"Your attention please," commands George Clinton at the start of "Maggot Brain." "Awesome," thinks the nightbird cruising around or the insomniac lying in bed listening to their favorite FM station, "I love it when they're not afraid to play real long songs." "Finally," thinks the midnight-shift jock who has just cued up a 10-minute track, "I have time to duck out for a Lucky Strike." For you young folks, back in the 20th century, before DJs were electronic music maestros, they were just guys who played records on the radio and talked between songs. Many of these songs, all of which are at least 9 minutes, allowed them to shelve records, hit the john, scratch that nicotine itch, etc etc. I assume that's not why the artists recorded them, but maybe I'm just projecting.
