Administrivia
- How can I find the discography or pictures of the P.Funk Mob
using World Wide Web?
How to find the P.Funk Discography using WorldWideWeb:
(a few words from the WebMan, Eric "DJ EJ" Akawie):
You can find the Motherpage at http://www.duke.edu/~eja
There are now lots of pictures available, and more to come.
If anyone out there has P-Funk pictures or lyrics or sound samples
let me know, or FTP them to ftp.duke.edu and put them in
/pub/incoming and drop me a note about it. I want as much Funk
available by world wide web as possible.
eja@acpub.duke.edu|Eric Akawie; Freelance Messiah
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- Where can I find the discography via FTP?
How to find the P.Funk Discography by ftp:
(a few words from Michael "MC MG" Grubb)
The P.Funk Discography is available for anonymous ftp, fsp, or
gopher from ftp.duke.edu in the directory pub/archive/pfunk.
The sections are named pfunk-
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General Questions About P-Funk and Related Stuff
- What is "P.Funk?"
a) An abbreviation for "Parliament-Funkadelic", the two bands
and their offshoots that this discography describes.b) An abbreviation for "Pure Funk", the kind of music these bands play.
c) The name of a song on the classic album Mothership Connection. "I want the bomb, I want the P.Funk, I wants to get funked up."
d) An abbreviation for "Plainfield (NJ) Funk" the hometown of many of the bands' members and the location of one of George Clinton's hair salons. (this was suggested by Garry Shider)
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- Mommy, What's A Funkadelic and how is it different from a Parliament?
Parliament and Funkadelic were/are two interrelated groups that were
masterminded by the one and only George Clinton. Parliament started
out as The Parliaments, a five man doo-wop group led by GC that included
Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon. They started
cutting records as early as 1956 but didn't achieve any real success until
1967's hit "(I Wanna) Testify." At around this time, they had picked
up a band for their shows, and they were eventually dubbed "Funkadelic"
by bass player Bill Nelson, to have a name with "del" in it, to have some
funk in it, and to reflect the psychedelic times. GC immediately took off
with this idea, and it eventually affected the way the recordings of the
two bands would sound. Funkadelic albums are heavily guitar-oriented,
with lots of solos and instrumental pieces. A lot of the singing was done
by the band members themselves. Horns are very rarely heard, and keyboard
arrangements were mostly used for fills and melody. Parliament, on the
other hand, was used as the main outlet for the five singers. Lots of
doo-wop and gospel-influenced vocals, resulting in some beautiful, if
occasionally bizarre, harmonies. Horns are prominently heard, with the
occasional solo (Mothership Connection
almost sounds like a jazz album
at times). Keyboards and bass are the dominant instruments, with the
guitars being left to drive the riffs. By the time the late 70's hit
and the bands had four # 1 singles between them, the two groups started
to sound more and more alike, especially when all of the splinter groups
started up and everyone recorded stuff for them. The music became less
rock oriented and more dance oriented, though at a very high standard
in general. See below on the history of P.Funk for more details,
and the political evolution of the lyrics.
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- When did each of the bands start up, who were the main players, and
what were their biggest hits?
RC: As mentioned above, the Parliaments started recording in the late
50's with little success. In the 60's, they added a backup band that
would later become Funkadelic. They were led by Clinton, who was born
in North Carolina and lived in Washington DC & VA. until his family settled
in New Jersey. In addition to singing, he also ran a hair salon and
kept that job as well until their breakthrough single in 1967. By that
time, they had dropped the "s" from their name (they took the name from
a brand of cigarettes) and started to move away slightly from their
original, clean-cut image. After they lost the rights to the Parliament
name in the late 60's, Funkadelic was born. The sound was heavily
influenced by Hendrix and the MC5, while still being rooted firmly in
R&B and gospel traditions. Sly Stone's fusion of styles and enlightened
lyrics were another big influence, as well as the Beatles' proclivity
for innovative studio experimentation. The hard-rocking New Orleans grooves
of The Meters and Lee Dorsey were also an important inspiration. The
result was a thick, complex, loud and in-your-face sound that was heavily
psychedelic and very rock-oriented, with a heavier basis in blues than
anything else. The live experience was even crazier, with ear-splitting
volumes and a wild display of whacked out costumes, on-stage orgasms,
players running around naked, all backed up with a solid rhythm section
amidst the anarchy. If Sly Stone was the Beatles of funk, then Funkadelic
was the Rolling Stones, a chaotic, rebellious travelling riot of sound
with deep and disciplined roots. And the overall vision was Clinton's,
who from the very beginning pictured his own musical empire, with a
number of groups under his creative direction. Clinton's charisma, wit
and willingness to experiment made the entire P.Funk movement possible.Of course, George Clinton was only a small part of this. The early lineup consisted of Billy Nelson on bass, Eddie Hazel on lead guitar, Tawl Ross on rhythm guitar and Tiki Fulwood on drums. Eddie was the soul of the group; the P.Funk mob later had more technically flashy guitarists, but no other player has ever matched his intensity and unconventionality. His "Maggot Brain", a 12 minute solo instrumental, remains as one of the most emotional pieces of music ever recorded. Yet Eddie was not simply the spiritual successor to Jimi Hendrix. He could play rhythm just as well as lead guitar, and could play funk just as easily as rock. He undoubtedly wrote many of the guitar riffs for Funkadelic, and was also an excellent singer. When matched with Clinton and Worrell, his genius bloomed. He and Billy Bass were childhood friends and neighbors, playing all day long. Listening to blues, pop, rock, soul and Motown, they learned how to play, and developed their own style. The team of Billy Bass and Eddie essentially invented psychedelic funk rock, with the profundity of blues and the experimentative nature of psychedelic rock, mixed with the discipline of the Motown sound (and bass legend James Jamerson in particular).
Shortly after their first album was released, keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell was added. He also had grown up in Jersey, but he went to the New England Conservatory to be classically trained. Although he wasn't an original Funkadelic, he did a number of uncredited things for Clinton even before the group's first album, while he was still in school. He later became responsible for the bulk of the arrangements, tunes and production on the Parliament & Funkadelic albums, producing a variety of sounds conventional and bizarre, and developing riffs and melodies that are still being sampled today. His sophistication was P.Funk's x-factor, and raised them far above the level of other funk groups. Bernie soared through the high end while the rhythm section held down the low end. It's impossible to overestimate his contribution to P.Funk; his musical contribution from almost the very beginning was just as important as Clinton's conceptual vision. One could not have existed without the other, although Bernie doesn't always get the credit that he deserves.
In addition to Eddie's genius, the other original Funkadelics made the sound unique. Billy Bass always had a deep, thick sound that always resonated through a track. While his playing was funky, it had a raw power unusual in bassists that matched up well with Eddie's wilder excursions. And Tawl Ross showed that a rhythm player can experiment as well, playing with feedback on his riffs that supported Eddie's leads. Tiki was the same way on drums, playing with power but also with taste. The focus of his playing was keeping a steady groove, allowing the other players to go wild. This was a rock band that understood spacing and rhythm much better than most bands ever did. They often pushed the barriers of what funk was, but as the song goes, 'who says a funk band can't play rock?'
The Parliaments were also a big part of what went on. George was the primary lead singer, but the other members all had important roles. Fuzzy Haskins was noted for his shouts and wild "werewolf" style of singing. It's no surprise that he later went on to become a preacher. Calvin Simon had a soulful, gospel-oriented voice; he was the best and most versatile singer in the group, although he's often overlooked. Ray Davis has that trademark deep bass voice that is so distinctive on so many records. Grady Thomas never took a lead that I'm aware of, but he was important as a backup singer. The five singers worked very well as a unit, making the Parliaments greater than the sum of their parts.
The first three Funkadelic albums all are in this nasty vein, very psychedelic with the sound being reverbed to create a deeply heavy atmosphere. Clinton was always fascinated with multiple sounds interacting, and the early P.Funk records accomplished this through crude but interesting studio experiments while the later records used a vast number of different players, all resulting in a richly complex sound that still held together. These records were not exactly commercial, but the band drew a small but devoted following of fans, which, as it would continue to be the case in the years ahead, was racially diverse.
In 1972, Bill Nelson and Eddie Hazel left due to money disputes, and Tawl Ross was incapacitated due to a bad acid trip. GC decided to move away from the psychedelic sound and lifestyle and tried experimenting with the way the group sounded. The result was a double album that brought in two new significant players: the Collins Brothers, William and Phelps, better known to Funkateers as Bootsy and Catfish. Bootsy was to become a big player in the history of funk, but he left after one album, only to rejoin later, evolving into the witty, spaced-out Space Bass playing superstar. Catfish played on and off for Parliament, and ended up playing mostly for his brother's later band. Bootsy's disciplined background playing under James Brown tightened up the sound and made it more danceable, but his free spirit and willingness to experiment also made things crazier at the same time. His versatility made it possible for him to play virtually any style of music that was necessary, and his personality made him equally comfortable as a background player or as the leader of a band. Catfish is simply one of, if not the best, rhythm guitar players who ever lived. While Bootsy played his bass as adventurously as most guitar players would, Catfish took to his guitar like a bass player might: to hold down the rhythm. In funk, locking down a rhythm and getting into a groove is the essence of the music, and his riffs are legendary, live or on record. The greatest example is on "Flash Light", and that riff holds the whole song together, allowing Bernie to go off in all directions on keyboard. Bootsy also made a huge contribution as a songwriter and session man, playing guitar and drums on a number of tracks, many uncredited. It's impossible to fully describe how important Bootsy became to the P.Funk sound, but suffice it to say that he is the Jimi Hendrix of the bass guitar. This is in terms of technical skill, innovation and charisma. Bootsy is one of the most admired and imitated bassists in the world. The key to both players is their versatility. Catfish was an underrated soloist, filling that role often for both the JB's and Bootsy's Rubber Band; and Bootsy's roots came in holding down a rock-hard groove.
At around this time, another significant member joined full time: Gary Shider, a guitarist and singer. He brought his friend Cordell Mosson, a bass player, into the fold as well. Along with new drummer Ty Lampkin, they played big parts in Funkadelic's 1973 activities. Of all the P.Funkers, Shider is probably the most underappreciated. He was the first great singer in the group, and few realize just how many songs he performs lead vocals on. His greatest achievement is probably "Cosmic Slop", which features him hitting those sweet high notes. Garry is also a solid guitar player and an important songwriter, and is absolutely incredible live. The funk flows through him in a way that it does in few others. Cordell "Boogie" Mosson was responsible for a large portion of the band's bass playing, particularly when Bootsy got his own band. His tight, spare style anchored many Parliament and Funkadelic records in the mid-70's, and he was the primary live bass player for many years. While his style was not as upfront as Bootsy or Billy Bass, he anchored many classics. Lampkin was another important player, whose most important attributes were his taste and sense of theatrics. He brought a jazzy flourish to the music, with lots of high hat work and an overall more adventurous percussive sound. He meshed well with Worrell in this regard, who also liked to push the rock sound to its upper and outer limits.
In 1974, a new era began. Parliament was reactivated. and Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley joined the ever-growing funk mob in 1975. Bootsy rejoined and started writing songs for Parliament. At the same time, Funkadelic put out a couple of classic rock/R&B albums, with the newly returned Eddie Hazel in brilliant form. Fred & Maceo added a new dimension to the group, adding a whole new sound to Parliament and eventually going on to anchor Bootsy's Rubber Band. Fred did most of the horn arrangements on many classic tracks, again bringing the discipline of his background with James Brown that Bootsy & Catfish did. Order within chaos has always been a running musical theme in P.Funk, each aspect supporting the other. The fact that both had a great love of jazz also influenced the sound, adding another layer to the blues/funk/rock/soul/gospel stew that was P.Funk.
They started to achieve some more success with the single "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" (1975), hitting #5. Mothership Connection also did very well, becoming Parliament's first gold record. All of Parliament's future LP's would go gold as well. It was at around this time that another major shakeup occurred. Clinton left Westbound records, Funkadelic's label for over six years and moved to Warner Brothers, mostly for fiscal reasons. The other original Parliament members became disgruntled and all except Ray Davis quit after they learned that Clinton was the sole owner of the Parliament name and that they were his employees, in 1977. Monetary and credit issues were usually at the heart of band conflicts, and still are today to a certain degree. At this time, Bootsy was given a contract to form his own band, known as Bootsy's Rubber Band, a heavily bass driven group with a wacky sense of humor. The band had an extremely clean, tight sound, with Catfish on guitar, the Horny Horns driving the songs with riffs, Bernie (on many records) or Joel Johnson cutting in and adding color on keyboards, and Bootsy roaming all over the place on bass. The band became wildly popular, touring with Parliament-Funkadelic and later on their own, and reached their zenith with the #1 hit, "Bootzilla". The Rubber Band played a lot of uptempo funk jams, as well as a lot of ballads that usually featured Bootsy doing an incredible solo. The other huge strength of the band was vocalist Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, whose voice ranged from the highest of falsettos to a raunchy, low, funky growl.
The arrival of three new members came at just the time the band started to achieve its greatest success. Seventeen year old Michael Hampton was recruited from the band after being discovered at a party as a replacement for Eddie Hazel, who had joined the Temptations around 1975. Hampton's greatest strength was his incredible versatility, being a superb rhythm player as well as a dazzling lead guitarist. His style wasn't as heavy as Eddie Hazel's, but his sense of taste was superb, particularly on the One Nation album. Jerome Brailey was more of a veteran, but his impact on the group was unmistakable, with the power of Tiki Fulwood and the taste of Ty Lampkin. He was the greatest of the P.Funk drummers, and anchored many classic albums. The third was Glen Goins, a singer/guitarist who sang lead and some of Parliament's most memorable songs from 1975-77. He was also featured prominently during concert, getting the spotlight while singing 'swing down sweet chariot, stop, and let me ride' during "Mothership Connection", doing the lead for "Bop Gun", and much more. Goins was by far the best vocalist who ever worked with the P.Funk mob, with a rich, powerful, soulful voice that had incredible range. He was also an excellent rhythm guitar player. His career was tragically cut short in 1978 when he died of cancer. But his contribution to P.Funk's popularity while he was with them is undeniable.
In 1977, Parliament scored a #1 hit with "Flash Light." They embarked on huge, lavish tours, with shows that culminated in a gigantic spaceship landing on stage and Clinton coming out of it. Funkadelic, now driven mostly by Michael Hampton's leads while Eddie Hazel battled health and addiction problems, scored two # 1 hits with the dance oriented "One Nation Under A Groove" (1978) and "(not just) Knee Deep." (1979) Both feature searing solos from Hampton. Parliament continued the success in '78 with a # 1 hit in "Aqua Boogie".
By this time, the nature of the albums had changed. They became concept albums, with a running theme that flowed through each of the songs. The concept was often on the surface silly (an underwater funk extravaganza?), but the lyrics often carried pointed political and sociological messages. See above for the politics of P.Funk. More and more names were being added to the P.Funk crew, but the two most notable at this time were Junie Morrison and Rodney 'Skeet' Curtis. Junie was the genius behind the early Ohio Players, who could play several instruments, write, produce and arrange. His influence on two of P.Funk's most important albums (One Nation and Motor Booty Affair) was crucial, cowriting most of their songs, singing on a number of them, arranging many of the tunes, and generally adding his delightedly warped sense of humor to the proceedings. Junie would continue to play a role in P.Funk for several years, working on Clinton's solo albums. Curtis was a jazz bassist who added another new dimension to the sound with his tasteful playing. His solos on record and in concert were restrained and melodic.
Also at this time, the number of offshoot groups had exploded. It was Clinton's dream to have a Motown-type stable, with a number of different artists using a similar pool of musicians. Such groups as the Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, Bernie Worrell, Eddie Hazel and the Horny Horns (headed by Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker) put out albums. There were hordes of musicians, and they just sat in studios and recorded mountains of material, much of which was overdubbed with lyrics later for the offshoot groups. Some of this material was later featured on the Clinton Family series.
The nature of the group was still to tour, and their tours continued in their lavishness. The Mothership landed in the 75, 76 and 77 tours, one of the most incredible and excessive props of all time. The Motor Booty Affair tour prompted an entire underwater theme. As a reaction to all this and the incipient financial problems of the group, 79 had what was called the "Anti-Tour", where a lot of early Funkadelic was played in tiny venues. The lavish costumes were abandoned and the emphasis shifted back to the music, rather than the costumes and props. Several new players hopped on at about this time (78-79): drummer Dennis Chambers, guitarist DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, and the P-Funk Horns. Chambers and Blackbyrd started out as part of the live band for the Brides Of Funkenstein. Blackbyrd had previously played with the Headhunters, a jazz-funk group, but showed that his true inspiration was Jimi Hendrix. He eventually moved into playing full0time with P.Funk in the early 80's and has been a big part of the band ever since. Chambers was the primary drummer from 1979-91, and he added a jazz sensibility to the shows, particularly when he would team up with bassist Curtis. The P-Funk Horns (Greg Thomas, Greg Boyer and Bennie Cowan) replaced the Horny Horns live, and proved to be up to that monumental task. They've been the live horn section ever since, and their improvisational segments are always a highlight.
By the early 80's the group's popularity started to wane, and more members quit or were disgruntled with Clinton. The last Parliament album was in 1980, and the last Funkadelic album was in 1981, although most of the material had been recorded a year or two before that. GC was in debt and was dealing with his own drug problems. His lavish tours had also burned up a lot of money. He was able to break out of his problem after he recorded a # 1 hit single, "Atomic Dog" and went out on tour in 1983 to support it. He since has had a prolific solo career. The Funk Mob in general was dormant from 1986-89, as funk was forgotten during the rise of glam-metal and slick R&B. However, hip-hop was steadily growing in popularity, and many of those artists were sampling P.Funk records. In fact, P.Funk eventually replaced James Brown as the most sampled artist. Clinton hooked up with long-time admirer Prince, who paid off his debts, and set down to record again. With the rise of hip-hop, Clinton went on tour again (with the P.Funk All-Stars, a group originally formed in 1983) as the public's interest in funk was reawakened. In the meantime, Bootsy and Bernie had been busy with session work on a large variety of artists' albums. Both released new solo albums in the late 80's, and are still quite active. Both hooked up with Bill Laswell's camp, allowing them to experiment with new styles without commercial pressures.
In 1989 and 1990, most of the Parliament/Funkadelic albums were rereleased, and the Warner Funkadelic albums were rereleased in 1993. This funk upswing was what enabled the P.Funk All-Stars to tour again. The shows featured a stripped-down presentation, but added a great deal of new material, particularly a number of clever raps. The band toured in the high-profile Lollapalooza shows in the summer of 94, earning them some recognition. However, they didn't have nearly enough time to really do their thing, only getting 50 minutes a show. Also, the funk doesn't work as well in an outdoors, sunny festival. As we all await the Second Coming, Bootsy & Bernie tour together, the All-Stars are currently on tour, The JB Horns are doing their thing, and old funkateers are coming out of the woodwork. The Mothership landed once again in Central Park in New York City on July 4-5th, reuniting Bootsy, George and Bernie for the first time in years onstage. The Second Coming is a reality! Hopefully, there will be more of the same very soon. The funk shall never die!
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- What are the politics of the funk?
It's varied over the years. The early Funkadelic albums talked a lot
about justice, poverty, and freedom, with
America Eats Its Young being
the most overtly political. The lyrics dealt harshly with those who had
no compassion for the poor and helpless ("Biological Speculation"),
hyprocisy ("If You Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause"),
and stratification between classes. The latter subject was a particular
favorite, either directly in songs like "You And Your Folks...", "I Got
A Thing", and "Everybody Is Going To Make It This Time", or by example
in songs like "Cosmic Slop" and "Trash A Go-Go". Perhaps the most open
example of Funkadelic tackling an issue was "March To The Witch's Castle",
a prayer for the U.S. Vietnam War veterans. Yet the group rarely sought
to preach, preferring a more indirect approach to the problems of the
day. This was more true of Parliament than Funkadelic; like in most
other things, Parliament was less direct musically and lyrically, yet
it hold more subtle, hidden and couched meanings than many Funkadelic
songs. Funkadelic's more forceful music fit in well with its message
at the same time, particularly when Parliament was dormant. Parliament dealt with more compelling social issues, particularly on Osmium. That dealt with the "Cosmic Slop"-like scenario of a mother selling moonshine in order to support her 14 children ("Moonshine Heather"), an early cry against the rape of the environment ("Living The Life"), and another cry against politics ("Come In Out Of The Rain", featuring the great line, 'People keeping waiting for a change, but they ain't got enough sense to come in out of the rain'). Parliament's most famous political song was probably "Chocolate City", urging the use of the vote rather than violence to change the system. Beginning around the Mothership Connection era, Parliament's message was hidden in the whole Starchild allegory. Starchild represented life, freedom, sex and positive energy. His opponent, Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk, represented hyprocrisy, constriction, repression of emotions and actions, and death. The true message was that everyone had a choice; everyone could move towards maximum funk in their life. Their most brilliant and subtle song on this topic was "Funkentelechy", mocking the consumer society. When Clinton asks, "Would you trade your funk for what's behind the third door?", he's asking you how much your life is worth. Will you trade your soul, your integrity, in order to achieve something that's ultimately meaningless? It's clear that they believe it's never too late for anyone; in "Flash Light", even Sir Nose finds the funk.
Today, Clinton takes aim at those whom he perceives as being responsible for being responsible for creating conflict amongst the different divisions in society: black vs white, men vs women, gay vs straight, pro-choice vs pro-life, police vs citizens. He blames the government and corporations for this problem, and boils a lot of it down to money. Conflict creates money, and keeping both sides of an issue against each other further keeps them blind to the real causes of a conflict. This is the basic theme of "Martial Law". He particularly comes down hard on the government's so called War On Drugs, brilliantly satirizing it from the point of view of a government pawn in "Dope Dogs". 'There's more profit in pretending that they're stopping it than selling it' goes the line, a sharp distillation of the nature of the problem. He also has said that the best weapon that the government has is ignorance, which is why he believes that teachers should make more money than anyone else. This is compounded by the power of the media, whose dominating presence over an uneducated population can make people swallow most anything.
Clinton's lyrics have become a bit more direct in the last few years, addressing lyrics like nuclear war, but the best results are usually achieved when his approach is more subtle, or through someone else's point of view. P.Funk stands for freedom, unity and justice: a world party!
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- What's the deal with Star Child, Sir Nose, Maggots, Clones, Funkateers,
Honkateers, Flash Lights, Casper, Bootzilla, Bop Guns, and all the other
characters in the Chocolate Milky Way Galaxy?
P.Funk sure had a way of coming up with characters and little phrases
that kept snowballing as more albums were made. Eventually, a complete
self-referential P.Funk mythology was born, where the forces of funk, fun,
intelligence and sex would battle the forces of boredom, the status quo,
oppression, stupidity, frigidity and falsehoods.The seeds were sewn on Chocolate City. The DJ character on the title tune inspired Lollypop Man (alias the Long Haired Sucker), who was the DJ on "P.Funk". George has said that since the radio wouldn't play his tunes, he might as well invent his own radio station (W-E-F-U-N-K) and DJ. Mothership Connection brought us Starchild, a divine being who came down from the Mothership to bring Funk to earthlings. It was revealed on The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein that Starchild was the agent of Dr. Funkenstein, mastermind of outer space funk. The secrets of funk were laid in the pyramids, because humanity wasn't ready for it...until now. Dr. Funkenstein is creating Clones known as the Children of Productions who will go out and make sure everything is on the One. Dr. Funkenstein can fix all of man's ills, because the bigger the headache, the bigger the pill; and he's the big pill.
Starchild would not be unopposed, however. On Funkentelechy Vs The Placebo Syndrome, Starchild's arch-enemy Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk is unleashed. Inspired by the Pinocchio Theory of Bootsy's Rubber Band ("If you fake the funk, your nose will grow"), Sir Nose is driven to stop the funk. He's too cool to dance; he represents the Placebo Syndrome, which causes people to stop thinking and stop dancing. He wants to put your mind to sleep and extend the reach of the Zone of Zero Funkativity. Starchild is ready for him, having been given the Bop Gun by Dr. Funkenstein. He is ready to strive for Funkentelechy for all. This literally means "the actualization of funk rather than its potential"; in other words, that everyone has the funk in them, they just have to realize it and reach for it. Using the Flash Light on the Bop Gun, Starchild zaps the Nose and makes him dance. He finds the Funk and goes crazy, and everyone dances away into the night.
But it can't last long. Sir Nose returns with an ally, Rumpofsteelskin. This time the battle rages underwater, on Motor Booty Affair. The unfunky Nose is too cool to swim or dance, but with the help of Mr. Wiggles and the denizens of Atlantis (where you can swim underwater and not get wet), they make Nose dance the Aqua Boogie. Sir Nose tries again on Gloryhallastoopid, but he's undone by the Big Bang Theory: Funk set the whole universe in motion. He pops up one last time on Trombipulation, tracing his ancestors (Cro-Nasal Sapiens) back to the pyramids and understands his own funky heritage. His offspring, Sir Nose, Jr, promises to be funky forevermore.
Funkadelic had much less of a story, but there was a lot of interconnected- ness. It all starts with Maggot Brain, which describes a state of mind that transcends all the bullshit of the world. You either rise above it all or drown with the rest of the maggots on this earth. One Nation Under A Groove describes the ideal country, Funkadelia, ruled by funk. It's a nation on the move which can't be stopped and can't be labeled. We are all Funkateers. Its army is called together by Uncle Jam himself, and the mission is to rescue dance music from the blahs.
Then there's Bootsy. His laid-back character was born on "Be My Beach", sort of a funny Jimi Hendrix. On Stretchin' Out, Bootsy becomes Casper the Friendly Ghost (or is it the Holy Ghost?), coming out of his sheet to say a friendly "boo!". He's ready to educate the little ones at his PsychoticBumpSchool. On Player of the Year, he transforms into Bootzilla, a rhinestone rock star of a doll designed by Funk-A-Tech, Inc. He can sing and dance and play for you, unlike Barbie dolls. Bootsy was regarded as a lighter side of the funk, with sillier lyrics talking to his Geepies. His musical style was far more disciplined than Funkadelic, however, with tighter rhythms and arrangements.
For an excellent, in-depth look at the cosmology of P.Funk, check out the article by Scot Hacker.
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- What are the various aliases P.Funkers have used?
RC: 'G Cook', a name used in a number of Funkadelic writing credits,
is really Eddie Hazel. It's actually his mother's name, Grace Cook.'J S Theracon' is a name used by Junie Morrison at a time when he was under contract to another record company but still wanted to record with Parliament.
David Spradley has gone by a number of names, including 'David Lee Chong' and 'Chong Spradley.'
George Clinton is known variously as 'Dr. Funkenstein', 'Dr. Funk', 'Mr. Wiggles', and 'Starchild'. These are more characters than aliases, but he has been known to use them on personnel listings on album liner notes, in lieu of his real name.
Bootsy Collins has gone by 'Casper (the funky/friendly/holy ghost)', 'Bootzilla', 'The Player', 'Zillatron', and 'Sugar Crook'.
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- What is the connection between James Brown and P.Funk?
All 60's soul groups were influenced by the JB sound in one way or
another, although early Funkadelic recordings owed very little to him.
Several musicians who played for Brown later joined the P.Funk mob,
including Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, Phelps Collins and Maceo Parker.
They had a big impact on the sound, as it became cleaner and more
groove-oriented. James Brown also gets mentioned in "Chocolate City"
('Don't forget your James Brown pass') and humorously dissed in
"Let's Take It To The Stage."
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- What is the connection between Sly Stone and P.Funk?
Sly's early work had a big influence on GC, with his fusing
together of pop, soul, psychedelia and gospel, combined with interesting
and socially conscious lyrics. Later, Sly recorded with the group, after
his career had gone downhill and even toured with them briefly. He
appears on Funkadelic's
Electric Spanking of War Babies
and the P.Funk All-Stars
Urban Dancefloor Guerillas.
Sly also gets good-naturedly
ribbed in "Let's Take It To The Stage" ('Slick and the family brick.
Whatcha doin'? Let's take it higher!')
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- Are there two George Clintons?
Not counting the former Vice-President of the United States and former
mayor of New York City, there is another George Clinton involved in
the world of music. He is George S. Clinton, and he had an album out
in the mid-70's and a single. He mostly does music for movies and TV
shows. His music is also funkless; don't be confused and pick up his
work by mistake! This other Clinton had a 1975 album called Arrival
of the George Clinton Band, and a single, "Please Don't Run From Me" b/w
"Life And Breath." Not to mention him recently scoring the film
Mortal Kombat and the tv show Red Shoe Diaries.
To add to the confusion, there's also a George T. Clinton, who also did
some music in the 70's.
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- Are there two Eddie Hazels?
In addition to our beloved Maggoteer, there is a jazz guitarist named
Eddie Hazel who put out several albums on small labels. I mistakenly put
them in the discog, but the albums Sugar Don't You Know and
Take Your
Shoes Off are **not** by the Eddie Hazel who played "Maggot Brain."
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- What's up with all of the various P.Funk ownership rights being
in turmoil?
JC: Actually, like everything else in the P.Funk story, the ownership of the
publishing rights of P.Funk songs is warped and convoluted.
The material recorded for Westbound was almost all published by Bridgeport
Music, a publishing company afiliated with Westbound owner Armen Boladian
which, depending upon whom you believe, may or may not was supposed to have
been co-owned by Clinton. Anyway, the publishing rights to that material were the subject of a lawsuit two or three years ago between Boladian and Nene Montes, a P.Funk insider who alledged that Clinton had signed his part of those over to Montes some years ago.
Though Clinton did not take part in the suit, he clearly stood to benefit if Montes et al had won. But as I recall, the judge threw the case out because a statute of limitations had expired with respect to some charges of fraud and breach of fiduciary duties that were at the heart of Montes' allegations.
In re One Nation, etc: Clinton actually disincorporated the Parliafunkadelicment Thang Inc, around 1972, as I recall, and by 1974 had sent out a letter to all the band members that said they were now employees. Re: post Bridgeport publishing. Much of that material was recorded after rockers got hip to the publishing thing and you'll notice several publishing companies attached to each song, that's because each collaborator set up his own publishing company. Clinton, I believe owns the sound recordings of the Warner Brothers stuff--hence its recent leasing to Charley--but the publishing is variously owned to this day I believe. You have to remember, with music there are two copyrights in the US--for the sound recording and for the song (the publishing). I hope this clears up some things.
TK: Armen Boladian forged Clinton's signature on documents allowing for the release of the Funkadelic Westbound albums on CD. Nene Montes was the one who loaned Charly Groove and Priority the sub-master tapes of the Warner Bros. albums. Rhino Records 5-CD collection caled "Phat Trax" features "One Nation..." and "Knee Deep". The tracks were loaned to them by Gregory Paul who owns all the master tapes of anything Clinton produced.
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- What were the songs that George Clinton produced before Funkadelic
was formed?
George founded the Parliaments after being inspired by the doo-wop
of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. In 1956, they cut an acetate of
"A Sunday Kind of Love" b/w "The Wind". In 1958, the cut a single
for APT: "Poor Willie" b/w "Party Boys". The next year, they cut
a single for another small label, "(You Make Me Wanna) Cry" b/w
"Lonely Island". "Poor Willie" and "Party Boys" are pure doo-wop,
nothing at all like the madness that would later be unleashed.George was later a songwriter and producer for Motown, Golden World, Revilot and others. He also worked with Sidney Barnes and Mike Terry to form Geo-Si-Mik Productions, and they also helped a number of artists. What follows is a chronological listing of his work.
Year Artist Single 1963 Roy Handy Accidental Love/ Laurie What Did We Do (with the Parlets) Vivian "Tawala" Lewis You Won't Say Nothing/ Marton (I'm Yours)If You Can Stand Me J.J. Jackson But It's AlrightNotes: The Parlets appeared on one track, an early sign that Clinton was interested in forming and maintaining a female funk act even then. The Tawala Lewis song appears on the CD A Way With The Girls: 30 Rare Girl Soul Greats. These were recorded mainly for the Stephayne, Carnival or Marton labels.
1964 Parliaments I'll Bet You I'm Into Something, I Can't Shake It Loose I Misjudged YouNotes: These were demos recorded for Motown that weren't released, but were all later recut. "I Misjudged You" came the closest to being cut, with a release number set for the VIP label, but it never came out.
1965 Parliaments Heart Trouble/ Golden World That Was My Girl Roy Handy Baby That's A Groove Stephayne Pets I Say Yeah/ Westside PartyNotes: The first tune was a Geo-Si-Mik production, the latter two Clinton solo productions. "Baby That's A Groove" was later recut by Funkadelic as "Fish, Chips and Sweat."
1966 Pat Lewis Can't Shake It Loose Golden World
Theresa Lindsay I'll Bet You Golden World
JJ Barnes Day Tripper
JJ Barnes So-Called Friends Ric Tic
Darrell Banks Our Love (Is In The Pocket) Revilot
Pat Lewis Look At What I Almost Missed/ Solid Hit
Baby I Owe You Something Good (inst)
Fantastic Four Girl Have Pity/
(I'm Gonna) Live Up To What She Thinks
Notes: The first five tunes were from the Geo-Si-Mik crew, the last a
GC solo production. "Live Up To What She Thinks" was later redone by
Parliament and appeared as an outtake in the Clinton Family Series,
on Volume IV. These were mostly recorded for the Ric Tic and Golden World
labels.JC: "So-Called Friends" had a riff which became Funkadelic's "Friday Night, August 14th".
1967 Parliaments Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Flaming Embers Hey Mama (Whatcha Got Good For Daddy) Pat Lewis I'll Wait The Debonaires Loving You Takes All My Time/ Headache In My HeartNotes: "Sergeant Pepper's" is of course the Beatles tune. This was recorded around the time the other Revilot singles were coming out, but not released. George co-wrote and co-produced "Hey Mama", and Eddie Hazel plays guitar on it. George also co-produced and co-wrote "I'll Wait", which was also recorded by the Parliaments and retitled as "I'll Stay" and recut by Funkadelic. On the Debonaires' tunes, George cowrote and coproduced the first and coproduced the second. The line "headache in my heart, heartache in my head" was later used in "Some More", from Funkadelic. For information on the Parliaments' 1967 activities, check part 5 of the discog, which details I Wanna Testify, a collection of their singles and b-sides. The Parliaments got their first big hit with "(I Wanna) Testify" in 67, and the whole Parliafunkadelicment Thang got off the ground then and there. These were mostly recorded for the Ric Tic, Golden World, and Revilot labels.
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- What are some of the effects and equipment that the P.Funk Mob use?
Guitar Magazine, sometime in 1992-3, prob. aug. or sept.:Effects:
- Garry Shider:
- Travis Bean Guitars
MAESTRO and MXR phase shifters
Foxx Tone Machine ???
Mu-Tron Bi Phase Shifter - Bootsy Collins:
- Electro-Harmonin Big Muff fuzz tone
Roland Space echo
Mu-tron III envelope
Eventide Harmonizer (R2FunkU, it's called)
MT: Here's how they got the effects on Sir Nose's voice on the song "Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk". Sounds to me like a combination of pitch change (most likely multiple modulations) with delay in a feedback loop. Since the pitch change goes through the feedback loop, each time it goes through the pitch gets higher and higher. But you'll notice the processing was simplified on later Sir Nose appearances. I think on all the other recordings it's just a couple pitch modulators without the feedback delay. Either that or they substantially reduced the amount of delay and feedback. Also, George didn't just talk, in his normal voice, he talks really nasally and high-pitched for the Sir Nose voice. (Listen to the Martial Law remixes to hear Sir Nose D'Voidofprocessing.)
TG: Bootsy does remix work in his own studio, which features Meyer HD2 monitors, a Mackie 32-channel mixer, a new Amek fully automated mixer, Neve modules, TL-Audio tube compressors, dbx 166A compressors, and an ART 8-channel limiter.
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Catching the Funk Mob Live
- What is a P.Funk live show like, and what are the current lineups
in the various groups still touring?
RC: Parliament-Funkadelic has long been regarded as one of the greatest,
wildest, most intense live acts in the world. In their early days, the
shows were loud, scary and in-your-face. George was fond of getting naked
on stage (and in the audience), which served to add to their legend.
When they used Vanilla Fudge's equipment one night, they realized the
virtues of extremely loud amps, and their shows were played at eardrum-
shattering volumes.When they started to move away a little from their psychedelic material and were making more money, the shows started to get more and more ornate. It culminated in the construction of a huge spaceship that would "land" on stage during "Mothership Connection", from which George would emerge in some outrageous costume or other. Funkadelic was always known for their weird style of dress. Wizard outfits, diapers, gypsy get-ups, capes, you name it. George admired David Bowie's outlandishness and constant reinvention of himself onstage, and had a similar attitude. Every show was different. Something outrageous would always be happening. The number of people onstage was always huge. There'd be at least 7 or 8 singers, including a backup or three. One or two keyboardists. Between 3-5 guitarists. A couple of drummers. A 4-piece horn section. Percussionists. Bass players. There could be up to 30 people up there!
In recent years, the shows have been a lot more stripped-down, lacking the ornate props and costumes. The funk is still loud and strong, though. The shows are usually four hours long, though it can be even longer if the vibe is right. The current touring lineup includes George, Garry Shider on guitar and vocals; Lige Curry on bass and vocals; Billy "Bass" Nelson on bass, guitar, keyboards and drums; Rodney "Skeet" Curtis on bass; Michael Hampton on guitar and keyboards; DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight (bandleader) on guitar, Andre "Foxxe" Williams on rhythm guitar, Gabe Gonzalez on drums, Frankie "Kash" Waddy on drums, Joseph "Amp" Fiddler on keyboards, Grady Thomas on vocals, Ray Davis on vocals, Robert "P-Nut" Johnson on vocals, Greg Boyer on trombone, Greg Thomas on saxophone and vocals; Bennie Cowan on trumpet, Belita Woods on vocals, Louie "Babblin'" Kababbie rapping, Tracey "Trey Lewd" Lewis rapping, Michael "Clip" Payne on vocals and keyboards. I think there's also another keyboard player that I forgot. Catch these cats whenever you can, it's still the best live act out there. They play the usual hits ("Flash Light", "Atomic Dog", "Knee Deep", "Mothership Connection", "One Nation Under A Groove", "Give Up The Funk"), but they always play new material, upcoming material and have lots of surprises. They opened with "Mommy What's A Funkadelic?" recently, for example, and played "Trash A Go-Go" out of the blue. And the highlight is almost always Michael Hampton's brainsmashing version of "Maggot Brain."
Most recently, Bootsy, Bernie, and the Brides Of Funkenstein have teamed up with Clinton again. How long this arrangement will last is unknown, but it's certainly a welcome development.
MW: Due to "Flash Light's" success, fans would bring flashlights to the concerts. After a while, P-Funk sold their own brand of flashlights at these shows and sell up to 3,000 a night.
MB: Do you remember the Motor Booty Affair Tour? Man I was just in the 10th grade. But anyway, remember:
That skull, with the big ( shame shame ) joint in his mouth, a huge bic lighter about 7 feet tall was used to light it?
Remember after they did Maggot Brain, they drew the curtain and we had to wait 30 minutes; and when the came back, Junie was saying... "Ladies and Gents, this is Howard Codsell swimming by a clock that has his hands behind his back" (Wasn't Motor Booty Affair the best concept LP ever?) Then the curtain let up, and the girls had their 'Giggles and Squirm' outfits on, George was dressed as Mr. Wiggles and Rumpofsteelskin was playing bass (Skeet?).
Remember the mechanical Bird that was screaming in Sir Nose's ear during "Aqua Boogie"?
Man, I miss the props at the P Funk Shows.
Bootsy's New Rubber Band:
MT: I saw Bootsy's New Rubber Band in September on the debut night of their U.S. tour and Bootsy played about 2 hours. The material consisted of... all the classic jams by Bootsy's Rubber Band, several songs from Bootsy's New Rubber Band's cd "Blasters Of The Universe" and several classic P-Funk songs (ie. "Flashlight", "One Nation", "Cosmic Slop" etc.) The lineup included Bernie Worrell, Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson, Greg Fitz (all keyboardists), Frank Waddy (drums), Rick Gardner (trumpet), Gary "Mudbone" Cooper (vocals) and two background vocalists, a saxophone, a trombone player, and two guitarists who I don't remember the names of. Most or all of the people I don't know the names of are people who haven't played much with Bootsy or P-Funk in the past - at least I'm not familiar with them. They didn't do anything Praxis or Zillatron related. Though you should still go - I have two friends who love Praxis, and all that stuff, don't have any P-Funk or other Bootsy albums, yet they both enjoyed the concert immensely.
RC: Flip Cornett is the rhythm guitarist, Garry "Dee Dee" James is the lead guitarist. Michael Gatheright and Henry Benefield are the backup vocalists.
MG: {review of Bootsy's New Rubber Band in Sweden}:
The show was good...The sound was good, he played very enthusiasticly and it had the things that I had expected. I was surprised to see how he played the space-bass. He just touched it...I thought he'd hit it and so on to get the space effects...:) The only thing that I felt was not so good was the fact that he played very few of his new songs and not too many of his old either. More Parliament stuff than his own. It felt that way, like I didn't get enuff Bootsy. But it was obviously one of the best concerts I've seen. He seemed so honest about what he was doing, with the humour and he was giving, he gave the audience his all.
Maceo Parker:
Follow this link for a review of a Maceo Parker show.
Jerome Brailey & Mutiny:
The Bigfoot is back.
Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic fame is now touring with his band MUTINY for their first U. S. tour.
The touring band includes: Kenny "Jam" Holmes, lead guitar and vocals. Kelvan Wilkins, lead guitar and vocals. Chris Beasly, guitar. Lenn Washington, bass and vocals and special guests on selected dates.
All play on the new MUTINY album, to be released this summer, produced by Jerome Brailey and Bill Laswell. The album also features Bernie Worrell, Michael Hampton, Nicky Skopelitis and the DXT.
For booking information call Mike Schreibemen at Concerts America- 1 (703)-237-9500
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- How can I find out about P.Funk tour dates?
RC: This is a question that is always difficult to answer, since their
schedule is usually chaotic and disorganized. Many shows don't get
set up til the last second. However, there are a couple of web sites
you might want to try:
TicketMaster
or Pollstar.
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- What bands have opened for the Funk Mob over the years?
The Dramatics (1967) Last Poets (?) Vanilla Fudge (1968) The Box Tops (1968) Kool & The Gang (1970) The Moments (1970) Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen (1971) Mandrill (1973, 1975) Osabisa (1973, 1975) Bloodstone (1975) Roger & The Human Body (later known as Zapp) (1975) Ohio Players Earth, Wind and Fire Sly & The Family Stone (1976) (P.Funk also opened for them in the early 70's) Bootsy's Rubber Band (76, 78, 93)(P.Funk also opened some shows for them in 78) Rose Royce (1976) Hugh Masekela Rufus & Chaka Khan (1977?) Bar-Kays (1978) Cameo (1978) Mother's Finest (1978) Gap Band (1979-80) Brides Of Funkenstein (1979-80) Sweat Band (1980) Parlet (1980) Red Hot Chili Peppers (1985) Killing Joke (1985) The Untouchables (1985) De La Soul (1989) Menace (1992) Brand New Heavies Lollapalooza Tour: Boredoms, L7, Green Day, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Breeders, Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins (1994) (The last 2 bands named on Lollapalooza played after P.Funk) Blowfly (1995) Keb' Mo', Tal Mahal, Subdudes (1996 Southern Comfort tour)
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Catching the Funk Mob on Audio or Video
- What are some of the new and upcoming releases for the P.Funk Mob?
George Clinton's new album just came out on Sony, on June 11, 1996.
The feel of the album is very laid-back and mellow, with a strong bass
presence and some live drums. There are head-nodding R&B funkers, as
well as a few hip-hop tracks. It's on the "550" label. Junie Morrison
Skeet Curtis, Bernie Worrell, and Bootsy Collins are all present on this
one. The title of the album is
The Awesome Power Of A Fully Operational Mothership (TAPOAFOM).
Pedro Bell, Overton Lloyd and Stozo Edwards all
worked on the cover.Capitol will be releasing a new greatest hits package for George Clinton, not-so-cleverly titled Greatest Funkin' Hits. It will feature a remix of "Atomic Dog" with Coolio. Pedro Bell is doing this cover. It's due out sometime during the fall or winter of 1996. Capitol also released two Clinton solo albums, Some Of My Best Jokes Are Friends and You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish.
Check out two new bombs from the archives: Mothership Connection - Newberg Session, featuring rehearsals from 1976, and Funkadelic Live At Meadowbrook, 1971, a hellacious live show. In the works from P-Vine: an album with unreleased and rare tracks from Parliament's early days at Invictus. The Ruth Copeland albums that featured Funkadelic may also be re-released.
Mutiny featuring Jerome Brailey released a new album coming out on P-Vine on November 25th, and on the Black Arc label in late December of 1995. The title is _Aftershock: 2005_. It's produced by Bill Laswell. Ace Records plans to rerelease all of Mutiny's material in the U.K.
Funkcronomicon, the Axiom Funk release, was released on July 18, 1995. It features a number of unreleased P.Funk tracks, including Eddie Hazel & Bootsy Collins. It's a 2-CD set. See the review in part VI for more details.
Tawl Ross released an album on September 19, 1995 on Peter Wetherbee's Coconut Grove label. He was the rhythm guitarist in the early days of Funkadelic. Jerome Brailey helps out with drums. This is a tight, bluesy, swampy mixture that sounds great.
Bootsy's New Rubber Band's live album Keepin' Da Funk Alive 4-1995 was released on Ryko in late August 1995. It's a 2-CD set and also features a poster. It came out first on P-Vine, and it's excellent.
Bootsy has also recorded some tracks for a new Praxis album, as well as a followup to Blasters of the Universe called Blasters 2: The Enlightened One. He also has a cartoon special on MTV in the works, done by Mike (Beavis & Butthead) Judge. It's to be called A Boot-Toon Adventure. The other Bootsy project is a collaboration with various hip-hop artists, using his samples and featuring some studio work as well. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre's names have been mentioned there.
In the works: a Belita Woods solo album, a Parliaments reunion album (featuring lots of doowop), a new Horny Horns album and a new Zillatron album. Gary Cooper and Garry Shider also apparently have had things in the works for awhile now.
Some recent albums with heavy P.Funk influence include Dave Stewart's Greetings From the Gutter, with Bootsy, Bernie & Jerome on most tracks, as well as appearances from Mudbone, Larry Fratangelo and Henry Benefield (of New Rubber Band fame); and the Last Poets' Holy Terror, which features Bootsy & Bernie on several tracks and George Clinton on one. George, Billy Bass, Blackbyrd and Mudbone Cooper contributed a cut to the John Lennon tribute album, while Bootsy, Bernie and Dennis Chambers did a cut for the new Hendrix tribute album.
More recent albums with a heavily P.Funk-y flavor include Third Rail's South Delta Space Age and Lucky Peterson's new album.
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- My music shop is terminally unfunky and won't carry the Bomb.
Where else can I go to get funked up?
Write to Gregory Paul Productions for a list of their albums. Also,
check out
CD Connection.
It's an online service that you can
telnet to.
The address is cdconnection.com. I am not a representative of their
company, but I am a satisfied customer. They have a lot of stuff,
including imports, and they ship out fast and less expensively than
most CD stores. Another internet site to try is cdeurope.com, which
deals exclusively in imports. They have lots of stuff that simply
isn't available anywhere else, but most of it's expensive. Still,
if you gotta have those Mutiny records on CD, this is the place!
A new service is musicexpress.com, which features all imports,
although the number is small in comparison to the other services
so far. Lastly, there's cdnow.com, which features the option of
getting things on cassette as well as CD, and also has a number of
videos. They also have a decent number of imports. A link has been
set up between their site and ours, but I would like to stress that
we are not employed by them nor should we be considered representatives
of their company. I just support anything that makes it easier for a
Funkateer to get their funk fix. Other companies and sites are welcome
to establish links with us as well.If you care to order a copy of the recent P.Funk release Dope Dogs, you may also wish to contact the distributor directly at:
HOT HANDS RECORDS
c/o BROTHERS ORGANISATION
74 The Archway
Ranelagh Gardens
London SW6 3UH
Address any enquiries to Nick Titchener
(nick@keepcalm.demon.co.uk or
compuserve: 100417.1634)TK: The address of P.Vine records, who put out a number of albums that are otherwise out of print and new albums that haven't made it here yet, as well as some videos, is:
Blues Interactions, Inc. 2.41.10 Tomigaya Shibuya-ku Tokyo 151 JAPAN Phone: 011 81 33460 8611 Fax: 011 81 33460 8618
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- How come none of my local record stores never seem to have George
Clinton's solo albums in stock?
MT: As sad and MESSED UP as it is, the only George Clinton solo album that
currently is in print domestically is
Computer Games. When
Prince
pulled his little "I'm gonna fill the rest of my Warner contract with tapes
from my vault and start my own new record label and record under a symbol
instead of a name" stunt last year - Paisley Park was shut down. At the
time I thought this meant no new albums on the Paisley label. But I
recently discovered that it seems that about the only albums from the
Paisley Park label that are still in print are Prince's albums (of course).
So you can't get
Cinderella Theory
or Hey Man Smell My Finger
(which
isn't even two years old) anymore - or any other Paisley Park albums that I
can think of (including Mavis Staples). Capitol has now discontinued all
of George's solo albums except for
Computer Games. You
will still find
Family Series and Sample Disc series listed under
his name - but none of his real solo albums. Maybe P-Funk should start
printing "limited edition" on ALL their albums. I say Priority should
buy the rights to HMSMF and
reissue it in a new version - without "If True Love" and "Big Pump" and
include "Booty" and some of the other unreleased tracks on it.As mentioned elsewhere, Capitol did rerelease two more Clinton solo albums, and is planning a Greatest Hits.
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- What are some important P.Funk bootlegs?
This is a guide to some of the illicit recordings made of the P.Funk Mob.
These recordings are illegal, immoral and fattening, but lots of people like
to buy them. Since this is the case, a guide has become necessary since the
quality of these recordings varies wildly, and we will try to steer people
away from the bad recordings. We will use a * - ***** star rating system.
* means either a nonessential show or poor sound quality. Stick with the
released live material, as there is now plenty of it. ***** indicates
rare tracks of a good sound quality, or truly exceptional performances.
We still encourage you to buy only authorized material, however.
*Bootsy's Rubber Band*
1992 CD Funk Prophets Volume II
(Washington DC 1978 Live)
Rating: **** (OK sound quality, but there is no released live Bootsy
stuff from 1978. Catfish is excellent on this record.
~ 70 minutes)
1994 CD I Wanna Bee Kissin' U PF-02
(Bootsy Collins, Ariake Mza, Tokyo, 7/22/89)
Rating: **1/2 (Audience recording, fades in and out. Very loose show
with lots of What's Bootsy Doin' material. Great
line-up, with Catfish and the Horny Horns.
The sound quality does detract from the
performances, however. ~ 75 minutes.)
*George Clinton*
? 12" The Best Of George Clinton Funk Record Company FRC 101
(includes One Nation Under A Groove, Atomic Dog, Pumpin' It Up,
(Not Just) Knee Deep)
(& Parliament-Funkadelic)
1989 LP The Singles '67-'71 F-Punk F-PR 84
*Parliament-Funkadelic*
1991 LP/CD Rocky Mountain Shakedown Brigand BRIG-021
(Denver, 1976 Live)
Rating: ***** (Probably the most famous P.Funk bootleg. The most notable
things are Comin' Round The Mountain (which is on the
4-CD set) and Red Hot Mama. Beware lots of stretches of
crowd-only noise. 90 minutes)
MT: Double LP comes in regular and gatefold editions. The gatefold
has immitation Pedro Bell artwork with a "Pedro Hell" signature - and a photo
of the Mothership and personnel listing on the inside. The other edition
has a blurry photo of the Mothership landing in concert on the cover - no art.
The CD release uses the photo for the cover (not the artwork) and parts of
the show are deleted to fit it on a CD.
1992 CD Home Of The Funk
(Detroit January 1, 1978, Live)
Rating: **1/2 (Funkentelechy live is very interesting. Very good Maggot
Brain. But nothing essential here. ~60 minutes)
1992 CD Funk Prophets Volume I
(Washington DC, 1978 Live)
Rating: ** (Mediocre sound, unexceptional performances.)
1995 CD Red Hot Mama In Richmond 1976.
Rating: **** (TK: Probably recorded days after the Denver gig. The
people who put this CD together didn't even have enough
sense to slow the speed of the master tape. Parts of the
Denver gig appear at the end of this CD.)
*P.Funk All-Stars*
LP Live 83 Funk Record Company FRC 103
1983 Beverly Theatre 1983
Rating: (TK: Anyone who was fortunate enough to hear this one
over the radio {broadcast with the Westwood One Radio
Network} back in June of 1983 were able to hear this
gig unedited. The CD, later released in 1990, left off
the medley of "Standing On The Verge/Good To Your Earhole"
and a definitive performance of "Loopzilla".)
1993 Dayton 1981 (live)
Rating: ****1/2 (Hot, hot hot! Live versions of Electric Spanking...
and Standing On The Verge segueing into Flashlight are
classics. Some of this material was used on the 4 CD
set. ~50 minutes.)
(TK: This gig was broadcasted over the radio in August
1981 with the Westwood One Radio Network.)
1993 CD Power Booty For The 90's Gorgon
(Montreaux, Switzerland, 1990)
Rating: ***1/2 (Average sound, but a better overall sampling of 90's
P.Funk than on the 4CD set. Too many detours and flat
spots deter the overall quality. ~110 minutes)
1994 CD Cosmic Slop '89 PF-01
(Japan, 1989)
Rating: ? (Haven't heard it, but I would guess the quality is similar
to the Bootsy 89 CD. The packaging is precisely the same.)
1994 CD Night Scene
(1990)
Rating: ****
MT: 50 minutes from a show in 1990 - I think I hear Garry Shider refer to
the audience as "LA" but the city is not listed in the booklet or on the cover.
Dennis Chambers is on drums and Skeet is on bass. Excellent sound quality
- and great material. (including Atomic Dog, Star Child, Flashlight and a
medley of early Funkadelic tunes).
*Parliament*
LP Live 81 Funk Record Company FRC 102
*Various Artists*
1991 LP Vital Juices: The Acid-Funk- Sta-Tite
Metal-Doo Wop Years
(1958-1974 George Clinton with Parliaments,
Funkadelic, Houseguests and Friends)
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- Where can I see my funky heroes on video?
This answer falls into two categories: music videos that feature
extended concert footage, and guest appearances by P.Funkers in
Hollywood-type films, of which there are a surprisingly large number.
Music Video:
- Mothership Connection: Live From Houston, Sony/Douglas, 1986
- PJ: There is a 30 minute live video by George Clinton/Parliament/
Funkadelic ("The Mothership Connection Live From Houston") which
is distributed by Douglas/Sony Video in the U.S. and by Virgin
Music Video in Europe.
RC: This is out of print. The tape also features two George Clinton videos, "Atomic Dog" and "Double Oh-Oh/Bulletproof". The live portion of the video matches up with the accompanying record, which is noted in the discography. However, the song versions on the video are shorter than the versions on the album, and in general, the cuts they make are awful. The show is from 1976, by the way.
- Stop Making Sense
- MW: I know that Bernie Worrell was in the Talking Heads' Stop Making
Sense concert film. The Heads' "Burning Down the House" was inspired by
David Byrne going to a P-Funk show. RC: Note that Bootsy's song
"Jam Fan (Hot)" has the line "Burning down the house" in it, several
years before TH did their version. This chant was also a P.Funk favorite,
used on the 1978 tour.
- Rockschool
- MT: There is a series of instructional videos called "Rockschool" - one of
the volumes (volume 3 I believe) has an episode on Funk music. The series was
hosted by Herbie Hancock (who has very short spoken segments at the
beginning of each episode) - and mostly features unknown musicians with
British accents demonstrating various styles of music. Anyway - the funk
episode features demonstrations/interviews by Bootsy and Larry Graham.
Bootsy's segment is great. An excellent example of how spontaneously
funky the man is. He puts on a simple drum machine beat - and says how
everything is on the one - and demonstrates it - only playing his bass on
the downbeat. Then he demonstrates filling in the space improvising lines
in between, but still hitting on the one - and he talks about "the funk
formula." It also features footage of him just jamming - improvising (with
his collection of footpedals of course) over the drum machine. He talks a
bit while he's playing "Can you hear my drummer?" and makes funky vocal
sounds on the off beats. Good stuff! Neat interview and playing by Larry
Graham too.
- Stretching Out Live-Houston 10/31/76, P-Vine
- TK: Recorded from the 3/4 inch master, though it still cuts off at
the same place. Also comes with stickers and an information booklet
written in Japanese.
- Parliament/Funkadelic: 1978 Flashlight Tour, P-Vine, 1995, PVH-27
- MW: There's a new Japanese import (P-Vine) video of the 1978
Flashlight tour. It is not a bootleg. It's 110 minutes and well worth
the 70 bucks I paid for it. It starts with an animated cartoon of the
Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome booklet and ends, before the encore,
with Cameo and the Bar-Kays joining P-Funk onstage to do "Flashlight"
beneath the Mothership. My copy also came with some stickers. You
should be able to order a copy from Tower Records (1-800-ASK-TOWE).
- Pass The "P" Like It Used To Be, P-Vine, 1995
- RC: There are a couple of Bootsy videos around from our friends at
P-Vine. First, there's Bootsy's New Rubber Band: Pass the "P" Like It
Used To Be." This is from a 1993 Rubber Band show in Tokyo in which
they apparently opened for the P.Funk All-Stars. The quality of this
video is beyond belief, sound and picture are crystal clear. It starts
with an interesting rehearsal session, where you really get to see the
serious, technical side of Bootsy. Grady Thomas drops by to say hello.
His crew includes old-time Rubber Band members Frank Waddy, Joel Johnson,
and Mudbone Cooper, as well as Bernie Worrell, who is billed as the
co-headliner. Bootsy pays him great respect, with Bernie taking several
solos and getting the final bow with Bootsy. He also has several new
players, the most notable being an excellent guitarist named Dee Dee James.
This one is about 80 minutes long and the highlight is a superb solo during
"I'd Rather Be With You." He runs through the hits and gives each member
of the band their turn in the spotlight, and it's all anchored by Bootsy's
infectious charisma.
- Bootsy's Rubber Band: Player Of The Year Tour 1978, P-Vine, 1995, PVH-30
- RC: This is truly a magnificent show, with numerous
moments of humor, kick-ass funkin', deep groovin', and an array of
Bootsy tunes that concentrate on Bootsy? Player of the Year.
It includes
the band at its height, with Catfish, the Horny Horns, and the Boot all
taking turns in the spotlight. You haven't lived until you've heard Maceo's
psychedelic sax solo! It comes in at around 60 minutes. Both of the Bootsy
videos are available from cdnow.com, but they're damn expensive (both are
over $90!). Your local record store may have them at better prices. There's
also a CD to go with this performance, but I'm not sure from where. I've
seen it as a bootleg ("Funk Prophets Vol II), but I had heard that P-Vine
had also put one out.
- J.B. Horns: Live In Japan 1990, P-Vine, 1995
- RC: This is a 60 minute tape that I haven't seen, available only as an
import.
- Dennis Chambers:
- RC: The former P.Funk drummer is a cottage industry unto himself, with
a series of instructional videos as well as appearances doing session work
with jazz artists. Here's a list of his own stuff:
_In The Pocket_ 65 min. DCI130, 19? _In The Pocket_ (Spanish subtitles) 65 min. DCI130SP, 19? _Serious Moves_ 65 min. DCI131, 19? _Serious Moves_ (Spanish subtitles) 65 min. DCI131, 19? _KAT trapKAT video_ KAT, 19?
Here's a list of stuff with others:Brecker Brothers _Return Of The Brecker Brothers/Live In Barcelona, Spain_ 59 min. 1993. Chroma _Music On The Edge/Live In Tokyo October 1990_ 60 min. 1990. Various Arists _Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert Volume 1_ (w/Louie Bellson, Gregg Bissonette) 64 min. DCI053, 1989. Various Artists _Zildian Drummers Day In London_ (w/Trilok Gurtu, Simon Phillips, Gregg Bissonette) 19?
Miscellaneous:
- MW: There were plans for two P-Funk movies in the late 70s; one with the
"Motor Booty Affair" concept and the other, a documentary-type film
featuring the landing of the Mothership in New York (filming did actually
take place for that one in Times Square and the United Nations Plaza).
There was a cartoon film done for Bootsy's "Player of the Year."
- RC: As for other concert videos, there are numerous bootleg videos floating
around of varied quality. They tend to run between $20 and $30 dollars.
Buyer beware. Some of these concert bootlegs will also contain TV snippets,
like promo videos and TV appearances. (See # 16 and #17 for more information
on these). The videos range from 1976 up through present day shows,
though there seems to be a concentration on late 70's shows.
- MW: Apparently, there is some live concert video that Patra recently put out
that features the P.Funk Horns. Andre Williams and maybe Mike Hampton and
some others are on it, but they're not shown on the video. (But the horns
are.)
- DM: There is a video titled "_Inside The Casbah: A History of Casablanca
Records and Filmworks_. There are two Overton Lloyd-animated TV commercials,
a 60-second joint for _Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome_ and a
30-second one for _Gloryhallastoopid_. This tape was produced by:
Rock Steady Productions 8 Cambridge Place Boynton Beach, FL 33462-6322
The tape is distributed by:Larry Sockell Co. 2101 Ninth Avenue Ronkonkoma, NY 11779
On the back cover, it says, "Coming Soon: Inside The Casbah, Part II." I spoke last week with Damien Vivone of Rock Steady Productions. He produced the first tape and is about to commence editing on the second, shooting for a December 1996 release date. Vivone says "Part II" will contain two songs from Parliament's Houston '77 concert at the Summit -- "Do That Stuff" and "Undisco Kidd" -- taken from the original 3/4-inch videotape shot on the Summit's in-house system.Deeper than that (to me) is a little 60-second item that I've never even heard mentioned (and I know some certifiably obsessive-compulsive old-school P-Funk heads) ... a TV commercial for the "Up for the Down Stroke" LP! As Mr. Vivona describes it, this filmed spot shows George Clinton stepping out of a horse-drawn carriage, then walking down the street with a radio on his shoulder singing "Up for the Down Stroke," and being followed by a bunch of kids (persumably Pied Piper style). Vivona, a big-time Kiss fan, swears that the boots George wears in this commercial are ACTUAL Gene Simmons concert boots.
And if all this weren't enough to make your liver quiver, Vivona promises even more VILLAGE PEOPLE PERFORMANCE FOOTAGE on this new tape!!
Feature Films:
- The Night Before, 1988
- PJ: You might also want to check out the 1988 movie "The Night Before",
a fairly enjoyable teen comedy along the lines of "After Hours" which
features four songs and a cameo appearance by George Clinton & a budget
version of The P.Funk All-Stars. The movie (directed by Thom Eberhardt)
is available on video, at least in the U.S.
RC: Bootsy is one of the band members! The film stars a very young Keanu Reaves. The club footage is excellent, George is wearing some outrageous costume and Bootsy is really getting into it. Songs include "Way Over There", "Honk", and "Baby Boy", which is played twice, including interrupted over the credits.
- Tapeheads
- JW: Features Lynn Mabry.
- House Party
- RC: GC also makes a cameo appearance in the Hudlin Brothers' film House
Party, starring Kid 'n Play. George appears as a bored DJ stuck at a very
unfunky party. Parliament's "Niggerish" can be heard in the film but
not on the soundtrac.
- Graffitti Bridge, 1991
- JB: George Clinton appears in Prince's Graffitti Bridge. George and
the band can be seen performing "We Can Funk."
DF: George makes an appearance as a club owner...only a little bit of performance footage, and later on he is shown signing a document.
- PCU, 1994
- RC: A recent film, called PCU, had a brief run in the theatres; it
should be on video now. George and the P.Funk All-Stars perform, and
GC even has some speaking parts. ("Nothin' but the dog in me!") There's
a soundtrack and an extended CD-single with GC's contributions, noted
elsewhere in the discography.
- Blow Maceo!, 1995
- TP: First sentence of the film is: "If someody says "Maceo blow, I have
to blow!" There are interviews with Maceo, Kym Mazelle, some concerts
(club atmosphere) and a great scene with improvisation of music and
"dancing" of Maceo and George! ;-) Another good scene is when Maceo plays
his sax, where he was born, with dancing children and dogs around him...
So it's a mixture of interviews with Maceo, some band-members, music and
rehearsal-recordings. The film was made by a German director.
RC: The film has not been released in the United States yet, nor is it available on video.
Back to the top of the page.
- What promo videos have the Funk Mob made?
- George Clinton:
- George Clinton has done videos for "Atomic Dog", "Last Dance",
"Double Oh-Oh/Bulletproof", "Do Fries Go With That Shake", "Tweakin'",
"Why Should I Dog U Out?", "Paint The White House Black", "Martial Law"
and "If Anybody Gets Funked Up."
A video was also made for "Give Up The Funk", consisting of old concert clips and such for the release of Tear The Roof Off.
MW: "Atomic Dog" was the first video ever shown on BET's (Black Entertainment Televsion) "Video Soul" when the show debuted in 1982.
George also appears in Gerardo's "We Want the Funk" video for reasons unknown.
He also appeared in TC Ellis' video for "Miss Thang" after helping out on his album.
PJ: George appears as a guest in Nona Hendrix' "Baby Go Go". He also shot a video with Warren Zevon ("Leave My Monkey Alone"), but I'm not sure whether they used the scenes.
- Bootsy Collins:
- Bootsy Collins did videos for "Party On Plastic", "Jungle Bass",
"Funk Express Card" and "If 6 Was 9." He also appeared in Color Me Badd's
remix of "Slow Motion" and Eazy-E's "We Want Eazy". The "Jungle Bass" video
is mostly animated and it's a lot of fun. The "If 6 Was 9" video also
features Buckethead.
AR: Bootsy was also in a vid by a rap group called Ground Zero. The song was called "Let Ya Know."
- Others:
- The Incorporated Thang Band had a video for "Body Jackin'".
Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker all appear in Deee-Lite's "Groove Is In the Heart" video.
Stanley Clarke and George Duke had a video for their cover of "Mothership Connection", and George Clinton and possibly Bootsy appeared it in. MW: I remember George doing silly grins and dancing.
George and Bootsy both appear in Ice Cube's "Bop Gun" video, which is basically a remix of "One Nation Under a Groove" with Ice Cube rapping over it. Great video; George is spinning around in a throne for much of the video, and Bootsy is lying around with a bunch of fine looking women, having a good ole time.
The Too Short single "Gettin' It" features a number of P-Funkers, including Belita Woods and Andre "Foxxe" Williams.
MT: Maceo Parker did a Roots Revisited promo video which conatins footage of Maceo, Fred, Pee-Wee and the rest of the personnel from the album (no footage of Bootsy, however), recording in the studio. There is also some rehearsal footage and interviews with Maceo. This is pretty long - at least 30 minutes, perhaps longer.
Back to the top of the page.
- What TV appearances have the Funk Mob made?
George Clinton & P.Funk All-Stars/Parliament-Funkadelic:
TK: Funkadelic made numerous appearances on TV during the Westbound years. One of those appearances will be included in the upcoming PBS documentary on the history of Rock 'n Roll (Part 8, "Make It Funky"). Most of these appearances were done locally in Detroit and Cincinnati.
- Arsenio Hall:
- 1992:
TK: They were on back in July 1992. The band consisted of George, Garry (who had just gotten out of jail on a battery charge), Mike Hampton, and the P.Funk Horns. They sat in with the house band through the entire show, and performed a funky version of "Hail To The Chief."
1993:
George was on for the entire hour, with interviews and performances.
MW: On that Arsenio/P-Funk show, in addition to playing "Martial Law" and "Paint the White House Black," George and the guys and girls also did (towards the end of the show) a kick-ass medley of "Alice in My Fantasies," "Mothership Connection," "Flashlight," "(Not Just) Knee Deep," and the most intense performance of "Atomic Dog" I've ever seen! That show was taped in 1993.
- Late Night With David Letterman:
- MW/RC: George has also been on David Letterman a few times. He did
"Give Up
The Funk" on his first Letterman appearance. He was interviewed by Dave.
George said, "If you will suck my soul, I will lick your funky emotions."
Dave replied, "Yuck!" On the second, he had some All-Stars with him, and did
"Red Hot Mama." He also did "(not just) Knee Deep" on another episode.
MW: Along with George on that third appearance were Robert "P-Nut" Johnson, Lige Curry, Garry Shider, and all of the the P-Funk Horns (Greg Boyer, Bennie Cowan, Greg Thomas). Fave quote from the show:
Dave: ". . . heard you just flew in from Europe."
George: "Yeah, 15 minutes ago!"TK: They were on in 1989 performing "Let's Take It To The Stage". The line-up was George, Garry and the P.Funk Horns.
- Saturday Night Live:
- MM: In the mid-80's, "George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic"
appeared on Saturday Night Live. Angelica Huston was the host.
They performed a medley of "Let's Take It To the Stage", "Mothership
Connection" and "Pussy" as their first number, and "Do Fries Go With That
Shake"/"Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On" as their second.
This was 1986.
- Yo! MTV Raps!
- PJ: In November '89, I saw him at the Apollo Theater in Harlem where he did
guest host segments for "Yo! MTV Raps" - I don't remember whether they
also shot concert scenes.
- Slammin' Rap Video Mag. Volume II:
- MT: This contains interviews with George Clinton and some videos and live
footage. This was probably 1990 or so - he opens up by rapping a verse from
"Tweakin'" acappella. They show short clips of "Why Should I Dog U Out",
"Do Fries Go With That Shake" and some of his other videos - mixed in with
interviews. They also dug up some vintage Parliament/Funkadelic live
footage circa 76/77 and show excerpts from "Comin' Round The Mountain" and
of course show the Mothership landing on stage.
- Video Soul:
- TK: a) George made his first appearance in 1986. He expressed his
admiration for Prince, which led to Prince signing George to a recording deal.
MT: George appeared in 89 to promote the release of "Cinderella Theory" I remember this very well - cause it was the first time I was ever exposed to P-Funk. Donnie Simpson interviewed George extensively and they played the videos for "Atomic Dog", "Why Should I Dog U Out" and probably others.
MW: c) Host Donnie Simpson does an unscheduled interview with George. George cracks everyone up, as always, and answers the ever important question, "Is that your hair?" (". . . I paid for it!") I don't know the exact date, but it was done shortly before the Dope Dogs EP was released because he was forward promoting it.
d) Donnie Simpson and Sherri Carter do this interview. George promotes his then new single, "Paint the White House Black," and explains the Funkadelic vs. Westbound/Armen Boladian dilemma in getting paid for the things that they did for the label. Sherri informs us that George licked her hand in the dressing room! This interview's air date was the day that the Dope Dogs EP was released in the US. (1992?) I heard George say on one of the Video Soul interviews that P-Funk played at Clinton's inauguration. Does anyone know about this?
e) Live from Indianapolis. George co-hosts this live music showcase with Donnie Simpson. It's worth seeing because at every break, George has something sharp and great to say, as usual, and gets the crowd going more than once by leading them in funk chants and singin' the tunes (i.e. "Flashlight", "Give Up the Funk"). Donnie does a hell of Stingray-ed bass voice when they sing and dance to "Give Up the Funk."
f) June 1996. George, Bootsy, Bernie and Lucky Peterson all guest-star. George does an interview with Donnie & Sherri, talking up _TAPOAFOM_ and the Reconnection tour. Bootsy, Bernie and Lucky all perform, playing two cuts from his album that Bootsy worked on. They also showed several P-related videos, including the rarely seen "Martial Law" and Bootsy's "If 6 Was 9".
- Video LP (not Video Soul) hosted by Sherri Carter, 1989
- MW: A behind the scenes look at George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars.
This 30 min. show featured a P-Funk profile at their live show in Detroit
at the St. Andrews club. It was filmed around the time that
The Cinderella Theory
was released. Lots of interviews with funkateers,
George, and All-Stars Lige Curry, Fred Wesley, Gary Shider, Cordell Mosson,
Michael Hampton, and then vocalists Anita Johnson & Crystal Gaynor.
There's also footage of the show, including Afrika Bambaataa leading the
opening chant of "make my funk the P-Funk."
A few highlights:
-A fan shows his collection of rare photographs of George & P-Funk.
-Michael Hampton tells about his first gig with P-Funk (17 years old) & how he joined P-Funk.
-Lige Curry reminisces about joining P-Funk and the days when they used to wear make-up on stage.
And finally, at the end of Video LP, there was an address given for the George Clinton fan club. It probably no longer exists. I remember sending a S.A.S.E. back in '89 & I never got a response. Nevertheless, here's the address:
George Clinton Fan Club 810 Seventh Ave. New York, New York 10019
MT: The 1989 (or was it 90?) Video LP episode mentioned with backstage and on-stage appearances of George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars was the second part of a two part series (both are 30 minute episodes). The first part (shown the day before) featured most of Georges videos (up to "Why Should I Dog U Out") - and some interviews with George too. Sherri Carter proves that she is lacking in the funk department (but not as badly as Michael "I like the guy with diapers" Wolf of the Arsenio Hall show).
- Club Connect:
- MW: This Detroit-based kids show did a short, but nice in-studio
interview with George, "the man who put the 'unk' in Funk." George gives
a definition of the funk and tells if you can teach anyone to be funky.
He also gives nice advice to the kiddies about being unique. This show
aired on PBS stations throughout the country in '92.
- Grammies Award Show:
- RC: George appeared on the Grammies, with Gerardo's cover of "Give Up
The Funk". He and the All-Stars also appeared with the Red Hot Chili
Peppers on the Grammies a couple of years ago, and tore the roof
off the sucker. MW: Gary Shandling hosted. They did a medley of the
Peppers' "Give It Away" and Funkadelic's "One Nation Under A Groove."
- MTV Music Video Awards (either Sept. '93 or '94):
- MW: George presents the award for Best R&B video along with his dog
pound-puppy pals Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dog. Dre tells George thanks for
letting him sample P-Funk. George looks out for the Mob by informing
everyone that its better to contact *him*, not the record companies, in
order to sample so that everyone in the group can get credit and get paid.
(BTW, EnVogue won the award.)
- MTV's "Week in Rock":
- MW: Kurt Loder does a profile on the P-Funk All Stars in regard to
the "growing resurgence of P-Funk." There are short interviews with
George and Gary Shider, footage from a live show at the Palladium in New
York City, and footage of Dr. Funk descending from the Mothership in the
late 70's. George promotes "Hey Man ... Smell My Finger" and talks about
the Mothership Connection movie (that has not happened yet). This
profile probably aired in '93.
- 120 Minutes:
- RC: A few months ago, George appeared with Primal Scream on 120 Minutes, but
did not perform. In late July of 1994 there was some kind of live
performance on 120 Minutes on MTV by Primal Scream, and George sang backup
vocals on "Rocks".
- X-Ray Vision (MTV Europe), May 19, 1996
- NB: George Clinton appeared with Belita Woods and another bloke (youngish),
but I don't know his name. He wasn't on for long. Played the 'Wheel of
Misfortune' and then talked a little bit about the new album and also
about drugs. He said he would be touring Europe in about two months.
- Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- MW: I never saw it, but according to the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 24,
1993), George was scheduled to appear in NBC's "Fresh Prince of Bel Air"
as a medium at a seance.
- New York Undercover:
- RC: On Thursday, November 30, 1995, George and the P.Funk All-Stars
appeared on "New York Undercover", a FOX drama. They appeared in the club
segment at the very end of the show, lipsynching the studio version
of "(not just) Knee Deep". They also appeared over the closing credits.
MW: Practically every one of the Mob members including George were lipsynching to the original studio version of "(Not Just) Knee Deep." It was funny to see folks like Amp Fiddler (keyboards) and Belita Woods (vocals) singing and playing on a song that they weren't even there for when it was first recorded. I was expecting a live performance of some sort, the way Teena Marie's performance on the show was handled, and I take issue with the show's producers for this. But I was glad that the camera people gave camera time to virtually every member that was able to be seen besides just George. And I'm glad that the group was invited to do the show and give exposure for the "P"--any exposure, lipsyncing or not, is a victory for funkateers. So thanks, NY Undercover. ( I hear some of its head writers are funkateers for real.)
The "performance" came at the very end of the show and lasted through the credits--they were given good length of camera time, so it lasted a good while. It was also fun to see the show's star Malik Yoba sporting a Parliament T-shirt at one part in the show. The crowd in the fictional club they played was a trendy, bourgie crowd--the kind of crowd most funkateers would not be caught dead with at a P show. But the Mob looked like they were havin' fun, at least when they found a space on the cramped stage to move.
Here's who I spotted:
George (Clinton, that is),
Garry *and* Linda Shider
Sheila Horne
George's granddaughter and the new Underground Angel Shonda Clinton
The P-Funk horns: Greg Boyer, Greg Thomas, Bennie Cowan with horns in hand
Amp Fiddler
Lige Curry
Billy Bass (at one point, he sat on the stage)
Paul Hill, one of the new singers
Belita Woods
Louie "Babblin'" Kabbabie
Andre Foxxe (complete in nun-wear)
P-Nut Johnson
Tracy Lewis, better know as TreyLewd
Grady Thomas
"Sir Nose" Carlos McMurray
and a few singers that I had no clue of. . .Note: Mike Hampton and Frankie "Kash" Waddy were at the taping, but I couldn't see them *at all*.
I didn't see any mention of George and the P-Funk All Stars anywhere in the credits either, but the event was prime time funkentelechy on a whole.
TK: Since P.Funk was performing at Tramps the same day as the taping of their appearance, there was no way that they could have performed live seeing as though their equipment was already at the venue.
Bootsy:
- Arsenio Hall:
- RC: Bootsy appeared on Arsenio Hall in late 93 in the Color Me Badd band,
probably doing "In The Sunshine."
- Pump It Up:
- RC/MW: He also appeared on a now-cancelled late night Saturday night
hip-hop show called "Pump It Up", best known for having its host Dee Barnes
slapped by Dr. Dre. He didn't play, but he was interviewed, predicting
a P.Funk resurgence and being asked about playing in the days of Sly and
Jimi. The episode of Pump it Up, with Deee-lite & Bootsy was filmed at the zoo.
- Night Music:
- MW: Additionally, he performed on that eclectic David Sanborn show,
"Night Music." He had Pretty Fatt as his backup vocalists. Bootsy appeared
on July 29, 1994 on Yo! MTV Raps! He was hawking
Blasters of the Universe
and talking about the old days with the guys on the show, who then said that
they wanted to form a band called the Sons of Bootsy.
- Video Soul:
- TK: Bootsy made an appearance with the rap group Ground Zero discussing
their encounter with an imposter of Bootsy. This imposter made an
appearance on Arsenio Hall with Gerardo.
MT: Bootsy appeared in late '88 to promote "What's Bootsy Doin". Donnie Simpson hosts a hillarious interview with Bootsy - in which Bootsy talks about how he joined the James Brown band, his days with P-Funk, etc. Bootsy brings a pair of his special stereo sunglasses with a fake micro-cassette player in the middle. He claims that they are going to manufacture these with working cassette decks! He also presents Donnie with a plaque for being funky.
MW: On yet another Video Soul appearance, host Sherri Carter has a good old time in a sunglass store with Bootsy who is, in her words, "the Sunglass Master." She even sports his star glasses, but not for long. "When I leave," Bootsy says, "they might have to come back with me!" Sherri and Bootsy discuss the resurgence of popularity in P-Funk, rap music sampling, "the one," and the great possibility of the Hudlin Brothers' Mothership Connection movie. This short interview aired on the show around the time Bootsy's Jungle Bass was released.
- James Brwn's Living In America live TV concert
- MW: Bootsy and Catfish come out at the end of James Brown's Living In
America live TV concert that came out on Pay Per View after he got out of
jail. They join James during "Living In America," the show's last song
and play their asses off. Notice Rick James trying to steal the spotlight
from Bootsy!
- Late Night With David Letterman:
- MW: Also, Maceo and Bootsy were on Letterman (while James Brown was still
in jail) doing Maceo's "Let Him Out." It was one of those "Free James Brown"
songs (RC: "Let Him Out").
Others:
Bootsy, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Pee-Wee Ellis, Mudbone Cooper, Bernie Worrell, Michael Hampton and other Rubber Band alumni appeared with Deee-Lite on Saturday Night Live and live on MTV from the Rock in Rio II concert, both around 1990-91.Bernie Worrell appeared on Letterman in 88 to promote Funk of Ages, and played "Funk-A-Hall-Licks". George Clinton sang backup. TK: The line-up backing Bernie Worrell was George, Mudbone Cooper, Mike Hampton, and Sheila Horne (now Brody). Of course, Bernie Worrell was in Paul Shafer's band on the new Letterman show for a brief time, August-October of 1993. His departure was a mutual decision, as the network decided they wanted a horn section, and Bernie wanted the freedom to tour, do session work, etc.
Maceo, Fred & Pee Wee did the Tonight Show in 1991 while Johnny Carson was still the host. Johnny referred to him as 'Maceo Brown' but later corrected himself.
The "Funkadelic" mutiny group that consisted of Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon appeared on Soul Train to promote Connections And Disconnections.
- South Bank Show:
- KB: [there was an] A&E special they had on "The History of Funk" or
something like that. Anyway, they traced funk from its beginning stages up
through Prince and had interviews with Bootsy (sittin' in a guitar store
going at it!!) and Fred and Maceo (cutting a track for *some* album). It
was pretty good--I can't remember the exact name! It was about 50 min. long,
no commercials. A British guy was host.
MW: That show was aired during Black History Month on the Bravo channel and the British guy who hosted was a comedian named Lenny Henry. The show is called "The South Bank Show" while the episode's official title was "Lenny Henry Hunts the Funk."
- Funk Documentary:
- MN: I watched and recorded a 30-45 minuted special presentation about FUNK
which was aired in March 1995 on the ARTE channel here in Switzerland. I
found it a very interesting show, overall. It contained some rather recent
interviews with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, in addition to a number of
shorter interviews with J.B. and a guy from WAR whose name is escaping me
right now. In addition there was a whole lot of video material from various
sources including live Parliament footage from 1977 and 1978. These scenes
included some classic G.C. outfits, lots of the mothership, and also other
various Parliament members: Garry Shider, Glenn Goins, Grady Thomas,
Bernie Worrell, etc., etc. There was a particularly interesting scene
featuring a mocked-up Cadillac, which piece by piece was stripped by various
band members during the song....don't remember this part of the "opera" ever
being mentioned here.
George talked about the development of the Funk concept, his influences, and a bit about his connection with the rap world and the current Funk resurgence. Bootsy (and Frank Waddy and Mudbone) talked about similar things, with Bootsy and Frankie talking some about their tour with J.B. in the early 70's. There was also quite a lot of concert footage from a 1995 Bootsy show in France (for all of you who have recently seen Bootsy, this is a nice memento as most of the shows are very similar, "Touch!!!").
Other interviews were done with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (who as usual gave alot of credit to P-Funk) and with various rappers including Warren G and Snoop (who as usual gave very little credit where credit is due). There is some concert footage of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as well. TK: There was a documentary in 1990 made in France about P.Funk. It featured concert footage and interviews with George, Bootsy & Maceo. A similar thang was done in Holland around the same time.
There is a Japanese TV show called "Nude" which devoted 90 minutes to tracking down the P.Funk history for beginners.
- PBS Documentary: _Rock & Roll: Episode 8: Make It Funky_
- RC: An excellent look at funk, important in many ways. With only ten
different eras in rock to look at, I was surprised and pleased to see
funk get its own entry. Funk is finally getting the kind of critical
praise and attention that it has so richly deserved for so long. The
documentary focuses on James Brown, Sly Stone, and P.Funk, with mentions
of Marvin Gaye, Kool & The Gang, and Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia sound.
There are interviews with Funk Mob members like Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker,
Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and George Clinton. Deeper still, there
is lots of live footage from late 70's shows, including bits from Bootsy
in 76 and P.Funk in 78. Most mind-blowing was a bit from a TV show in
the early 70's, featuring the original Funkadelic lineup lip-synching
"I've Got A Thing"! There's also some priceless footage of Bootsy being
egged on by James Brown to do a solo. Couple this with some thoughtful
observations from Alan Leeds and Nelson George, and you got the Bomb.
My only quibble: too much time spent on disco.
The makers of this portion of the documentary are also planning a P.Funk documentary.
Miscellaneous TV Thangs:
- Cosmic Slop:
- RC: From a press release: "Cosmic Slop," a 3-part anthology series hosted
by funk musician George Clinton and described as a "multi-cultural
'Twilight Zone'" premieres Nov. 8, 1994 on cable's HBO. Produced by Reginald
and Warrington Hudlin, whose feature films include "Boomerang" and "House
Party." The show combines science fiction fantasy with social themes.
The three episodes are "Space Traders", "Tang," and "The 1st Commandment".
The shows are all written by different screenwriters and feature different
actors. The shows are now available from HBO home video. George comes on
as a sort of animated flying head, giving a little commentary on what's
about to happen.
- Tracy Ullman Show:
- MW: And here's somethin' else I remembered too during a conversation about
funny shows. George did the theme song to the Tracy Ullmann show (mid
80s, Fox). Someone told me that Tracy even brought him out for a chat
on one episode. The song was really catchy, too.
RC: The show is currently being re-run on Comedy Central.
- The Cosby Show:
- MW: Speaking of TV, I just remembered an episode of the Cosby show that you
might be interested in hearing about. I forget the plot line, but on one
of those early episodes (you know, when Rudy was still young and cute),
Vanessa and her male friend are studying at the kitchen table and, at the
same time, listening to "Cosmic Slop," bobbing their heads up and down to
the music. Of course, Dr. Huxtable comes in and makes fun of both of 'em.
- Homicide:
- RC: Finally, this is not strictly an appearance, but P.Funk was prominently
mentioned in an episode of the TV show Homicide in 1993. The episode
was entitled "Bop Gun", and a character named Kid Funkadelic talked about
capping some guy who had left his Eddie Hazel album in the trunk of his
car on a hot day where it melted. The cop that was talking to him said,
"Hmm, those are real collector's items!" David Mills, former writer
and publisher of _Uncut Funk_, wrote this episode.
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Trivia
- Was that really George Clinton in a Burger King commercial a
few years ago? What are some other ads that feature the Mob?
Yes. GC was deeply in debt at the time. He compared it to the mother
in "Cosmic Slop"--if she had to sell her body for her children, GC said,
"then I can eat a fucking hamburger!" George appeared in print ads five
years ago for a sunglasses company whose name escapes me at the moment.
Most recently, George can be seen in an interesting Macintosh commercial.MW: George did do a radio spot for Budweiser beer a few years ago. It was a funky little tune--the chorus was like "Pump up the Bud, pump up the Budwei-ser!" And all I remember was that the first words of the jingle were "I was jammin' on the dance floor late last night . . ." and the very last ones were " . . .that's music to me!" Oh, it was a funny one; I'd dance every time it came on.
RC: Watching the 1995 NBA playoffs, a beer commericial came on. It seemed to be one of those ads where there was an old, rundown bar in the middle of nowhere, and where some guy would eventually come in, pop open a bottle of beer, and cause a snowstorm or something. So I continue to watch it, only it's not a bar, it's a used record store, and an attractive woman is thumbing through some 45's. A guy whose face you never see walks into the store, goes to the 45's, pulls one out quickly, and puts it on. Next thing I know, BOOTSY appears on stage singing "Bootzilla"! I nearly fell off the couch. It was a different arrangement of the song, possibly from the recent import live CD. The product was Miller, BTW.
During the 1996 NBA All-Star Game, a new Nike ad premiered. It begins with Seattle Mariners baseball star Ken Griffey, Jr in front of a waving American flag, with the announcer saying that he's a presidential candidate. Suddenly, it switches over to GEORGE CLINTON, with his name on the screen, and the tag "Campaign Manager" under it. George says a lot of things on why Griffey would be such a great candidate, including the fact that Griffey chose the Mariner Moose as his running mate proof that he cared about animal rights! He concludes by saying, "My name may be Clinton, but I know what I'm talking about." There have been other Griffey For Pres ads with George in them, including one where George defends pepper games, saying "Pepper to the people!".
TV commercials for Obsession (I think) have been using an instrumental version of Bootsy's cover of "If 6 Was 9".
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- Is it true that George Clinton appears on the home version of
NBA JAM!?
You know that GC got skillz. At the initial screen, type in DI.
Then bring the cursor over S but don't push any buttons yet. Press
the start key and the "c" button, and the character "P-Funk" will come
on the screen. It's GC, circa
Cinderella Theory
or so. He's an
awesome shotblocker and dunker, but not a great shooter. The ultimate
is to match him up against Bill Clinton, who's also in the game,
winner gets control of the free world!
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- What are some of the P.Funk birthdays?
MW:
- January:
- 2-Dawn Silva (1954)
5-Grady Thomas (1941)
28-Billy 'Bass' Nelson (1951) - February:
- 7-Lige Curry (1953)
14-Maceo Parker (1943) - March:
- 15-Sly Stone (1944)
29-'Sting' Ray Davis (1942) - April:
- 10-Eddie Hazel (1950) (d 1992)
17-Dewayne 'Blackbyrd' McKnight (1954)
19-Bernie Worrell (1944) - May:
- 3-James Brown (1928)
16-Joseph 'Amp' Fiddler (1958)
22-Calvin Simon (1942)
23-Tiki Fulwood (1944) (d) - June:
- 8-Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins (1941)
- July:
- 22-George Clinton (1941)
24-Gary Shider (1953) - August:
- none
- September:
- 26-Michael "Clip" Payne (1956)
- October:
- 5-Lucius "Tawl" Ross (1948)
16-Cordell "Boogie" Mosson (1952)
26-William "Bootsy" Collins (1951) - November:
- 8-Jeanette McGruder (1954)
15-Michael Hampton (1956)
24-Gary "Mudbone" Cooper (1953) - December:
- 10-Jessica Cleaves (1948)
18-Star Cullars (1964)
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- What members of the P.Funk mob are related?
MW: It's a family affair: Lige Curry & Michael Hampton are cousins.
Michael helped Lige get his gig with the group.TK: Lynn Mabry is Sly Stone's cousin. P.Funk's 1976 tours with Sly brought Lynn & Dawn Silva to GC's attention and later Sly himself.
RC: George Clinton is Tracey "TreyLewd" Lewis' father. He's also Andre "Foxxe" Williams' godfather.
William "Bootsy" Collins and Phelps "Catfish" Collins are brothers. Garry and Linda Shider are married.
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- Whatever happened to the original Mothership prop?
MA: I was listening to 95.5 WPGC (a local radio station in the metro DC
area) in the morming when Donnie Simpson was doing an interview with a
guy (whose name escapes me now) who was part of or owned the concert
promotion company Tigerflower & Company. Supposedly, this guy is known
as the one who threw away the Mothership. It seems when P.Funk went
through legal and financial hard time, this guy was left with all of
Parliafunkadelicment's equipment, including the Mothership. All of this
stuff ended up in this guy's mother's basement or garage. After some time,
mom told him he had to get this junk outta here. So the equipment (amps,
keyboards, speakers, etc) was sold to area musicians, in particular,
the local go-go groups. Supposedly, this guy threw the the Mothership out
in a wooded area in Suitland, Maryland. I guess it could have ended up
in a junk heap from there.
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Other Sources of Funk and Information About P-Funk
- What other funky groups should I listen to?
In addition to the P.Funk Mob and all its offshoots and related
components, make sure to check out a lot of people in the Pre Funk section.
That would include the Ohio Players, Sly and The Family Stone, The Spinners,
Junie, and the JB's. Make sure to indulge heavily in the Godfather, James
Brown. Other groups that you might like include the O'Jays, Stevie Wonder,
Earth Wind and Fire, Chaka Khan & Rufus, Jimmy Castor Bunch, the Meters, War,
the Isley Brothers, Average White Band, Kool and the Gang, Swamp Dogg,
Charles Wright, the Impressions, Curtis Mayfield, Buddy Miles, Graham Central
Station, Tower Of Power, Dazz Band, Slave, Gap Band, Trouble Funk, Chuck
Brown & Soul Searchers, Maze, the Commodores, Chocolate Milk, Mandrill,
Cameo, Brass Construction, Afrika Bambaataa, Rick James, Prince and Isaac
Hayes. This is just for starters, people, and is off the top of my head.
For a listing of other net resources, check out Matt Nowinski's
Funk page.
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- Are there other P.Funk related web pages?
RC: Since the Motherpage was founded three years ago, there have been other
worthy pages with pictures and information started. Check out our new
funky links page for information on webpages
that cover the Funk in general and the P in particular.
- Are there any fan clubs or newsletters that I can subscribe to?
The written word of the the Funk gospel can be found in the form of three
different newsletters: New Funk Times, Vital Juices, and P-Views.The address to contact New Funk Times: 100021.1314@compuserve.com. The man in charge is frequent rec.music.funky poster Peter Jebsen. N.F.T. is currently on hiatus, but Peter told me that he plans to bring it back up soon. Peter does have archives of past articles on his web page, as well as many other interesting P-related thangs.
The address to contact Vital Juices:
Vital Juices 1116 Berkeley Street Durham, NC 27705 USA (919) 286-0329It comes out about four times a year, and is FREE.
RC: There is a nice newsletter published out of Germany called "P-Views". They're up to 11 issues now, and it includes concert reviews, interviews, photos, vintage reprints, cartoons and other information. It's published by Alexander "Funkateer Genius" Spicker. A one-year subscription (4 issues plus 2 updates of his 90's P-discography) costs DM 30, single issues DM 6. Payment can be done by cash in a registered letter, eurocheque or international money order, payable to Alexander Spicker. The address:
Alexander Spicker
Brehmstr. 39/41
D-40239 Dusseldorf
Germany
Tel/Fax: +49 211 6412165
JB: There is a fan club called P-Funk Posse.
P-Funk Posse 6201 West Sunset Blvd P.O. Box 133 Hollywood, CA 90028I sent them $10 and I've been fairly disappointed with the results. They have sent me 1 post card (which arrived postage due) asking if I had received my "Posse Pac". I sent them back a letter saying that I had not. I haven't heard from them since. I'd avoid them.
TK: Tim Kinley
c/o GROOVE MANEUVERS
111 Monmouth Road
Oakhurst, NJ 07755-1514
USA
(908) 531-0293
RC: There is now a new Bootsy fan club! I wrote away and got all of
the assorted cards and such, and also got a GREAT T-shirt and a
cool autographed picture & letter. If you want Bootsy, here it
all is. This is from the liner notes from
Blasters of the Universe:
"Rubber Fans, P.Funk Fans and Funkateers...You can't get in
without your Funk Card baba! So do it with a quickness:
Order your Funk expression card now!! Order your official
Blasters of The Universe Card!
Order your Pinocchio Theory card and send to your friends who
continue to fake the funk! These cards will be $5.00 each, plus
$1.50 mailing.
Other items--T-Shirts, Caps, Glasses--soon.
So remember, "Never leave home without your funk card"
Just send you order to: Bootzilla Productions Attn: "Sweet Lips" Patti PO Box 44298 Cincinnati, Oh 45244 Fax: (513) 528-7227"MW: At the end of Video LP, there was an address given for the George Clinton fan club. It probably no longer exists. I remember sending a S.A.S.E. back in '89 & I never got a response. Nevertheless, here's the address:
George Clinton Fan Club 810 Seventh Ave. New York, New York 10019
RC: Oh, and if you feel the need to contact Maceo Parker or Fred Wesley, contact them through Minor Music, in Germany. The man is charge is Stefan Meiner.
RC: There was a newsletter called "Uncut Funk":
DF: I remember "Uncut Funk" and it was great! Unfortunately, David Mills never got around to putting out more than three issues.
David was a reporter for the Washington Post. (Among his best-known interviews was Sister Souljah, which was cited by Bill Clinton when he sucker-punched Jesse Jackson at the 1992 Rainbow Coalition meeting. Needless to say, Clinton hadn't read David's interview; his aides had pulled a line out of context.) David was also a funkateer from way back.
David is now in Hollywood writing for "NYPD Blue." A few years ago, he wrote a series of episodes for "Homicide" that starred Robin Williams and featured a character nicknamed "Kidd Funkadelic."
RC: David may be planning to bring back Uncut Funk in an online form soon. Uncut Funk was truly magnificent, with articles on P.Funk, other funk artists, hip-hop and related issues. They delved into obscure funk records as well as new releases. If the new version is half as good as the old one, we're in for some major goodies.
Mr. Mills continues to work P.Funk references into his shows. On a 1995-96 season episode of "NYPD Blue", three characters were talking on a corner, arguing about bass players. Bootsy's name was mentioned rather prominently.
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- What about if I want to write to George himself?
Write to him in care of:
Gregory Paul Productions 14611 East 9 Mile Road Eastpointe, MI 48021 (313) 779-1380 FAX: (313) 772-4320Be prepared to get a letter saying "George is too busy to answer personal letters, but here's our catalogue."
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- Are there any catalogs available for P. Funk material?
Write to Gregory Paul Prod. at the above address. They'll send you
a catalog. They put out the Family Series stuff as well as the Horny
Horns reissues and other material. More interestingly, they promise
to feature P. Funk clothing and imports in the next catalog.Gangsta Merchandise Co. features a wide variety of P.Funk clothing items, including T-Shirts, caps, shades, beanies and even a One Nation Under A Groove flag. Their order form can be found in the Priority rereleases of the Warner Funkadelic albums. The address:
Gangsta Merchandise Company 5959 Triumph St. Los Angeles, CA 90040-1688MA: There is a company that I've ordered T-Shirts from in the past, and in their new summer 1996 catalog they have three different Funkadelic T-shirts. They are:
Maggot Brain: with head and logo on purple shirt (large & XL) $14. LT-307
Funkadelic logo on black shirt (XL only) $14. LT-308
"Free Your Mind" + group on front/"And Your Ass Will Follow" on back (XL only) $16. ES-799
The company is called Burning Airlines and is out of Trenton, New Jersey. So I thought if anyone was interested you could call and order. Their number is (609)587-7887, fax (609)584-1666. RC: Approximate shipping time is 3-5 weeks.
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- Is there a P.Funk 1-900 telephone number?
RC: Yup, it's 1-900-933-3865 (1-900-WEE-FUNK). So far, it's failed to
live up to its promises of tour updates and t-shirt offers, but one can
only hope. It costs $1.98 per minute.
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- Are there any books about the Funk?
RC: While a number of books have essays on or make brief mention of
funk and P.Funk in particular, there have been no books that focused
exclusively on this topic...until now. The book _Funk: The Music,
The People and the Rhythm of the One_, by noted Funkateer Rickey Vincent,
was released in early 1996. It's an excellent look at the funk movement
in general, putting it in its proper socio-cultural-political context.
I highly recommend it. To order, call St. Martin's Press at 1-800-288-2131.
Also, check out
Mr. Vincent's web site.
For a look at other books and printed media that talk about P.Funk,
check out the P.Funk bibliography.On October 18th, 1996, there will be another book on P.Funk out, this time by someone who was close to the band. Diem Jones, former art director and photographer for P.Funk, is releasing a book of P.Funk-related photographs, with commentary by yours truly (Rob Clough). The book will focus on the Motor-Booty Affair tour of 1979, with many on-stage and behind the scenes photos. The book is titled #1 Bimini Road, and it will also include photos from previous tours and other events. To find out more, send email to Diem Jones at SufiWarrior@global.california.com or call/send a fax to (510) 433-0959.
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