In college, some friends introduced me, under circumstances you can probably imagine, to the concept of “the Cosmic Groove”–the funk into which all bands seek to tap, but which aside from a few fleeing moments remains elusive. It wasn’t until I heard Phelps “Catfish” Collins’s guitar solo on “Very Yes” with Bootsy’s Rubber Band live in Lousiville 1978 that I understood what they meant. That guitar is like the Ghostbusters crossing the streams, and when the horns come back in, that’s the dimensional crossrip. This is the sound of the cosmic groove–it’s like My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon” in that I’ve wanted so badly to find another song that does what this does as well as it does it but have never found it and probably never will. Rest in peace, Catfish.
