Parliament-Funkadelic biographies?

Also just realised its George Clinton's birthday today!

 

happy birthday mr clinton

 

I just compiled the following discography based on Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums (plus a little cross referencing with Wikipedia). What a prolific decade for those freaks! From 1976 to 1980 they were releasing 5 or 6 albums per year!

Chart debut - Artist - Album (Label)

03/21/70 - Funkadelic - Funkadelic (Westbound)
07/07/70 - Parliament - Osmium (Invictus) *
10/31/70 - Funkadelic - Free Your Mind (Westbound)
08/14/71 - Funkadelic - Maggot Brain (Westbound)
06/17/72 - Funkadelic - America Eats Its Young (Westbound)
07/21/73 - Funkadelic - Cosmic Slop (Westbound)
07/04/74 - Parliament - Up for the Down Stroke (Casablanca) *
09/07/74 - Funkadelic - Standing on the Verge (Westbound)
05/03/75 - Parliament - Chocolate City (Casablanca)
07/19/75 - Funkadelic - Let's Take it to the Stage (Westbound)
02/21/76 - Parliament - Mothership Connection (Casablanca)
05/01/76 - Bootsy's Rubber Band - Stretchin' Out (Warner)
10/09/76 - Funkadelic - Tales of Kidd Funkadelic (Westbound)
10/16/76 - Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (Casablanca)
11/27/76 - Funkadelic - Hardcore Jollies (Warner)
??/??/76 - Fuzzy Haskins - A Whole Nother Thang (Westbound) *
02/05/77 - Bootsy's Rubber Band - Ahh...The Name Is Bootsy, Baby (Warner)
04/30/77 - Fred Wesley & the Horny Horns - A Blow for Me, a Toot for You (Atlantic)
05/21/77 - Parliament - Parliament Live/P. Funk Earth Tour (Casablanca)
12/24/77 - Parliament - Funkenntelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (Casablanca)
??/??/77 - Eddie Hazel - Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs (Warner) *
02/25/78 - Bootsy's Rubber Band - Bootsy? Player of the Year (Warner)
10/07/78 - Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove (Warner)
11/04/78 - Brides of Funkenstein - Funk or Walk (Atlantic)
12/16/78 - Parliament - Motor-Booty Affair (Casablanca)
??/??/78 - Parlet - Pleasure Principal (Casablanca) *
??/??/78 - Fuzzy Haskins - Radio Active (Westbound) *
07/21/79 - Bootsy's Rubber Band - This Boot is Made for Fonk-n (Warner)
08/??/79 - Fred Wesley & the Horny Horns - Say Blow by Blow Backwards (Atlantic) *
10/13/79 - Funkadelic - Uncle Jam Wants You (Warner)
12/22/79 - Parliament - Gloryhallastoopid (Casablanca)
??/??/79 - Bernie Worrel - All the Woo in the World (Arista) *
??/??/79 - Parlet - Invasion Of The Booty Snatchers (Casablanca) *
02/16/80 - Brides of Funkenstein - Never Buy Texas from a Cowboy (Atlantic)
12/06/80 - Bootsy - Ultra Wave (Warner)
12/13/80 - Sweat Band - Sweat Band (Uncle Jam)
??/??/80 - Parlet - Play Me or Trade Me (Casablanca) *
??/??/80 - Philippe Wynne - Wynne Jammin' (Uncle Jam) *
01/10/81 - Parliament - Trombipulation (Casablanca)
08/29/81 - Funkadelic - The Electric Spanking of War Babies (Warner)
05/29/82 - William "Bootsy" Collins - The One Giveth, the Count Taketh Away (Warner)
12/18/82 - George Clinton - Computer Games (Capitol)
??/??/83 - P-Funk All Stars - Urban Dancefloor Guerillas (Uncle Jam) *

* Did not chart on the Billboard 200

 

Does anyone have any more information on the US Music with Funkadelic LP that was released in 2009? This was a Gary Shider project pre-Funkadelic right?

 

United Soul was a band led by Ben Edwards. Tawl Ross was previously a member before joining Funkadelic. Garry Shider and Cordell Mosson of course later joined Funkadelic. Ben Edwards would joke that whenever George was short some band members he would steal someone from him.

Bernie Worrell and Tyrone Lampkin seem to be the only Funkadelics performing on this cd.

That's pretty much it about this cd. It seems to be a collection and not a proper unreleased album. There seems to be some other songs that will remain unreleased due to ownership issues. All of the songs on this cd were previously issued.

I'm sorry but that's pretty much it. They were only around for about five years and only managed to release one single.

***

George Clinton and the Brides backed by Funkadelic recorded a version of "Rat Kissed The Cat" in 1976 or '77 but it's not as sinister sounding as the United Soul version.

 

Really wish Tawl Ross would crawl out from whatever rock he's hiding under if he's still with us. I enjoyed the solo album he put out (in the early 90s I believe). Also enjoyed the solo album Billy Bass Nelson put out around then and would like to hear more from him.

 

Ben Edwards was the one who sang This Broken Heart right?

 

FWIW, just got my hands on an advance copy of George's upcoming memoir -- due Oct. 21 -- I'll give it a read this weekend an post a review if anyone's interested.

 

Just got the new Mojo magazine in the post (September 2014) and it's got a feature on P-Funk in the mid-70s in it, including new quotes by the looks of it.

 

funkadelic played at my college when I was a freshman,1972-73. I have some great photos from my yearbook that I can scan. it was a small school in upstate new York and blew my mind. never saw anything like it. I've seen them play 5-6 times but nothing like that. this was the diaper & wedding dress years!

 

There is another book on Parliament-Funkadelic other than the ones mentioned that was published or is about to be published. I think it is independently published ... just can't find a pic on my computer just now.

 

Tawl played at SXSW in 1996 to promote his solo album. He cut a second album but the record label went under so it's lost. He joined P. Funk All Stars on stage for a few songs when they came through his town. I think that was '96 too. He was interviewed last year by Rickey Vincent for his radio program but I missed it. Nobody saved a copy. Every now and then some pics of him pop up online showing him recording with people but no music is ever released. He lives in North or South Carolina. I think.

***

Billy's album was supposed to be a group album under the name O. G. Funkadelic and it would have just been Billy with Eddie Hazel, Bernie Worrell and Jerome Brailey but Eddie kept putting it off and ended up dying before he could record with Billy. And then Billy wasn't allowed to use the name "Funkadelic". And then he had a falling out with Bill Laswell over promotion of the album and vowed to never work with him again. Billy ended up joining P. Funk All Stars / Parliament-Funkadelic from 1994 to 2004. I don't know what he's doing now.

 

Yes. Ben Edwards sang "This Broken Heart", "Rat Kissed The Cat" and "Be What You Is" and Garry sang on the single.

 

I love his voice. I was never sure if it was him or Calvin Simon on that song. I still can't figure out what songs Simon and Grady Thomas had lead vocals on (if any) in the Parliament-Funkadelic albums.

 

On Osmium Calvin sang lead on "The Silent Boatman", "Oh Lord/ Why Lord" and "Livin' The Life".

On the group vocals Calvin can be heard on "I Call My Baby Pussycat". He is the first singer - "Now I'm the Tom cat and you're the pussycat..."
On "Put Love In Your Life" he is heard second - "Although he feels the ladder is shaking, He won't stop. He just keeps carrying on..."
On "Nothing Before Me But Thang" he is heard second - "My mom once said son you got to be cool..."

You can then pick the rest of his vocals out.

On The first Funkadelic album he sings lead on "Qualify and Satisfy".
On the group vocal "I'll Bet You" he is heard second - "A drowning man bet his firsts words are help and I bet ya" and then you should be able to pick the rest of his vocals out on this song.

Grady is not known to have taken a lead vocal. He is a baritone and had a somewhat similar voice to George.

 

I had assumed that was Grady on those songs mentioned. Man he's my favorite of the Parliaments then. He also did that "There's a whole lot of beaches!" bit too right?

 

The Mothership has landed!!

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smith...t-reassembled-for-its-museum-debut-180951685/

At the Smithsonian

 

Do you mean on the song "Be My Beach"? That was Garry Shider. George stopped using Calvin Simon and Fuzzy Haskins to sing on lead on songs after he got Garry in 1972.

***

The original Parliaments minus George formed a group called Original P [Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, Ray Davis, Grady Thomas] and put out two releases on Westbound records in the late 1990s if you're interested. It's not great.

Calvin doesn't do secular music anymore. Only Christian. He was on the 700 Club a few years ago.

 

Sorry this was the book that was posted ...

 

I thought I'd post these. These promos are fun if you've never seen them:

 

This one has the promos for Wynn Jammin', Trombipulation and Sweat Band:



Man I wish George would release that entire Newburgh rehearsal footage/audio someday!

 

Cope Freeland, thanks for the great info in this thread.

 

Just a little update, I'm only about 100 pages into George's memoir -- got a little sidetracked with work this week. On the one hand it's a little disappointing, unlike James Fox who did a brilliant job working with Keith Richards on Life to make sure that book capture Keith's voice and storytelling style, co-writer Ben Greenman hasn't much given us anything of George's voice in the book.

On the other hand, George's ideas and insights into how music was changing in the '50s and '60s, his thoughts about the emerging Funkadelic sound and style, come through brilliantly. George is one of the most thoughtful people I've ever had the pleasure to spend a couple hours over the years speaking with about music -- everything from the regional songwriting and production styles of Chicago and Detroit R&B to the vocal inflections of Barbra Streisand, he's a sponge who absorbs it all and puts it to use -- and that definitely comes through in the book in ways that are full of insight and very interesting.

In addition, although I've read pretty much everything published on the subject of P. Funk and interviewed at one time or another everyone from George and Boosty and Bernie and LeBaron Taylor and Armen Boladian and Billy Nelson and Gary Shider, etc, there are still some stories I'm hearing for the first time in here -- about the composition of "Testify," about who Deron Taylor is and why he has a songwriting credit on "Testify," etc. Looking forward to finishing it. It's due out Oct. 21.