George Clinton and P Funk paradoxy

[splanky]

I wanted to say a few things about the groups history and still respect
Bernie's passing. Like a lot of groups, Parliament and Funkadelic started out
as coming together of people who had been, more or less, friends and
associates. And, like a lot of groups, eventually one person was given or
took over the responsibility of becoming the leader. In P Funk, that was
George. No, he wasn't a talented musician, and even in his best days, the
most powerful vocalist but George created the direction for the groups
that got them the attention they deserved. Early on there was still a lot
of closeness as they worked to slay their competition. Everybody and their
momma back then walked in the shadows of Sly Stone and James Brown
and heard the ghost of Jimi Hendrix. George would later yell Ain't Nothing
But A Party, but earlier he tried to inject a lot of positive ideas and conscious
messages into the music. He was a reader and some of the lyrics in tunes
were actually from books such as As A Man Thinketh for Good Thoughts
Bad Thoughts [[from James Allen) and The Art Of Thinking for Presence
Of A Brain [[from Ernest Dimnet). He was also critical of drug dependency
particularly Heroin use. Why do you think they call it Dope, Dope? he said
in Loose Booty. George, when almost nobody else was doing it spoke out
on politcal issues, social issues, women's plights and

[splanky]

I had written a longer post but it vanished. Maybe I'll try again later...

[splanky]

Part 2, I guess...

other issues we're still dealing with today. George would address our selfishness, calling
Funkadelic The Pro-mentalShitBackWashPsychosisEnemaSquad and telling us to:Think,It Ain't
Illegal Yet on Funkadelic's One Nation Under a Groove which was in effect their own "Black Album". But thing's changed. Gradually chaos consumed the band[[s) and hard drug use
took over many of the members, George included. Then again, that was something brewing
from earlier days, I know. I remember Tawl Ross, an earlier guitarist tripping out and being left in Canada...I'm reminded of Bootsy's comment that acid brought George and himself
together and Cocaine ripped them apart though Bootsy readily admits he was no choirboy
either. I remember Bob Davis of Soul-Patrol blasting GC for his drug advocacy and later
backing off the idea of a boycott. And then there are the casualties. No, George can't be
blamed for these passings but a wealth of talent was lost from the ranks. Some post
membership and some while still associated. My first shock was Glen Goins who had just
began a post- P career which showed real promise. Later Ray Davis. Eddie friggin' Hazel,
their own answer to Jimi Hendrix. Garry Shider and my personal beloved Jessica Cleaves.
Now of course Bernie...I just feel that P-Funk is like EWF a once in a lifetime phenomena
that I'm glad to have enjoyed. I know George spoke openly about his lonnnnngggggg
crack addictition in his memoirs but I a real accurate history of this collective would be
best told by an more objective party and I'd love to see that in my lifetime...Just some
thoughts....

[Jerry Oz]

I remember hearing "Give Up The Funk [[Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)" and "Chocolate City" almost in the background of my youth. They were nice records, but no more noteworthy than most other songs in the soundtrack of my early life. It was only when I went to high school that I met kids who were devoted to P-Funk. "Flash Light" broke in the tenth grade and it changed the game in a great many ways. It's one of the songs that I should have grown tired of from hearing it too much and in too many places, but 38 years later it's still the jam.

I started buying albums in the 11th grade after I got my driver's license. One of the first records I bought was "Gloryhallastoopid", not considered a great album by Parliament, but to this day it's one of my favorites. I remember when the local radio and teenager spots ignored [[for the most part) the single "Theme From the Black Hole" and were cranking the instrumental jam "The Big Bang Theory". To this day, I wonder why it's not held in higher regard by P-Funk and soul music fans.

Later that year, "One Nation Under a Groove" busted out. It was our unofficial school anthem until I graduated in 1980. Some kid would bring a boom box onto the school bus and crank it up when the song came on and you'd have 40 kids singing every lyric in key, right down to the "do-do-deo-do-do-deo-do-do-deo-dooo" bridge. By then, I was hooked on all things P-Funk. Early my senior year, we had an assembly and somebody was playing "[[Not Just) Knee Deep)" over the stage speakers in the auditorium. "That's the new Funkadelic cut", I was told. I'll never forget hearing it because some White chick who hung with the Black girls already had Phillipe Wynn's scat committed to memory and I was hearing the song for the first time. I was off my game, I guess. Anyway, I remember playing "Holly Wants To Go To California" for my brother who thought I was a fool to have played it twice, let alone recommend someone else hear it.

To put it all into summation, I became a huge fan of George Clinton and P-Funk. I remember reading liner notes [[remember those?) and seeing literally dozens of performers on their records. I remember seeing the same names on both groups and wondered what the deal was, but that wasn't really important as the music was. When George went "solo", I was just as hooked. "Loopzilla" and "Nubian Nut" were among the dumbest songs I recall him recording, but I still like them. I played "Atomic Dog" from the cassette deck of my 1972 AMC Hornet for my cousins, Tony and Lloyd, and we were driving along singing it before it was even released. My favorite solo record to this day is "Cool Joe", though.

George Clinton is one of my heroes. I'm pissed off that he was too high to realize that music industry vultures were ripping him off and also that he never got fair shakes in his litigation against them. It makes no sense that someone of his regard still has to perform when he should be coasting off of royalties. To put it in a nutshell, I consider Parliament/Funkadelic to be unique fixtures in the soundtrack of my life. To this day, if I'm playing music at a four hour party, I know that each hour will have either "One Nations", "Atomic Dog", "Flash Light", or "Knee Deep". People in my circle and generation hold those songs in high regard and no old head will refuse to rush the dance floor when they come on.

The collective came a long way from when my Pops brought home a copy of "Free Your Mind [[And Your Ass Will Follow", mainly because the fold out was interesting. [[I'd play it when I became a teenager but I couldn't understand what it was; it was definitely not top 40 or mainstream soul.)

I learned more about the back stories of some of its members over the years and like any band with lasting status, a lot of those stories were tragic. Bernie Worrell contributed a lot to them but he was obviously much more than just a part of that assemblage. He added to a remarkable collection of talent and his influence will be felt [[and missed) for years. My prayers are with his family and loved ones at this horrible time. My gratitude is with him for being a huge creative influence of some of the greatest music in my life. That cat is already missed but if we want to remember him, there's a lot to listen to. Thank God.

[robb_k]

I bought "Poor Willie" by The Parliaments in 1959 [[probably before you were born).

[Jerry Oz]

LOL. Just a few years before. Back then, they looked like this:


But by the time I discovered them in the '70s, they looked like this:


That, right there, is proof of evolution.

[robb_k]

No way they had those funny haircuts in 1959! that photo was from 1966. In 1959, they didn't have such high pompadours, that went all the way back to the back of their heads.

[kenneth]

I was in high school and played hooky one day to cross the border from Detroit to Windsor and appear on the show "Swingin' Time" hosted by Robin Seymour. The girl who invited me lied and told Seymour that it was my birthday, so as to push me up on stage [[a tiny platform) where even then I towered over the host who couldn't have been more than 5'7" at the most. He groaned when I admitted it really wasn't my birthday. Appearing on the show that day were The Parliaments. During one part of the show I was sitting on a bench to the side and some members of the band were sitting there also. I told one of them "My favorite record by you guys is 'All Your Goodies Are Gone,'" to which he replied "We thought no one ever heard that record but us."

Needless to say, I will never forget it!

Later I became a dyed in the wool Parliament-Funkadelic hard core fan and bought everything they produced. Even when these albums were new they were sometimes hard to find.

After visiting Europe, where I had family in France, my cousins said how much they loved funk. After coming back to the US, I found 12 or 15 P-funk related albums [[Funkadelic, Parliament, the Brides, Parlet, Sweat Band, etc.) around town in various cut-out bins and sent them a huge package of LPs. To which, one of my cousins replied thank you, but "So many? You are crazy!"

[kenneth]

One other quick comment. Anyone who wants to understand more about Clinton and his music should definitely read his autobiography. It's short on personal data and doesn't include a lot about other members of his musical entourage [[with the exception of Sly Stone), but he talks a lot about his musical philosophy and it's really fascinating.