The 1971 guitar solo Living Colour’s Vernon Reid said could “evoke the ghosts of the past”
Vernon Reid of Living Colour has described Eddie Hazel’s guitar solo on Funkadelic’s 1971 track ‘Maggot Brain’ as music that can “evoke the ghosts of the past”. The article argues that Hazel’s emotionally charged playing helped shape Reid’s approach to guitar and influenced Living Colour’s blend of funk, rock and metal.
The song is the opening title track of Funkadelic’s album *Maggot Brain* and features around ten minutes of Hazel’s improvisational solo over a repeating guitar line played by Tawl Ross. A longstanding story, not officially confirmed, says George Clinton asked Hazel to play as if grieving for his mother. Reid called the piece a masterwork that evokes both suffering and joy.
- Eddie Hazel’s ‘Maggot Brain’ solo influenced Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid.
- The 1971 track features around ten minutes of expressive guitar.
- Reid said it evokes suffering, joy and the past.
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Maggot Brain is a 1971 guitar solo by Eddie Hazel, guitarist for Funkadelic, a funk-rock band led by George Clinton. The ten-minute opening track of Funkadelic's album of the same name features Hazel's emotionally charged improvisational playing layered over a repeating guitar line, and is widely recognised as one of rock and soul music's most distinctive instrumental pieces.
A longstanding anecdote claims George Clinton asked Hazel to play as though grieving for his mother, although this has never been officially confirmed. The solo came to be regarded as a masterwork capturing both profound suffering and moments of joy, and it became highly influential in shaping how guitarists approached emotional expression and improvisation across subsequent decades.
Living Colour emerged in the 1980s as a funk-metal band blending rock, soul and funk elements, a musical lineage traceable in part to Funkadelic's innovations. Vernon Reid, the band's guitarist, represents a generation of musicians influenced by Funkadelic's groundbreaking work, which provides context for contemporary assessments of the music's lasting significance.