George Clinton (1941 - )
Related: black music - black science fiction - Bootsy Collins - Pedro Bell - Funkadelic - P-funk - funk
Unidentified photograph of George Clinton
Biography
George Clinton (born July 22, 1941) is an American musician, considered one of the fathers of funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funky artist as of 1981.
He was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey. In Plainfield, he ran a barber salon, where he straightened hair, and soon formed a barbershop quintet, inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, called The Parliaments. Despite initial failures, the Parliaments eventually found success under the names Parliament and Funkadelic in the seventies (see also P Funk). This article will focus on his solo efforts after 1981. For information on The Parliaments, Parliament or Funkadelic, see their respective articles, or P Funk. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Clinton_(funk_musician) [Jul 2004]
The Mothership Connection (1975) - Parliament
The Mothership Connection (1975) - Parliament [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Mothership Connection is a funk album by Parliament, released in 1975. This concept album (see P Funk mythology) is usually rated as one of Parliament's best. Mothership Connection was the first P-funk album with Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, who had left The JB's, James Brown's backing band. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothership_Connection [Jan 2006]
Electric Spanking War Babies (1981) - Funkadelic
Electric Spanking War Babies (1981) - Funkadelic
[Amazon.com]
image sourced here.
Minor effort by Funkadelic, listed here because of Pedro Bell's cover art and the provocative title.
Cosmic Slop (1973) - Funkadelic
Cosmic Slop (1973) - Funkadelic [Amazon.com]
One of Funkadelic's best, again cover art by Pedro Bell.
Rest in P (2000) - Eddie Hazel
Rest in P (2000) - Eddie Hazel
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Often compared to the great Jimi Hendrix, Eddie never received the same level of fame and public admiration as Jimi sometimes suffering the same stigma as other great black guitarists such as Ernie Isley and being flagged as a mere Hendrix wannabe. As he told Guitar Player magazine, "I listened to Jimi a lot. It was very uncanny that our styles were alike, but that is what I was hearing inside. I wanted to make the guitar an extension of my singing. My style is really like solo vocalist guitar."
Born on April 10, 1950 in Brooklyn, he grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey where he sang in church before joining local R&B band the Boyce Brothers. He taught himself how to play after his brother bought him a guitar for Christmas while his family was still living in Brooklyn. [...] Penniless and homeless the last year of his life, Eddie moved back to his mother's Plainfield home. He had been suffering from chronic stomach problems for years, and finally he succumbed to internal bleeding and liver failure on December 23, 1992. [1]