"Flash Light" (Parliament)

While I was living in DC in the early 2000s, I started listening to as much Parliament as I could get my hands on.  It was a weird time to be living in the District.  And Parliament's space funk provided an upbeat respite from the confounding junk happening circa 2001-2.
But as I really started listening to the words of the songs, I began to realize that the alien scenarios and comic book-style characters, like Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk, Dr. Funkenstein, and Star Child, weren't just some crazy, meaningless crap that George Clinton's substance-addled brain had dreamed up to market a product.  They were all part of insightful social commentary about American consumerism, greed, and Puritanical repressive tendencies, where mindless/soulless entertainment, overindulgence (both legal and illegal), and acquisition of stuff served as substitutes for real fulfillment.
Thing is, Clinton and his cohorts were singing about this stuff in 1977.  Thirty-something years later, it feels even more relevant today (frighteningly).
Speaking of insight, that's what "Flash Light" is really all about: shining a light on the truth.
The song is the final track of the concept album Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome (1977).  In it, cosmic "square" Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk, despite his repeated declarations throughout the album that "he'll never dance," finally loosens up and gives in to the funk after Star Child shines the Flash Light on him.  (In other words, he embraces the truth, and the truth sets him free.)
Putting aside the tao and mythology of Parliament for a sec, "Flash Light" is just a cold groove.
In a great 1994 interview with Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid for Vibe, Clinton states that the song started out as a track for Bootsy Collins's side project, Bootsy's Rubber Band, but Collins didn't want the tune.  So, using Collins's basic guitar and drum track, Clinton rebuilt the song from the ground up with the band's genius keyboardist, Bernie Worrell, who added its signature keyboard bassline.
There is just so much going on and so much to love on this track.  From all of the James Brown-on-Mars polyrhythms and intertwined guitar/keyboard lines to the singalong vocals (which include a Bar Mitzvah chant that Clinton incorporated as an homage to a childhood friend), it's a song that refuses to let wallflowers or fakers sit idly by.