A Short History of Funkadelic

Having grown up in New Jersey, George Clinton had his own hair-straightening barber shop. With the money he earned he started the doo-wop band called the Parliaments. Come the sixties, Clinton was working as a songwriter and the Parliaments had some Motown inspired pop and soul hit singles. Then, in 1967, George Clinton heard bands like the Doors, Country Joe and the Fish and Cream. Inspired by their free-form qualities, within a year he had started work with Billy Bass Nelson, Eddie Hazel, Tawl Ross and Tiki Fulwood and had changed his band's name to Funkadelic. The new band then proceeded to produce three albums that were utterly original and genre defining. They played pure funk, and called it P-funk.

Funkadelic's debut album was called 'Funkadelic'. It starts with 'Mommy What's A Funkadelic?' and answers the title's question via a loose rock and soul hybrid. It features the lyric 'a funkadelic will pee on your afro'. The second album, called 'Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow', attempts to deal with the pure definition of funk as an understanding of the inner self. The album 'Maggot Brain' is released in 1971. It begins with a short speech: 'I knew that I had to rise above it all or drown in my own shit'. It's a message of positivity for a generation, a message to individuals to work together and on their own to sort out the ill's of society. On their album 'One Nation Under A Groove' Funkadelic go one step further and start talking about a whole new society. This new utopia is called Funkadelia. It's all very hippy, though shares some similarities Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu Nation collective, which set out the fundamental philosophy behind original hip-hop.

The first two albums are the sound of a band gearing up to make their masterpiece, and 'Maggot Brain' shows a band at the top of their game. It's a style-hopping opus, mixing p-funk, soul, folk, gospel, and even a little heavy metal. The neo-gospel track is 'Can You Get That' which showcases the vocal talents on display. 'Wars Of Armageddon' is a driven funk-metal track that crams as much music and instruments into the mix that it's a puzzle how the studio managed to cope with the sonic storm. Then there's the Black Sabbath influenced 'Super Stupid' where Clinton's singing comes on like Hendrix and features a great trippy organ from new recruit Eddie Worrell, and an amazing guitar part by Eddie Hazel.

The rest of the album is pretty good, but compared to the title track, 'Maggot Brain', it all pales. It could be said that Hazel's guitar solo is the finest ever committed to tape. It starts off as sad and mournful, then becomes more optimistic. It's nine minutes long and features almost no accompaniment.

A year after the release of 'Maggot Brain' the line-up had almost completely changed. Only Worell and Clinton, himself, remained. A new band name appears. The new band is called Parliament and may be the best funk band of them all. The line-up features Bootsy Collins on bass, Maceo Parker on brass and Fred Wesley on saxophone, though it is difficult to see where Funkadelic end and Parliament begins, or vice-versa. It was all about the vibe. The famous Mothership Connection tour included massive productions that had nylon tights, weird specs and a big indoor spaceship. Clinton's new material was presented in a fantasy UFO theater setting, and perhaps maybe it was all a trip too far. There were a lot of people on stage, a lot of musical voices and a lot of egos. If you are looking for the best of George Clinton, simply buy 'Maggot Brain'.