Chocolate City (LP)

Format: LP  Label: Mercury  Year: 2019  Media Condition: New  Sleeve/Cover Condition: New  TRACKS:  A1 Chocolate City  A2 Ride On  A3 Together  A4 Side Effects  A5 What Comes Funky  B1 Let Me Be  B2 If It Don't Fit (Don't Force It)  B3 I Misjudged You  B4 Big Footin'  Originally released in 1975.  PERSONNEL:  Bass – Cordell Mosson, Perkash John, William (Bootsie) Collins  Drums – Tiki Fulwood, Tyrone Lampkin  Guitar – Cordell Mosson, Gary Shider, William (Bootsie) Collins  Keyboards – Bernie Worrell  Producer – George Clinton  Synthesizer – Bernie Worrell  Vocals – Calvin Simon, Eddie Hazel, Fuzzy Haskins, Gary Shider, George Clinton, Grady Thomas, Raymond Davis  Chocolate City is the third album by the funk band Parliament, released in 1975. It was a tribute to Washington D.C., where the group had been particularly popular. The album's cover includes images of the United States Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial in the form of a chocolate medallion, as well as sticker labeled "Washington DC".  The album takes its name from the term "Chocolate City," which had been used to describe Washington, D.C. The term had been used by Washington's black AM radio stations WOL-AM 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 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. 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, 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" 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 United States Capitol, 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, a Washington soul vocal group.