After George Clinton's Funkadelic crashed and burned —; taking the whole era of psychedelic funk-rock with it —; up sprouted Parliament, an astonishing new group building wonderlands of fun and sass and ass and horns and keyboards. Whereas the old, guitar-centered band glowered at the straight world from its freak-trench, Parliament found a way to party with it —; and still bring their own Babel of stoned jokes, invented alter egos and dirty, funny innuendo. These records, full of tracks that stuff a couple of minisongs into one megasong, sound good right now in the frightened world: They are self-contained polities of exuberantly good times. 1974's Up for the Down Stroke reflects Sly Stone's moody sound strategies; the metamorphosis is not yet complete. By Chocolate City (1975), the band had the plot down: Bernie Worrell's space-age keyboard sounds, Bootsy Collins' watery bass lines, Clinton's mad-ringmaster raps. But Mothership Connection, from the same year, with its spacious, carnivalesque vibe and exhortations to funk ecstasy, was the masterpiece, the slang creator, the icon builder, the master narrative —; or "the bomb," as Clinton succinctly put it before anyone else.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."