George Clinton and the Seeds of Funk

 George Clinton and the Seeds of Funk

 

Funk would not have gotten off the ground without George Clinton. Clinton once said he got to Motown too late in 1966 and other things were happening in Rock-Roll.  Civil rights and the Black Arts movements were empowering times in the 60s and 70s for African Americans. His band the Parliament picked up inspiration from the spaciness and diversity of Star Trek, the performative skills of Sun Ra and helped Afrofuturism become known.  Through titles like Chocolate City or Blacks in the White House in the early 1970s

Clinton was in the spirit of the times creating awareness for long overdue possibilities of equality and opportunity. 

In my view one of his most impressive achievements was how he created a Funk Opera: The Mothership Connection with his band Parliament. It can be compared to David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust tour. It too must have been a source of Inspiration as this was a few years earlier. Both tours place lots of importance on fashion and the metamorphic quality of their leads.  Ziggy Stardust, an alter-ego of Bowie theatrically changing dancing going nonstop on stage. In the Mothership Connection 1974 we have George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and all the musicians in prehistoric garb, loincloths and fox tales for example. As the Mothership lands on earth--or is it on another planet, because man has destroyed earth and equality--- George Clinton steps very sexy down from the Mothership in a grand long white, spotted in black, fur coat. Keeping the opera going the whole time is Bootsy Collins with his blend of ironic words “swing down sweet chariot”, drawing from gospel songs and the journey into the afterlife. The influence of the family style band set up like Sun Ra mixed with James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone, Clinton’s Funk opera landed their performative presence into the concert scene of American youth.

 

From Rhythm and Blues, to Funk, to Rock, to Hip Hop just to name a few genre, George Clinton took his producer talents to many stages influencing Eminem and Prince for example. He sped things up when he made Funk out of the Blues. When you see him live, which I did in 1984 with Bootsy Collins on stage at the Joy Theater in New Orleans, his energy belongs to the moment and the interaction. (Atomic Dog, Clintons biggest hit, from his album Computer Games--of the Electronic genre-- had come out a few years earlier. Love, pac man and a bar man trying to break from the disco days.) Bootsy was performing his base-stick. At that time, I did not really know the past legacy, which these two already in their 20s, with Mothership for example had given to us.  And I had seen a lot, Bowie Space Oddity tour, at 10 years of age. Listening to Clinton today, his joy is still with music and signifyin’. Borrowing and giving and still being part of the music as a way of life: always listening to what is new and wondering how it will become something else, is his philosophy of music and life.

 

Celina Lunsford, March 14, 2022