Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Blender
Christgau's Record Guide	B–
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Pitchfork	8.8/10
Record Collector
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow is the second studio album by American funk band Funkadelic, released in July 1970 by Westbound Records.

The album was recorded at United Sound Studios, Audio Graphic Services, and G-M Recording Studios in Detroit. The inspiration for this album was, according to George Clinton, an attempt to "see if we can cut a whole album while we're all tripping on acid."

The album's gatefold cover forms something of a visual pun, echoing the sentiments of the album title. The sight of a woman holding her arms towards heaven in an ecstatic pose is subverted upon opening the sleeve to find that she is nude.

The album and its title track, a feedback-drenched number taking a third of the album's length, introduces the subversion of Christian themes explored on later songs, describing a mystical approach to salvation in which "the Kingdom of Heaven is within" and achievable through freeing one's mind, after which one's ass will follow. Many of the songs (such as the title track and "Eulogy and Light") subvert Christian themes, including the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm.

On the Billboard Music Charts (North America), Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow peaked at #11 on the Black Albums Chart and #92 on the Pop Albums chart. The album and eponymous song influenced the band En Vogue, leading to the title of their hit song "Free Your Mind".

In a 1981 review, Robert Christgau said that the promising but ultimately confusing album has contradictory messages that might either promote "escapist idealism or psychic liberation", and a disorienting aesthetic that is most successful on "Funky Dollar Bill". He later wrote that it is not surprising that the album became "a cult fave in slackerland. Not only is the shit weird, the weirdness signifies." In a retrospective review for Blender, Christgau said that the album's uninhibited guitar exercises were expanded by spoken-word elements and Worrell's classically trained keyboards, which he felt did not live up to the title credo.

...
Wikipedia