That only P-Funk obsessives know the six-string brilliance of Eddie Hazel is a tragedy of pop music. Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs, Hazel's only solo album, is catnip for any fan of propulsive, tightly compressed black rock. Hazel—P-Funk's lead guitarist and George Clinton's songwriting foil for most of the band's early years—is a deft interpreter, here redefining The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin’" as slow-simmering soul jams, punctuated by his righteous solos.