URBAN GROOVE PREVIEW
GEORGE CLINTON and PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC
Monday, November 11
MacEwan Hall (U of C)
There’s no doubt that artists like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan have received honorary lifetime passes on the rock ’n’ roll musical nostalgia train. There is one artist, though, who has recently been inducted into the rock ’n’ roll hall of fame who doesn’t seem to fit in the company of rock’s AM radio luminaries – George Clinton.
While Dylan mesmerized the world by plugging into an available socket and waxing poetic about hobos and revolution, George Clinton sparked up a different kind of revolt. By taking his collective band of merry-making, cosmic revolutionaries to the stages of the North American concert circuit, Clinton almost single-handedly redefined what has become known to the world as funk. In the process of freeing asses, he also helped liberate, if not blow, a few minds.
With goblins, trolls and all manner of beasties dominating the musical landscape in the ’70s, Clinton’s revolution took the excesses of the decade to the extreme. He dispensed with the formula of what a funk band was or what it should be.
He and his collective Parliament/Funkadelic, which included notable sidemen like Bernie Wirrell and Bootsy Collins, tore the roof off most venues they played. By carefully cultivating a peculiar over-the-top, in-your-face, theatrical stage show (which introduced notable characters like Dr. Funkenstein), and combining it with a montage of politics and bass-thumpin’ good times, Parliament outdid even the most ambitious of the era, setting themselves well ahead of their contemporaries (even KISS). All this was achieved while Clinton remained true to his initial intent, spreading the message of interplanetary funk.
His crafty combination of the myriad influences in Black American music made him the true visionary. Under his rhinestone belt, Clinton blended psychedelic rock with gospel, jazz and blues to broaden another unique American music, funk.
Having been sampled by everyone from Tone Loc through to NWA, Clinton developed a rather prophetic sound that transcends the generational and genre gaps. In the new millennium, Clinton’s dabbling in electro-funk can be seen again coming to the fore in the emerging electro-clash movement.
Clinton’s musical achievements are magnificent. Whether the minions of modern dance music know it or not, much of what constitutes funky in our present tense owes a huge "big up yo..." to Clinton’s mind-bending exploration in the acid-soaked realms uncovered by Funkadelic and Parliament. |
