George Clinton

Singer, songwriter, bandleader, producer

The evolution of funk—the hard-edged, syncopated dance music that derived from soul in the early 1960s and paved the way for the emergence of hip hop in the late 1970s—owes a profound debt to George Clinton. With the barnstorming P-Funk family of musicians, including but not limited to Parliament, Funkadelic, and the P-Funk All-Stars, Clinton fashioned a celebratory fusion of soul, psychedelic rock, performance art absurdity, and revolutionary politics without which most of the rap and much of the alternative rock that followed are virtually unimaginable.

After ruling the R&B charts in the 1970s, Clinton weathered legal difficulties and changing tastes to re-emerge in the 1990s as one of rap's deities and funk-rock's king. And though his own 1993 solo album sold modestly, his music—albeit in sampled form—could be found all over the charts, on songs by rappers Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Warren G., and others. Aside from its obvious appeal to the "booty," funk—particularly the ecstatic workouts of the P-Funk gang—presents an optimistic, communal spirit for which the gangsta-rap-saturated nineties hungered desperately. As Clinton defined it to Rolling Stone, funk is "anything it [needs] to be to save your life. "

Born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, the eldest of nine children, Clinton had made his way to Newark, New Jersey, by his early teens. He worked in the Uptown Tonsorial Parlor barber shop and formed a vocal group, the Parliaments, which plied the street corner harmony style known as doo-wop. "I mean, I would go downtown on Sundays and go onto the back streets and just say the name out loud, just to hear myself say it," he told Pulse! of the days before the group's formation. In a Down Beat interview Clinton attributed his ambition to his astrological sign, noting, "I was a little Leo. If I couldn't have a baseball team, I wanted a singing group. You know, that was our only [way] … out of the ghetto … if you could sing, dance, or some s**t." Soon the group arranged gigs at dances and made its first recording at a coin-operated recording booth.

Birth of the P-Funk

After several record company and personnel changes—during which time Clinton worked as a staff songwriter for Jobete Music and Motown Records—the Parliaments achieved a hit with their 1966 single "I Wanna Testify." By then Clinton had included in his musical lineup a number of musicians who would figure prominently in subsequent P-Funk operations, among them guitarist Eddie Hazel and bassist Billy Nelson. Clinton briefly lost legal rights to the Parliaments name in the late 1960s, so he came up with a new name—and a new sound.

With the explosion of hard blues and psychedelic rock in the late 1960s, Clinton decided to move with the times. The Parliaments' first tour, he averred in Rolling Stone, necessitated sharing not only the bill, but amplifiers with rockers the Vanilla Fudge. The "extremely loud" gear gave him an idea; he introduced his bandmates to cutting-edge records by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, and the psychedelic soul troupe Sly and the Family Stone's debut. "I said 'Let me stop this Motown, stop this doo-wop and pretty s**t and let me get something else,'" he recollected to Pulse! writer Carter Harris. "If the blues is working, then the speeded-up blues will work, the funky blues, the one with the little light groove to it, that would work."

Hallucinogenic drugs and the general atmosphere of political and social foment added to this heady musical brew, his new purveyors of which Clinton dubbed Funkadelic. With the addition of keyboardist Bernie Worrell—who would prove to be one of P-Funk's musical architects—the group's distinctive sound was complete. They signed with Westbound Records and released their eponymous debut in 1969. The following year, having regained the rights to his old group's name, Clinton signed the streamlined Parliament to Invictus Records.

Though the two projects at first shared a hard blues-funk sound and sociological concerns, they formed distinct identities over the next few years. Funkadelic refined its acid-drenched proto-heavy metal on albums like Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow, the seminal Maggot Brain, and Cosmic Slop, relying on lengthy guitar jams and spooky keyboards to accommodate its often despairing reports of injustice at home and abroad. After moving to Warner Bros. in the mid-1970s, the band lightened up somewhat but retained its mighty guitar attack.

Parliament, meanwhile, added horns and charismatic bassist William "Bootsy" Collins—inherited from funk forebear James Brown's band—and became the quintessential party-funkers of the 1970s. "Getting down on the one," the first beat of a measure and the rhythmic jumping-off point for funk's subversive syncopations, became one of its many compelling slogans. The "P" in the "P-Funk" moniker stood for pure, undiluted—like the drugs that fueled their frenetic pace of recording and touring.

For the Record …

Born George Edward Clinton on July 22, 1941, in Kannapolis, NC; son of Julia Keaton; children: Tracey, Shawn (sons).

Hairdresser at Uptown Tonsorial Parlor, Plainfield, NJ, c. 1955-67. Formed vocal group the Parliaments, Newark, NJ, 1955; signed to Hull Records and released "Poor Willie" and "Party Boys," 1958; signed to Flipp label and recorded "Lonely Island" and "Cry," 1959; worked as staff songwriter for Jobete Music and Motown, 1962-63; cofounded Geo-Si-Mik production team, 1963; signed to Revilot label and released single "I Wanna Testify," 1966; formed group Funkadelic, 1968; signed to Westbound label and released debut, Funkadelic, 1969; formed Parliament; signed to Invictus label and released debut, Osmium, 1970; Parliament signed to Casablanca label and released Up for the Down Stroke, 1974; Funkadelic signed to Warner Bros. and released Hardcore Jollies, 1976; oversaw/produced Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, Zapp, the Horny Horns, and others, 1970s; recorded for Capi tol Records as solo artist, 1982-87; formed P-Funk All-Stars, 1983; signed to Paisley Park Records as solo artist and released The Cinderella Theory, 1989; produced artists Red Hot Chili Peppers and others, 1980s–; appeared on recordings by William "Bootsy" Collins, Bernie Worrell, Eddie Hazel, Dolby's Cube, Prince, Digital Underground, Ice Cube, and many others, 1970s–; appeared with Red Hot Chili Peppers and P-Funk All-Stars on Grammy Awards presentation, 1993; appeared in films House Party, 1989, and Graffiti Bridge, 1990; inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 1997; P-Funk named by Spin magazine one of the Greatest Bands of All Time; performed at 46th annual Grammy Awards ceremony, 2004.

Awards: Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 1997; P-Funk named One of the Greatest Bands of All Time by Spin magazine, 2002.

Addresses: Record company— Island Records, 825 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10019. Website— George Clinton Official Website: http://www.georgeclinton.com.

The Liberation of Funk

At the same time, Clinton harbored ambitions beyond the marriage of hard rock and funk; "concept" albums like the Beatles' landmark Sgt. Pepper and The Who's rock opera Tommy had laid the groundwork for long-format works in the pop idiom. Clinton engineered the first known R&B concept records, in which the all-powerful Funk conquers evil and indifference in outer space, under the ocean, and even in Washington, D.C. In fact, both Funkadelic and Parliament were vitally concerned with liberation: of the head, the heart, and, most of all, the "booty." And however comical and outrageous the process, the importance of P-Funk's redemptive message and communal vibe can scarcely be overestimated.

After moving to the Casablanca label, Parliament proceeded to dominate the R&B charts with jams like "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)," "Do That Stuff," and "Flash Light." With their cast of imaginary characters—StarChild, Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk, Dr. Funkenstein—science fiction regalia, and raunchy, playful patter, Parliament dispensed with the well-groomed and hyper-stylized conventions of black performance, introducing soul music to the concept of anarchy.

Funkadelic's biggest recording was 1978's "One Nation Under a Groove," which Harris of Pulse! described as "a fiercely funky utopian dream that became the rallying call" for P-Funk's acolytes. By this time Clinton had realized that he could not only get more work done, but get more music out by creating new groups under the Parliament-Funkadelic umbrella. Projects such as Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, and many others—mostly comprised of P-Funk's regular musicians and singers in various combinations—released an avalanche of output in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By 1980, however, a series of legal entanglements had begun to hamper Clinton; meanwhile, Parliament and Funkadelic started to lose steam as electronically produced techno-funk, disco, and hip hop loomed large on the R&B horizon.

Clinton signed as a solo artist with Capitol Records and in 1982 scored a huge hit with the kinetic single "Atomic Dog." Various other solo recordings and gatherings of the "P-Funk All-Stars" followed, as well as a collaboration with British synthesizer whiz Thomas Dolby and work as a producer, notably for P-Funk lovers the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yet Clinton was still mired in legal difficulties, particularly over the Funkadelic catalog, which went out of print as compact discs overtook vinyl; by 1985 he was forced to declare bankruptcy.

Signed with Prince's Paisley Park

Signing with the Paisley Park label of longtime admirer and 1980s R&B superhero Prince, Clinton released 1989's ill-fated The Cinderella Theory. Later he lamented to Request 's Bill Forman, "If I could have put that album out the way I first did it—before we remixed it and remixed it and buffed it to shinyism—my first mixes were closer to what people know us to sound and feel like. But the whole industry got into a remix situation. They remix the record before they put the record out."

By the early 1990s, however, P-Funk had re-emerged as a kind of stylistic Holy Grail for young musicians of widely divergent stripes. Hip-hoppers De La Soul sampled a Funkadelic hit for one of their early smashes, funk-rappers Digital Underground looped "Flash Light" and other Parliament hits on their debut and then persuaded Clinton to appear on their sophomore effort and pronounce them Sons of the P, and Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and countless other rhymesmiths leaned on both the sound and lore of P-Funk. At the same time, funk-rockers like the Chili Peppers, Living Colour, Faith No More, Primus, and Big Chief extolled the energy and inventiveness of Parliament-Funkadelic. As the Peppers' influential bassist Flea told Guitar Player, "Funkadelic is my favorite band. Rock, funk whatever you want to call it, they were one of the greatest."

The prodigious output of Clinton's clan rapidly made him the era's most sampled artist—surpassing even Godfather of Soul James Brown. Rather than begrudge rappers access to the P-Funk catalog, however, he facilitated it by releasing Sample Some of Disc—Sample Some of D.A.T., intended as the first in a series of CDs providing sample-ready slices from the vaults, along with simple permission request forms. "Everybody else is making money off us now," he reasoned in Request, "so we just say, 'forget that, we'll make a record with all those typical grooves in it, and they can sample them.'" More than profits were at stake, though; Clinton sensed early on that rap was the future of the P. "Hip hop has the same energy, the same kind of rowdy vibe as funk," he insisted in Pulse!

Priority Records at last managed to secure the rights to the discontinued Warner Bros. Funkadelic catalog, issuing long-awaited CDs of One Nation and other classics. Clinton and the P-Funk mob joined the Chili Peppers for a riotous performance at the Grammy Awards presentation; meanwhile, Clinton's next solo project, Hey Man … Smell My Finger, appeared after a long delay.

Featuring a bevy of rap's leading lights on the single "Paint the White House Black" and several P-Funk alumni and guest production by Prince—who told Vibe, "They should be giving that man a government grant for being that funky"—the album was hailed by critics as a strong return to form. Still, Hey Man sold modestly; as numerous commentators reflected, radio was largely disinclined to support artists associated with past glories, no matter how influential. As if to add insult to injury, Prince's Paisley Park folded shortly after the album's release. Clinton subsequently signed to NPG/Bellmark, which rose from the ashes of Paisley Park.

The Funk Plays On

Clinton—who planned a doo-wop reunion with the original Parliaments—continued to tour with the P-Funk All-Stars, appearing at the traveling alternative music fest Lollapalooza '94, and in concert throughout the United States. Celebrated filmmakers the Hudlin brothers announced plans for a Mothership Connection feature film. And the sounds of P-Funk, if not the new work of their inventor, continued to rule the airwaves via samples on rap records.

Indeed, the gangsta rappers who outran the competition in the 1990s consistently turned to Clinton. In Dr. Dre's video "Let Me Ride," the rapper's posse—grooving to a Mothership Connection sample—gathers, like a dutiful congregation, at a P-Funk concert, while Clinton himself guested along with Bootsy Collins on Ice Cube's Parliament tribute "Bop Gun." In a cultural era beset by despair, Clinton's vision remained an oasis of hope and renewal. Perhaps, as he noted in Pulse!, we could still unite as one nation under a groove: "I'm gonna believe that even when it ain't happening. 'Cause I know it's possible to happen, and to me, reality is a belief, and if you give energy to the things that you believe, that's what makes 'em possible."

Clinton and his All Stars showed no signs of slowing down as the new millennium dawned. High off the boost following his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, Clinton presided over concerts all over the United States and the world, including a 2004 performance at the 46th annual Grammy Awards show.

With rallying cries like that heard at a concert in Alaska in late 2003, "Welcome to the world of the Funkadelic, ya'all.… Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1979," Clinton and the crew of the Mothership have tapped into a resurgence of their popularity, attracting crowds of the faithful to their shows and inspiring a new generation of pop stars like Macy Gray, along with the by-now familiar lineup of sampling rappers and DJs.

In 2002, Spin magazine anointed Clinton and the various incarnations of P-Funk as one of the Greatest Bands of All Time. And as far as Clinton, heading into his sixties, is concerned, the party never has to end. "We've got the same vibe going on as we always did," he told Ray Routhier in the Portland Press Herald in 2003. "We get people kickin' and dancin'. I'll be doing this as long as I can; it beats any other job I've had."

Selected discography

Solo

Computer Games, Capitol, 1982.

You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish, Capitol, 1983.

Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends, Capitol, 1984.

R&B Skeletons in the Closet, Capitol, 1986.

The Mothership Connection from Houston, Capitol, 1986.

The Best of George Clinton, Capitol, 1986.

The Cinderella Theory, Paisley Park, 1989.

"Dope Dog," One Nation, 1993.

Sample Some of Disc, Sample Some of D.A.T., AEM, 1993.

Hey Man … Smell My Finger, Paisley Park, 1993.

Part 1, Castle, 1994.

Part 2, Castle, 1994.

Part 3, Castle, 1994.

George Clinton with Parliament, Music Merchant, 1995.

Series 1, Castle, 1996.

Series 2, Castle, 1996.

Series 3, Castle, 1996.

Greatest Funkin' Hits, Capitol, 1996.

Tamurinillis, Music Merchant, 1996.

Testing Positive, Castle, 1996.

T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership), 550 Music/Epic, 1996.

Live & Kickin', Prestige Elite, 1997.

Hardcore Jollies, Disky, 1997.

Back to Back Hits, EMI-Capitol, 2000.

Greatest Hits, Capitol, 2000.

The Best of George Clinton, EMI-Capitol, 2000.

Six Degrees of P-Funk: The Best of George Clinton & His Funky Family, Sony, 2003.

Original Artist Hit List, Intersound, 2003.

The Best of George Clinton, Collectables, 2003.

500,000 Kilowatts of P-Funk Power, Fruit Tree, 2004.

With Parliament

(The Parliaments) "I Wanna Testify," Revilot, 1966.

Osmium, Invictus, 1970.

Up for the Down Stroke, Casablanca, 1974.

Chocolate City, Casablanca, 1975.

Mothership Connection, Casablanca, 1975.

The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, Casablanca, 1976.

Get Down & Boogie, Casablanca, 1977.

Parliament Live: P-Funk Earth Tour, 1977.

Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome, Casablanca, 1977.

Motor Booty Affair, Casablanca, 1978.

Gloryhallastoopid (Pin the Tail on the Funky), Casablanca, 1979.

Trombipulation, Casablanca, 1981.

The Bomb—Parliament's Greatest Hits, Casablanca, 1984.

Rhenium, Demon/HDH, 1989.

Tear the Roof Off: 1974-1980, Casablanca, 1993.

First Thangs, HDH, 1993.

Greatest hits 1972-1993, AEM, 1994.

The Best of Parliament: Give Up the Funk, Casablanca, 1995.

Live, 1976-1993, Sequel, 1996.

The Early Years, Deep Beats, 1997.

12" Collection & More, Polygram, 1999.

20th Century Masters—The Millennium Collection: The Best of Parliament, Mercury, 2000.

Get Funked Up, Polygram, 2000.

Winning Combinations: Parliament & Ohio Players, Universal, 2001.

Osmium (U.K. release with bonus tracks), Castle, 2001.

Best of Anthology, Polygram, 2002.

Funked Up: The Very Best of Parliament, Mercury, 2002.

Up for the Down Stroke (bonus tracks), Mercury, 2003.

Mothership Connection (bonus tracks), Mercury, 2003.

Chocolate City (bonus tracks), Mercury, 2003.

With Funkadelic

Funkadelic, Westbound, 1969.

Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow, Westbound, 1970.

Maggot Brain, Westbound, 1971.

America Eats Its Young, Westbound, 1972.

Cosmic Slop, Westbound, 1973.

Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, Westbound, 1974.

Let's Take It to the Stage, Westbound, 1975.

Tales of Kidd Funkadelic, Westbound, 1976.

Hardcore Jollies, Westbound, 1976.

Funkadelic's Greatest Hits, Westbound, 1977.

The Best of the Early Years, Volume One, Westbound, 1979.

One Nation Under a Groove, Westbound, 1978.

Uncle Jam Wants You, 1979.

Connections & Disconnections, LAX, 1981.

The Electric Spanking of War Babies, Westbound, 1981.

Who's a Funkadelic, Rhino, 1981.

The Best of Funkadelic (1976-1981), Charly, 1994.

Hardcore Funk Jam, Charly, 1994.

Ultimate, Music Club, 1997.

Finest, Westbound, 1997.

The Very Best of Funkadelic, Charly, 1998.

Best, Neon, 1999.

Suitably Funky, Dressed to Kill, 2000.

The Original Cosmic Funk Crew, Metro Music, 2000.

Funk Gets Stronger, Recall, 2000.

The Funkadelic Collection, Vol. 1, Dressed to Kill, 2000.

The Funkadelic Collection, Vol. 2, Dressed to Kill, 2000.

Complete Recordings 1976-1981, Charly, 2000.

The Legends Collection, Dressed to Kill, 2001.

Motor City Madness: The Ulitmate Collection, Westbound (British import), 2003.

Under a Groove, Snapper Music, 2004.

With the P-Funk All Stars

Urban Dancefloor Guerillas, Uncle Jam/CBS Associated, 1983.

Live at the Beverly Theater in Hollywood, 1983, Westbound/Ace, 1990.

George Clinton Presents Our Gang Funky, MCA, 1989.

Music for Your Mother, 1993.

P-Funk All Stars, AEM, 1993.

Family Series Vol. I: Go Fer Yer Funk, AEM, 1993.

Family Series Vol. II: "P" is the Funk, AEM, 1993.

Family Series Vol. III: Plush Funk, AEM, 1993.

Family Series, Vol. V: A Fifth of Funk, AEM, 1994.

Sources

Books

Rees, Dafydd, and Luke Crampton, Rock Movers & Shakers, Billboard, 1991.

Periodicals

Anchorage Daily News, September 12, 2003, p. H5; September 20, 2003, P. E2.

Down Beat, April 5, 1979, pp.14-18, 44.

Guitar Player, November 1991, p. 55.

Melody Maker, January 16, 1993, p. 35.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 9, 2004, p. 1A.

Portland Press Herald, March 13, 2003, p. 3D.

Pulse!, December 1993, pp. 56-66, 102.

Request, December 1993, pp. 42-4.

Rolling Stone, September 20, 1990, pp. 75-8.

Vibe, November 1993, pp. 44-8; August 1994, p. 47.

Online

"Funkadelic," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (February 17, 2004).

"George Clinton," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (February 17, 2004).

George Clinton Official Website, http://www.georgeclinton.com (February 17, 2004).

"Parliament," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (February 17, 2004).

—Simon Glickman and

Michael Belfiore

George Clinton 1941–

Singer, songwriter, bandleader, producer

Parlayed Parliament Into Funkadelic

Bore Elaborate, Conceptual Works

Rode Solo Career Rollercoaster

Selected discography

Sources

The evolution of funk—the hard-edged, syncopated dance music that derived from soul in the early 1960s and paved the way for the emergence of hip hop in the late 1970s—owes a profound debt to George Clinton. With the barnstorming P. Funk family of musicians, including but not limited to Parliament, Funkadelic, and the P. Funk All-Stars, Clinton fashioned a celebratory fusion of soul, psychedelic rock, performance art absurdity, and revolutionary politics without which most of the rap and much of the alternative rock that followed are virtually unimaginable.

After ruling the R&B charts in the 1970s, Clinton weathered legal difficulties and changing tastes to re-emerge in the 1990s as one of rap’s deities and funk-rock’s king. And though his own 1993 solo album sold modestly, his music—albeit in sampled form—could be found all over the charts, on songs by rappers Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Warren G., and others. Aside from its obvious appeal to the “booty,” funk—particularly the ecstatic workouts of the P. Funk gang—presents an optimistic, communal spirit for which the gangsta-rap-satu-rated nineties hunger desperately. As Clinton defined it to Rolling Stone, funk is “anything it [needs] to be to save your life.”

Born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, the eldest of nine children, Clinton had made his way to Newark, New Jersey, by his early teens. He worked in the Uptown Tonsorial Parlor barber shop and formed a vocal group, the Parliaments, which plied the street corner harmony style known as doo-wop. “I mean, I would go downtown on Sundays and go onto the back streets and just say the name out loud, just to hear myself say it,” he told Pulse! of the days before the group’s formation. In a Down Beat interview Clinton attributed his ambition to his astrological sign, noting, “I was a little Leo. If I couldn’t have a baseball team I wanted a singing group. You know, that was our only [way]…out of the ghetto … if you could sing, dance, or some shit.” Soon the group arranged gigs at dances and made its first recording at a coin-operated recording booth.

Parlayed Parliament Into Funkadelic

After several record company and personnel changes—during which time Clinton worked as a staff songwriter for Jobete Music and Motown Records—the Parliaments achieved a hit with their 1966 single “I Wanna Testify.” By

At a Glance…

Born George Edward Clinton, July 22, 1941, in Kannapolis, NC; son of Julia Keaton; children: Tracey, Shawn (sons).

Hairdresser at Uptown Tonsorial Parlor, Plainfield, NJ, c. 1955-67. Formed vocal group the Parliaments, Newark, NJ, 1955; signed to Hull Records and released “Poor Willie” and “Party Boys,” 1958; signed to Flipp label and recorded “Lonely Island” and “Cry,” 1959; worked as staff songwriter for Jobete Music and Motown, 1962-63; cofounded Geo-Si-Mik production team, 1963; signed to Revilot label and released single “I Wanna Testify,” 1966; formed group Funkadelic, 1968; signed to Westbound label and released debut, Funkadelic, 1969; formed Parliament; signed to Invictus label and released debut, Osmium, 1970; Parliament signed to Casablanca label and released Up for the Down Stroke, 1974; Funkadelic signed to Warner Bros. and released Hardcore Jollies, 1976; oversaw/produced Bootsy’s Rubber Band, the Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, Zapp, the Horny Horns, and others, 1970s; recorded for Capitol Records as solo artist, 1982-87; formed P. Funk All-Stars, 1983; signed to Paisley Park Records as solo artist and released The Cinderella Theory, 1989; produced artists Red Hot Chili Peppers and others, 1980s—; appeared on recordings by William “Bootsy” Collins, Bernie Worrell, Eddie Hazel, Dolby’s Cube, Prince, Digital Underground, Ice Cube, and many others, 1970s—; appeared with Red Hot Chili Peppers and P. Funk All-Stars on Grammy Awards presentation, 1993; appeared in films House Party, 1989, and Graffiti Bridge, 1990.

Awards: Platinum records for Parliament’s Chocolate City and Mothership Connection and for Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove.

Addresses: Record company —NPG/Bellmark, 7060 Hollywood Blvd., Ste. 1000, Hollywood, CA 90028.

then Clinton had included in his musical lineup a number of musicians who would figure prominently in subsequent P. Funk operations, among them guitarist Eddie Hazel and bassist Billy Nelson. Clinton briefly lost legal rights to the Parliaments name in the late 1960s, so he came up with a new name—and a new sound.

With the explosion of hard blues and psychedelic rock in the late 1960s, Clinton decided to move with the times. The Parliaments’ first tour, he averred in Rolling Stone, necessitated sharing not only the bill, but amplifiers with rockers the Vanilla Fudge. The “extremely loud” gear gave him an idea; he introduced his bandmates to cutting-edge records by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, and the psychedelic soul troupe Sly and the Family Stone’s debut. “I said ‘Let me stop this Motown, stop this doo-wop and pretty shit and let me get something else,’” he recollected to Pulse! writer Carter Harris. “If the blues is working, then the speeded-up blues will work, the funky blues, the one with the little light groove to it, that would work.”

Hallucinogenic drugs and the general atmosphere of political and social foment added to this heady musical brew, his new purveyors of which Clinton dubbed Funkadelic. With the addition of keyboardist Bernie Worrell—who would prove to be one of P. Funk’s musical architects—the group’s distinctive sound was complete. They signed with Westbound Records and released their eponymous debut in 1969. The following year, having regained the rights to his old group’s name, Clinton signed the streamlined Parliament to Invictus Records.

Though the two projects at first shared a hard blues-funk sound and sociological concerns, they formed distinct identities over the next few years. Funkadelic refined its acid-drenched proto-heavy metal on albums like Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow, the seminal Maggot Brain, and Cosmic Slop, relying on lengthy guitar jams and spooky keyboards to accommodate its often despairing reports of injustice at home and abroad. After moving to Warner Bros. in the mid-1970s, the band lightened up somewhat but retained its mighty guitar attack.

Parliament, meanwhile, added horns and charismatic bassist William “Bootsy” Collins—inherited from funk forebear James Brown’s band—and became the quintessential party-funkers of the 1970s. “Getting down on the one,” the first beat of a measure and the rhythmic jumping-off point for funk’s subversive syncopations, became one of its many compelling slogans. The “P” in the “P. Funk” moniker stood for pure, undiluted—like the drugs that fueled their frenetic pace of recording and touring.

Bore Elaborate, Conceptual Works

At the same time, Clinton harbored ambitions beyond the marriage of hard rock and funk; “concept” albums like the Beatles’ landmark Sgt. Pepper and The Who’s rock opera Tommy had laid the groundwork for long-format works in the pop idiom. Clinton engineered the first known R&B concept records, in which the all-powerful Funk conquers evil and indifference in outer sp forget thatace, under the ocean, and even in Washington, D.C. In fact, both Funkadelic and Parliament were vitally concerned with liberation: of the head, the heart, and, most of all, the “booty.” And however comical and outrageous the process, the importance of P. Funk’s redemptive message and communal vibe can scarcely be overestimated.

After moving to the Casablanca label, Parliament proceeded to dominate the R&B charts with jams like “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk),” “Do That Stuff,” and “Flash Light.” With their cast of imaginary characters—StarChild, Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk, Dr. Funkenstein— science fiction regalia, and raunchy, playful patter, Parliament dispensed with the well-groomed and hyper-stylized conventions of black performance, introducing soul music to the concept of anarchy.

“I was trying to put blacks in places you wouldn’t expect to see ’em,” Clinton explained to Harris of Pulse! “I just knew that a nigger on a spaceship would look pretty strange, especially if he looks like he’s on a Cadillac.” Thus was born the spaceship prop from Parliament’s Mothership Connection Tour. Such concerts—described in Vibe by guitarist Vernon Reid, founder of rock band Living Colour, as resembling “some sort of ritual”—have become the stuff of legend. Parliament spawned scores of imitators, many of whom they teased on their elaborately cartooned album covers.

At the heart of it all was the wizard himself, climbing out of the Mothership to lead the crowd in invocations that could come from everywhere: scripture, James Brown records, even dirty limericks. Neither an instrumentalist nor a particularly virtuosic singer, Clinton nonetheless provided the intellectual and organizational spark at the heart of P. Funk’s sonic orgy. “The one talent I had,” he explained to Rolling Stone, “was the ability to keep people together. I knew how to keep personalities in place, how to use them. That is still the most important thing I do in P-Funk. I can get anything out of anybody.”

Funkadelic’s biggest recording was 1978’s “One Nation Under a Groove,” which Harris of Pulse! described as “a fiercely funky utopian dream that became the rallying call” for P. Funk’s acolytes. By this time Clinton had realized that he could not only get more work done, but get more music out by creating new groups under the Parliament-Funkadelic umbrella. Projects such as Bootsy’s Rubber Band, the Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, and many others—mostly comprised of P. Funk’s regular musicians and singers in various combinations—released an avalanche of output in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By 1980, however, a series of legal entanglements had begun to hamper Clinton; meanwhile, Parliament and Funkadelic started to lose steam as electronically produced technofunk, disco, and hip hop loomed large on the R&B horizon.

Rode Solo Career Rollercoaster

Clinton signed as a solo artist with Capitol Records and in 1982 scored a huge hit with the kinetic single “Atomic Dog.” Various other solo recordings and gatherings of the “P. Funk All-Stars” followed, as well as a collaboration with British synthesizer whiz Thomas Dolby and work as a producer, notably for P. Funk lovers the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yet Clinton was still mired in legal difficulties, particularly over the Funkadelic catalog, which went out of print as compact discs overtook vinyl; by 1985 he was forced to declare bankruptcy.

Signing with the Paisley Park label of longtime admirer and 1980s R&B superhero Prince, Clinton released 1989’s ill-fated The Cinderella Theory. Later he lamented to Request’s Bill Forman, “If I could have put that album out the way I first did it—before we remixed it and remixed it and buffed it to shinyism—my first mixes were closer to what people know us to sound and feel like. But the whole industry got into a remix situation. They remix the record before they put the record out.”

By the early 1990s, however, P. Funk had re-emerged as a kind of stylistic Holy Grail for young musicians of widely divergent stripes. Hip-hoppers De La Soul sampled a Funkadelic hit for one of their early smashes, funk-rappers Digital Underground looped “Flash Light” and other Parliament hits on their debut and then persuaded Clinton to appear on their sophomore effort and pronounce them Sons of the P, and Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and countless other rhymesmiths leaned on both the sound and lore of P. Funk. At the same time, funk-rockers like the Chili Peppers, Living Colour, Faith No More, Primus, and Big Chief extolled the energy and inventiveness of Parliament-Funkadelic. As the Peppers’ influential bassist Flea told Guitar Player, “Funkadelic is my favorite band. Rock, funk whatever you want to call it, they were one of the greatest.”

The prodigious output of Clinton’s clan rapidly made him the era’s most sampled artist—surpassing even Godfather of Soul James Brown. Rather than begrudge rappers access to the P. Funk catalog, however, he facilitated it by releasing Sample Some of Disc —Sample Some of D.A.T., intended as the first in a series of CDs providing sample-ready slices from the vaults, along with simple permission request forms. “Everybody else is making money off us now,” he reasoned in Request, “so we just say, ‘forget that, we’ll make a record with all those typical grooves in it, and they can sample them.”’ More than profits were at stake, though; Clinton sensed early on that rap was the future of the P. “Hip hop has the same energy, the same kind of rowdy vibe as funk,” he insisted in Pulse!

Priority Records at last managed to secure the rights to the discontinued Warner Bros. Funkadelic catalog, issuing long-awaited CDs of One Nation and other classics. Clinton and the P. Funk mob joined the Chili Peppers for a riotous performance at the Grammy Awards presentation; meanwhile, Clinton’s next solo project, Hey Man … Smell My Finger, appeared after a long delay.

Featuring a bevy of rap’s leading lights on the single “Paint the White House Black” and several P. Funk alumni and guest production by Prince—who told Vibe, “They should be giving that man a government grant for being that funky”—the album was hailed by critics as a strong return to form. Still, Hey Man sold modestly; as numerous commentators reflected, black radio was largely disinclined to support artists associated with past glories, no matter how influential. As if to add insult to injury, Prince’s Paisley Park folded shortly after the album’s release. Clinton subsequently signed to NPG/Bellmark, which rose from the ashes of Paisley Park.

Clinton—who planned a doo-wop reunion with the original Parliaments—continued to tour with the P. Funk All-Stars, appearing at the traveling alternative music fest Lollapalooza ’94 and in concert throughout the United States. Celebrated filmmakers the Hudlin brothers announced plans for a Mothership Connection feature film. And the sounds of P. Funk, if not the new work of their inventor, continued to rule the airwaves via samples on rap records.

Indeed, the gangsta rappers who outran the competition in the 1990s consistently turned to Clinton. In Dr. Dre’s video “Let Me Ride,” the rapper’s posse—grooving to a Mothership Connection sample—gathers, like a dutiful congregation, at a P. Funk concert, while Clinton himself guested along with Bootsy Collins on Ice Cube’s Parliament tribute “Bop Gun.” In a cultural era beset by despair, Clinton’s vision remained an oasis of hope and renewal. Perhaps, as he noted in Pulse!, we could still unite as one nation under a groove: “I’m gonna believe that even when it ain’t happening. ’Cause I know it’s possible to happen, and to me, reality is a belief, and if you give energy to the things that you believe, that’s what makes ’em possible.”

Selected discography

Solo releases

Computer Games (includes “Atomic Dog”), Capitol, 1982.

You Shouldn’t Nuf Bit Fish, Capitol, 1983.

Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends, Capitol, 1984.

R&B Skeletons in the Closet, Capitol, 1986.

The Mothership Connection from Houston, Capitol, 1986.

The Best of George Clinton, Capitol, 1986.

The Cinderella Theory, Paisley Park, 1989.

“Dope Dog,” One Nation, 1993.

Sample Some of Disc, Sample Some of D.A.T, AEM, 1993.

Hey Man … Smell My Finger (includes “Paint the White House Black”), Paisley Park, 1993.

With Parliament; on Casablanca, except where noted

(The Parliaments) “I Wanna Testify,” Revilot, 1966.

Osmium, Invictus, 1970.

Up for the Down Stroke, 1974.

Chocolate City, 1975.

Mothership Connection (includes “Mothership Connection” and “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker [Give Up the Funk]”), 1975.

The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (includes “Do That Stuff”), 1976.

Parliament Live: P. Funk Earth Tour, 1977.

Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (includes “Flash Light”), 1977.

Motor Booty Affair (includes “Aqua Boogie”), 1978.

Gloryhallastoopid (Pin the Tail on the Funky), 1979.

Trombipulation, 1981.

The Bomb—Parliament’s Greatest Hits, 1984.

Rhenium, Demon/HDH, 1989.

Tear the Roof Off: 1974-1980, 1993.

First Thangs, HDH, 1993.

With Funkadelic

On Westbound

Funkadelic, 1969.

Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow, 1970.

Maggot Brain, 1971.

America Eats Its Young, 1972.

Cosmic Slop, 1973.

Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, 1974.

Let’s Take It to the Stage, 1975.

Tales of Kidd Funkadelic, 1976.

Funkadelic’s Greatest Hits, 1977.

The Best of the Early Years, Volume One, 1979.

Music for Your Mother, 1993.

On Warner Bros.; reissued by Priority, 1993

Hardcore Jollies, 1976.

One Nation Under a Groove (includes “One Nation Under a Groove”), 1978.

Uncle Jam Wants You, 1979.

The Electric Spanking of War Babies, 1981.

With the P. Funk All-Stars

Urban Dancefloor Guerillas, Uncle Jam/CBS Associated, 1983.

Live at the Beverly Theater in Hollywood, 1983, Westbound/Ace, 1990.

P. Funk compilations

George Clinton Presents Our Gang Funky, MCA, 1989.

Family Series Voi I: Go Fer Yer Funk, AEM, 1993.

Family Series Vol. II: “P” is the Funk, AEM, 1993.

Family Series Vol. III: Plush Funk, AEM, 1993.

With others

Dolby’s Cube, “May the Cube Be With You,” Parlophone, 1985.

Bernie Worrell, All the Woo in the World, Arista, 1978.

Bernie Worrell, Blacktronic Science, Gramavision, 1993.

Digital Underground, “Sons of the P,” Sons of the P, Tommy Boy, 1991.

Prince, “We Can Funk,” Graffiti Bridge, Paisley Park, 1991.

Ice Cube, “Bop Gun,” Lethal Injection, 1994.

Sources

Books

Rees, Dafydd, and Luke Crampton, Rock Movers & Shakers, Billboard, 1991.

Periodicals

Down Beat, April 5, 1979, pp. 14-18, 44.

Guitar Player, November 1991, p. 55.

Melody Maker, January 16, 1993, p. 35.

Pulse!, December 1993, pp. 56-66, 102.

Request, December 1993, pp. 42-4.

Rolling Stone, September 20, 1990, pp. 75-8.

Vibe, November 1993, pp. 44-8; August 1994, p. 47.

—Simon Glickman

George Clinton

The American patriot and statesman George Clinton (1739-1812) was the governor of New York for 21 years and vice president of the United States for two terms.

George Clinton's father, Charles, was an Ulster County, N.Y., farmer who had emigrated from Ireland in 1729. Charles Clinton achieved modest prominence through military and political office, but it was the marriage of his sons, James to Mary DeWitt in 1765 and George to Cornelia Tappen in 1769, that gave the Clintons status in New York society and future political allies among influential Dutch families.

Revolutionary Radical

Born in Ulster County, on July 26, 1739, George Clinton was educated at home and under a tutor, with the advantage of his father's better-than-average library. After studying law in New York City under William Smith, Jr., one of the famous Whig "triumvirate," he began practice in 1764. His political career was launched in 1768 with his election to the Assembly from Ulster County. There he allied himself with the minority "popular party" of the Livingstons against the DeLancey "court party" which controlled the legislature. For the next 7 years Clinton consistently opposed grants for supporting the king's troops, and he was one of a mere five assemblymen who in 1770 voted against jailing Alexander McDougall, a Whig "firebrand" who had publicly criticized the House for betraying its trust by its military appropriations. In the broader quarrel with Britain, Clinton sided with the radicals, denouncing parliamentary taxation and the Coercive Acts and urging support for the resolves of the First Continental Congress. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, he was absent when independence was approved, having military obligations in New York, where he had been appointed brigadier general of the Ulster and Orange County militia in December 1775. Despite military shortcomings, the Continental Congress placed him in command of the forts in the Hudson Highlands. However, his energetic efforts did not prevent capture of the forts by the British in late 1777.

War Governor

The new state constitution of 1777 provided for a popularly elected governor. New York's aristocrats, led by Philip Schuyler, John Jay, John Morin Scott, and the Livingstons, expected Schuyler to be chosen. To their consternation the elections brought victory to Clinton—a tribute to his appeal to middle-class and small farmers and his popularity with the soldiers. Schuyler's postelection judgment that neither Clinton's family nor connections entitled him "to so distinguished a predominance" but that he was "virtuous and loves his country, has abilities and is brave" is an apt commentary on Clinton's entire political career. He attracted the majority of New Yorkers by his loyalty to the Revolutionary cause, his honesty, and his devotion to his state. His reputation was enhanced by his able service as war governor, a post which was more often military than political. He organized the defenses of the frontier, procured supplies, suppressed loyalists, quieted the Native Americans, and organized campaigns against Tory and British raiders. His universal popularity was attested to by his successive elections to the governorship, often without opposition, until his voluntary retirement in 1795.

Antifederalist and Republican

Conservative in his administration during the Confederation period, committed to the protection of property and a stable financial system, Clinton was equally sensitive to popular liberties and republican government. It was the latter that made him suspicious of the movement for the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Willing to strengthen congressional powers under the Articles of Confederation, he feared the substitution of a "consolidated" for a "federal" government. The acknowledged leader of New York's Antifederalists, he was not so virulent an opponent of the Constitution as Alexander Hamilton made him out to be. He presided over the state's ratifying convention at Poughkeepsie with impartiality and spoke seldom, and then with moderation. There is some doubt that he wrote the Antifederalist essays attributed to him which appeared in the New York Journal (September 1787 to January 1788) as "Cato's Letters." Preferring ratification conditional upon amendments, he nevertheless promised to support the new Constitution when New York ratified it 30 to 27, on July 26, 1788, without such conditions.

Vice President

While Clinton continued to be popular personally, his political followers hereafter faced stiff opposition from the Federalists, who in 1789 secured control of the legislature and in 1792 just missed placing John Jay in the governor's chair. Pleading ill health and perhaps sensing defeat, Clinton declined to stand in 1795, and his party was beaten. For the next 6 years his nephew DeWitt Clinton led the newly formed Democratic-Republican party in New York, an alliance of Clintonites, Livingstons, and the followers of Aaron Burr. George Clinton returned as governor for a term in 1801, but his political mantle remained with his nephew. Clinton played out the remainder of his political career on the national scene. In 1792 he was the unsuccessful candidate of Republicans in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia for the vice presidency in place of John Adams. In 1804 he replaced Burr for the second place on the Republican ticket and served as vice president during Jefferson's second term. Four years later his followers promoted his candidacy for president on a ticket with James Monroe. When this failed, he settled for another term as vice president under James Madison. His 7 years in Washington (1805-1812) did not enhance his reputation. He had little influence with either administration, presided over the Senate without much skill, and disliked Washington society. Perhaps his most important action was his tiebreaking vote in 1811 to prevent the recharter of the Bank of the United States. He died in office on April 20, 1812.

A moderate reformer who during his governorship promoted road and canal building, lent support for manufactures and reform of the criminal code, and gave aid to libraries and public funds for common schools, Clinton appealed to the middle-class democracy of New York State. He lacked the felicity of language and the talented pen of a Jefferson to extend his influence much beyond his state.

Further Reading

The standard biography of Clinton is E. Wilder Spaulding, His Excellency George Clinton: Critic of the Constitution (1938; 2d ed. 1964). It has been revised in many details by more recent works on early New York political history, most notably Linda Grant De Pauw, The Eleventh Pillar: New York State and the Federal Constitution (1966), and Alfred F. Young, The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763-1797 (1967). Public Papers of George Clinton (10 vols., 1899-1914) is an essential source, although the introductory sketch of Clinton's life by the editor, Hugh Hastings, is inaccurate. The Clinton era in New York politics may be traced in Jabez D. Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York (2 vols., 1842; 4th ed., 3 vols., 1852), and in De Alva Stanwood Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York (4 vols., 1906-1923). Clinton's war governorship is ably analyzed and evaluated in Margaret Burnham Macmillan, The War Governors in the American Revolution (1943).

Additional Sources

Kaminski, John P., George Clinton: yeoman politician of the new republic, Madison: Madison House, 1993. □

George Clinton 1739–1812, American statesman, vice president of the United States (1805–1812), b. Little Britain, N.Y. Before he was 20 he served on a privateer and, in the French and Indian War, accompanied the regiment of his father, Charles Clinton, in the expedition against Fort Frontenac led by John Bradstreet. After studying law in New York City he began practice in Ulster co. and was elected (1768) to the provincial assembly, where he became a leader of the anti-British faction. In 1775, Clinton was elected one of the state's delegates to the Second Continental Congress. Military duties as a brigadier general in the Continental Army prevented his signing the Declaration of Independence. Clinton's defense of the Hudson, although courageous, resulted in the capture of Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery by the British general, Sir Henry Clinton .

Under the new state constitution, which George Clinton helped to frame, he was elected (June, 1777) the first governor of New York state. His energy and leadership as governor for six successive terms (1777–95) led to his being called the father of New York state. He managed trade and public welfare problems ably, and he successfully settled the Native American troubles in W New York. He advanced New York's claims to the New Hampshire Grants (now Vermont), initiated action on building canals (later realized by his nephew, De Witt Clinton ), and unsuccessfully fought the transfer from New York to the United States of the right to collect duties at the port of New York.

An advocate of state sovereignty, Clinton was one of the chief opponents of the U.S. Constitution, writing seven letters against ratification, signed Cato, in the New York Journal. These were answered by Alexander Hamilton in his letters, signed Caesar, in the Daily Advertiser. Clinton's views on the Constitution were opposed by a rapidly growing party, the Federalists, under the leadership of John Jay . Jay, running against Clinton for governor, lost the election of 1792 only by a questionable manipulation of returns on the part of the Clintonians, and in 1795 Jay won with ease, Clinton having declined to become a candidate.

As a result of his alliance with the Livingstons and Aaron Burr, Clinton became governor for a seventh term in the Republican triumph of 1800; he still holds the record for longest-serving New York governor–22 years. In 1804 he was elected vice president for President Jefferson's second term. He sought the presidency in 1808, having won support for that office in previous elections, but again he received only the vice presidency, this time under James Madison.

Bibliography: See his Public Papers (ed. by H. Hastings and J. A. Holden, 10 vol., 1899–1914); E. W. Spaulding, His Excellency George Clinton (1938, repr. 1964) and New York in the Critical Period, 1783–1789 (1932, repr. 1960).

George Clinton c.1686–1761, colonial governor of New York (1743–53), b. England; father of Sir Henry Clinton . He entered (1708) the British navy and rose to the rank of admiral in 1747. Through family connections, Clinton was appointed (1741) governor of New York and arrived in the colony in 1743. Under the influence of James De Lancey he tried to conciliate the assembly and acquiesced on the issue of increased legislative control over revenues. Clinton later quarreled with De Lancey; his attempts to regain his lost powers failed; and his administration resulted in a permanent weakening of royal government in New York. Clinton was recalled (1753) to England and later served (1754–60) in Parliament.

Clinton, George (1686–1761) colonial governor of New York. Clinton commanded the British Mediterranean fleet (1737). Commissioned as governor of New York in 1741, he did not arrive to take office until 1743. He warned the government that a stamp tax would cause much trouble in the colonies. With Sir William Johnson, he secured the Iroquois as allies in the French and Indian War (1754–63) and placed Johnson in charge of Indian relations. Lengthy border disputes with New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts led to a new governor being appointed in 1753. After returning to England in 1754, Clinton bought a seat in Parliament (1754-61); he was named admiral of the fleet in 1757.

Clinton, George (1739–1812) soldier, governor of New York, and vice president of the United States, born in Little Britain, New York. He fought in the French and Indian War (1754–63) as a young subaltern, and was a brigadier general of militia in the Revolutionary War. He directed the futile defense of Fort Montgomery (1777), hindering British major general Sir Henry Clinton from joining John Burgoyne at Saratoga (1777). He served six successive terms as governor. Clinton was elected vice president under Thomas Jefferson (1804) on the Democratic-Republican ticket.

Clinton, George (1739–1812) American patriot leader. He controlled the popular anti-British faction in New York City from 1768. After attending the second CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (1775–76) he helped draft the state's constitution and served as governor for 15 years. An opponent of Alexander HAMILTON, he joined Thomas JEFFERSON in founding the Democratic-Republican party, and was Vice-President (1805–12) to both Jefferson and James Madison.