, and noticed that a white kid had wandered into the studio, a smack addict. We didn't know him at all, but he said he played a little guitar, and he wanted to know if he could play with us and pick up a little cash in the process. We set him up, started the track, and he just started to play like he was possessed. He did all the rock 'n' roll that hadn't been heard for a few years, and he did it for the entirety of the track. Even when the song ended, he didn't stop. All of us were up there goggle-eyed, saying, "Damn." We had agreed on 25 bucks, but I gave him 50 because I loved it.[2]

According to Clinton, he tried to find the guitarist without success. "I tried to find the guy and put him on another song, but he was gone. He never resurfaced. We never heard from him. He's not credited on the record because we have no idea who he was."[2]

In a July 2009 interview with Vintage Guitar, guitarist Paul Warren—who grew up in the Detroit area and had been a session guitarist for Motown Records—is quoted as saying that he played the solo on "Get Off Your Ass and Jam".[3] Warren makes the same assertion on his website, The Paul Warren Project.[4]

[jazzynet]

Lenny brought the album ovef and we had a stereo and we had no idea that the album started like this and my mother and aunt ran down staris freaking out :). Whew! Talk about freakout scene! We could not even say Funky in the house, eventhoth i would say it in the basement with my dad :).

[rontaylor]

had to sneak in my room and play it real Low... parents just don't understand

[yadyad]

I was nine years old when this came out and I jam to it like I jam to it today lol

[hughkills]

PRINT THIS IN GOLD AND SHOOT IT INTO SPACE

[FUNKACHELI]

I played this in my doctors office and pretended it was phone call ... the looks were as expected

[Eastside_Silverbacc]

My grandma had all the kids in our family singing this smh i miss the old girl