The Birth Of The P-Funk...♪♫♪

[Edie Antoinette]

An Edie2k2 Production

George Clinton, (born July 22, 1940) principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funk artist as of 1981. He has been hailed as "The Prime Minister of Funk" as the leader of Parliament, as well as "The King of Interplanetary Funksmanship".

Click To Watch The Origins Of P-Funk

Biography

He was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, and currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida. In Plainfield, he ran a barber salon, where he straightened hair, and soon formed a doo wop group, inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, called The Parliaments. For a period in the 1960s Clinton was a staff songwriter for Motown. Despite initial commercial failures, The Parliaments eventually found success under the names Parliament and Funkadelic in the seventies (see also P-Funk). This article focuses on Clinton's solo efforts after 1981.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Clinton recorded several nominal "solo" albums, although all of these records featured contributions from P-Funk's core musicians. The primary reason for recording under his own name was legal difficulties, due to the complex copyright and trademark issues surrounding the name "Parliament" (primarily) and Polygram's purchase of his former label (as part of Parliament), Casablanca Records. In 1982, Clinton signed to Capitol Records as a solo artist and as the P.Funk All-Stars, releasing Computer Games that same year. "Loopzilla" hit the Top 20 R&B charts, followed by "Atomic Dog," which reached #1 R&B, but peaked at #101 on the pop chart. In the next four years, Clinton released three more studio albums (You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish, Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends and R&B Skeletons in the Closet) as well as a live album, Mothership Connection (Live from the Summit, Houston, Texas) and charting three singles in the R&B Top 30, "Nubian Nut," "Last Dance," and "Do Fries Go with that Shake." This period of Clinton's career was marred by multiple legal problems (resulting in financial difficulties) due to complex royalty and copyright issues.

In 1985 he was recruited by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce their album Freaky Styley, because the bandmembers were huge fans of George Cli... Funk in general. Clinton, in fact, wrote the vocals and lyrics to the title track which was originally intended by the band to be left an instrumental piece. The album was not a commercial success at the time, but has since sold 500,000 copies after the Chili Peppers became popular years later.

Though Clinton's popularity had waned by the mid 1980s, he experienced something of a resurgence in the early 1990s, as many rappers cited him as an influence and began sampling his songs. Alongside James Brown, George Clinton is considered to be one of the most sampled musicians ever.

George Clinton at the VH1 Fashion Awards. He is known for his flamboyant style.

In 1989, Clinton released The Cinderella Theory on Paisley Park, Prince's record label. This was followed by Hey Man, Smell My Finger. Clinton then signed with Sony 550 and released T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power Of A Fully Operational Mothersh...

In the 1990s, Clinton appeared in films such as Graffiti Bridge (1990), Good Burger (1997) and PCU (1994). Most recently he appeared as the voice of The Funktipus... Funk radio station Bounce FM in the 2004 video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in which his song Loopzilla also appeared. Rapper Dr. Dre sampled most of his beats to create his G-Funk music era. He's also worked with Tupac Shakur on the song "Can't c me" from the album All Eyez On Me, Outkast on the song "Synthesizer" from the album Aquemini, Redman on the song "J.U.M.P." from the album Malpractice

He also had a cameo appearance in the season 3 premiere of How I Met Your Mother on September 18th, 2006.

"You're Thinking Right" - the theme song for The Tracey Ullman Show, was written by Clinton.

He appeared on the intro to Snoop Dogg's Tha Blue Carpet Treatment album, released in late 2006.

Clinton allows audience members to tape his live performances for private, non-commercial use only.[1]

Drug arrests

On December 6, 2003, Clinton was charged with one felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia in Tallahassee, Florida.[2] Just two weeks later, he made his first public appearance since the arrest, jamming onstage with the jam band Phish in Miami. On August 11, 2004, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor drug-paraphernalia charges, while the felony charge was dropped.

Discography

Albums released under the name "George Clinton."
George Clinton Discography
Year Title Label
1982 Computer Games Capitol Records
1983 You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish Warner Bros.
1985 Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends Capitol Records
1986 R&B Skeletons in the Closet Capitol Records
1989 The Cinderella Theory Paisley Park Records
1993 Hey Man, Smell My Finger Paisley Park Records
1993 Sample Some of Disc - Sample Some of D.A.T. AEM
1996 Testing Positive AEM
1998 Dope Dogs XYZ
2005 How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? The C Kunspyruhzy

Famous songs

* Loopzilla (1982) UK #57, US R&B #19
* Atomic Dog (1983) UK #94, US R&B #1
* Nubian Nut (1983) US R&B #15
* Do Fries Go With That Shake? (1986) UK #57, US R&B #13

with The Parliaments:

* (I Wanna) Testify (1967) US #20, US R&B #3

with Funkadelic:

* Maggot Brain (1971)
* Cosmic Slop (1972)
* One Nation Under A Groove (1978) US #29, US R&B #1
* (Not Just) Knee Deep (1979) US #77, US R&B #1

with Parliament:

* Up For The Down Stroke (1974) US #63, US R&B #10
* Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) (1976) US # 15, US R&B #5
* Starchild (Mothership Connection) (1976) US R&B #26
* Dr. Funkenstein (1977) US R&B #43
* Flashlight (1978) US #16, US R&B #1
* Aqua Boogie (1979) US #89, US R&B #1

Soul-Patrol Remembers Ray Davis (Bass Singer From P-Funk, Temptations, Zapp,

I was all set to give yall a sterling report from the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Inductions.
However on my way back tonight my cellphone was burning up with calls, not unlike what happened to me on Friday afternoon with Luther Vandross. I was getting phone calls all the way from Chicago to NJ from members of the P-Funk family.
Right at this moment I don't feel much like writing anything

Ray Davis the GREAT bass singer for P-Funk, Temptations and Zapp passed away this evening. At various points in his career, Ray had been a member of all three groups.
However he is best known as one of the founding members (along with George Clinton, Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon) of a relatively unsuccessful/long suffering doo wop group from Plainfield New Jersey called the "Parliaments" back in the late 1950's.

They later went on to great fame as "Funkadelic", then later "Parliament" and of course as "Parliament-Funkadelic" during the 1970's. Ray Davis's is voice is famous for having delivered some of the most memorable and lasting lines in the history of FUNK MUSIC. In fact some of his most famous lines have become a part of the lexicon of the American language as we know it today and will last well into the future. And for those accomplishments and more, Ray Davis was enshrined into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Later he joined Zapp where he played a similar role. Then he joined the Temptations, replacing Melvin Franklin. It is Ray's bass singing that you hear on what was in my opinion, the last great album by the Temptations ("For Lovers Only" - 1995). After that album Ray was forced to leave the Tempations because of the onslaught of lung cancer. When the cancer receded Ray along with Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon formed a group called "Original P" touring the country performing P-Funk, Temptations and Zapp songs.

Ray Davis was a member of the Soul-Patrol mailing list for many years and he loved it, although he never made more than a few postings He was one of the first artists to become "internet savvy" and as such was a big supporter of what we were trying to accomplish here on Soul-Patrol. He opened many doors for us, that we otherwise would not have been able to walk thru...
He was a friend to me.

I am going to miss Ray Davis quite a bit....

NP: "We gonna tear the roof off the muthasuka, tear the roof off the muthasucka, tear the roof off the suka..."
--Ray Davis

Bob Davis (7/2005)

A Few More Thoughts About Ray Davis

As you all know, I have been somewhat out of pocket this week while attending the Vocal Group HOF Inductions. Nevertheless the death of Ray Davis has weighed heavily on my mind all week. He is someone that will be missed.

While I was at the Vocal Group HOF Inductions on Wednesday I brought with me a printout of the piece that I wrote on Tuesday night about Ray's Death. I passed out the printout to as many people who were there that I thought would care.

As it turned out quite a few people there cared. As it turned out quite a few people who were there knew and loved Ray Davis.

These were artists that most of us fans would probably never even place in the same room with P-Funk. Folks sometimes forget that Ray started out as a "doo wopper" in the 1950's.

People like Danny & the Juniors, O'jays, Dells, Stylistics, Mary Wilson, Flamingos, Martha Reeves, Drifters, Platters, Coasters, Impressions, Clovers, Orlons and more. They had all knew and worked with Ray Davis. They were all in shock when I informed them.
Their eyes all wailed up. They all then began relating stories to me about working with Ray at various points in their careers

Much like going to a Victor Wooten show, and seeing tons of Bass players show up, going to the Vocal Music Hall of Fame Inductions you are in a place where there are tons of bass singers. I mean SERIOUS BASS SINGERS (who all have voices so deep that they make "mere mortals" like myself feel like we need an injection of testosorone in order to be in the same room with them.......lol).

ALL OF THESE GREAT BASS SINGERS KNEW & RESPECTED RAY DAVIS.
(after all he was "one of them")

Even the redneck bass singers from the Jordanaires (Elvis's backup singers) knew about Ray Davis.

As a funkateer sometimes I think of the music/culture that surrounds FUNK as being inside of it's own little self contained world. Then something like the death of Ray Davis and things become crystal clear....

FUNK...the bastard child of Blues, Soul, Rock, Gospel, Jazz, Doo Wop, etc. isn't really a thing unto itself. It is however more like the Rosetta stone, the primordial building block of ALL of the above.

Or as someone very wise once told me....
FUNK = "the essence of ALL black music"

Ray Davis was the living, breathing, walking and talking embodiment of that simple fact

"Music so low, you can't get under it..."
--Ray Davis

Bob Davis (7/2005)


# Live concert performance by ORIGINAL P (Parliament-Funkadelic) at the Roxy in Boston - : The ORIGINAL brotha's (Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas) who started the whole P-Funk Mob thang off, along with George Clinton, back in the 1950's. They have reformed today where they tour the country presenting one of the Slaminist P-Funk shows that your hard earned dollars will buy you. You are going to hear LIVE versions of Maggot Brain, One Nation Under a Groove, Knee Deep, STOMP and Flashlight as performed by Soul-Patrollers ORIGINAL P!
Hosted by Soul-Patrol.Net Radio's "nightrain"


* Original P ( Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas, Calvin Simon) - LIVE concert featuring Maggot Brain, One Nation Under a Groove, Knee Deep, STOMP and Flashlight LIVE from the Roxy in Boston, broadcast via Soul-Patrol.Net Radio

The Original Parliaments (Funkadelic Relics?)

[Old School C]

People always ask me what my favorite Funk song is and I always tell em if I had to pick one, it would have to be (Not Just) Knee Deep by Funkadelic the extended version. The reason is because it has the greatest live guitar solo ever played in a song to me. Michael Hampton bled on that track. Then you had Junie Morrison on keys!. Parliament Funkadelic had TOP NOTCH musicians.

[Edie Antoinette]

I'mma have to say Aquaboogie...nostalgic reason :=)

[Old School C]

Aqua Boogie of course, I feel you there. Bernie spoke a whole other dialect when it came to the Moog synthesizer. He's the man Mama Edie. Hey, did you post anything on Star Childs passing? He died on June 16th of this year from brain and lung cancer, so sad....

[Edie Antoinette]

Star Child? PLEASE do a write-up for me and thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. So sad. Which one was Starchild???

[Edie Antoinette]

No WONDER I love "Won't Go Away"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I recognized that familiar tone...Wow!!!!