Record Label Name:

WESTBOUND, WARNER BROTHERS, MCA.

Record Label Type:

Major

Genre:

Funk, Psychedelic, Rock

Biography:

This tribute page has been created to simply honour the U.S. band FUNKADELIC. It is dedicated to every single one of the many members of the band from the past, the present and all future members.

In 1955, and at the very young age of only 14, George Clinton was so inspired by a group called 'Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers' that he founded his own doo-wop group with Charles Davis, Gene Boykins, and Herbie Jenkins. The name of the group he formed were called The Parliaments, which was taken from an American brand of cigarette. By day, and when not in school or rehearsing, these group members styled hair at a Plainfield barbershop called the Tonsorial Parlor, and at night they would also perform at local hops, school dances, and also on the street corners of Plainfield, New Jersey. In their first year this group were constantly rehearsing in an attempt to get there act together for better things to come, and in 1956 The Parliaments, which then comprised of Clinton, Davis, Robert “Walkin’ Pneumonia” Lambert, Grady Thomas, and Calvin Simon, recorded for the first time in a record booth in Newark, New Jersey. They sang “The Wind” and “Sunday Kind Of Love.” Then two years later in 1958 they recorded a pair of songs for Hull Records, “Poor Willie” and “Party Boys,” and the following year, “Lonely Island” and “Cry” for Flipp Records. In June of 1959 the Hull recordings were released on ABC records, a Paramount Films subsidiary label, but sales were not heartening. In 1962 Clinton started working for Jobete Music, the New York branch of Motown Records’s publishing company. A year later in 1963, and with a somewhat altered lineup of George Clinton, Clarence 'Fuzzy' Haskins, Calvin Simon & Grady Thomas, the band went to Detroit for an audition in the Motown offices, but met with little success. Looking for other avenues for his burgeoning musical entrepreneurship, Clinton began producing records on a freelance basis. In 1964 The Parliaments cut various demo tapes for Jobete, including “I’m Into Something, I Can’t Shake It Loose” which was later recorded by the Supremes, and also “I’ll Bet You” which The Jackson Five later recorded. It was also in 1964 that Ed Wingate opened the Golden World recording studio in Detroit and founded two labels: Golden World and Ric-Tic. Clinton sensed opportunity there and joined forces with ex-Jobete coworker Sydney Barnes and Motown saxophonist Mike Terry to create a production team called Geo-Si-Mik. For two years Clinton flew to Detroit each Monday and returned to New Jersey each Friday to work at the barbershop over the busy weekends. In 1965 and 1966 Geo-Si-Mik produced Pat Lewis’s “Can’t Shake It Loose,” Theresa Lindsey’s “I’ll Bet You,” and J. J. Barnes’s “Day Tripper.” Clinton alone produced the Fantastic Four’s single “Girl Have Pity” in 1966 as well as Pat Lewis’s “Look at What I Almost Missed.” And also at around this time Wingate’s business partner, LeBaron Taylor, founded his own labels called Revilot, Golden World Records and Solid Hit, and in late 1966 The Parliaments were signed to Revilot Records and recorded two songs for them, “I Want To Testify” and “I Can Feel the Ice Melting” but the many difficulties of making inroads into the music business finally frustrated Clinton enough to make him decide to move back to New Jersey and work full time in the barbershop. But Clinton wasn’t discouraged for long, because on February 9, 1967 “(I Just Wanna) Testify” rose to Number 20 on the pop charts and to Number Five on the rhythm and blues charts, more than six months after it was first recorded. So finally after recording and performing together for over a decade, The Parliaments had finally hit the big time. Now recording began in earnest, and the next single, “All Your Goodies Are Gone (The Loser’s Seat)” also did well on the charts, this song was cut in a single session along with other tunes such as “A New Day Begins” “I’ll Wait” “Little Man” “The Goose (That Laid The Golden Egg)” and “Time”. By this time, The Parliaments also had a backing band for recording and touring purposes which was comprised of Eddie Hazel on lead guitar, Lucius Tunia “Tawl” Ross on rhythm guitar, Ramon “Tiki” Fulwood on drums, and William 'Billy Bass' Nelson on bass, it was Nelson who had coined the backing bands' name as The Funkadelics, the concept behind the name was firstly to pay omage to the “Godfather of Soul” James Brown and also the mid 60's funk scene in general, as well as the Anti-Vietnam War/Flower Power/Drugs movement in the USA of that time, along with the psychedelic sound of the MC5 and also Iggy Pop And The Stooges, two Detroit bands that Nelson, Clinton and other members had come to know and also appreciate. So The Parliaments along with their backing band The Funkadelics moved to Detroit in late 1967, and purely on the strength of the sucess of “(I Just Wanna) Testify” The Parliaments went on a nationwide tour of the U.S. and they were even given top billing above the O'Jays when they performed at the renowned Apollo Theatre in New York City. Despite the growing success of The Parliaments, George Clinton continued his outside projects of co-writing and co-producing with several artists and songs including The Flaming Embers’ “Hey Mamma (Whatcha Got Good For Daddy)” and Pat Lewis’s “I’ll Wait”, and also co-writing J. J. Barnes’s “So Called Friends” and the Debonaires “Loving You Takes All My Time” and “Headache in My Heart.” In 1968, Golden World records and their publishing house was bought out by Motown’s Berry Gordy, and soon after that, LeBaron Taylor’s Revilot label also folded without paying any money to The Parliaments, and they survived primarily by touring. So after having taken so long for stardom, they were quickly bought down to earth when Revilot went bust & finally folded. Under the conditions of the groups contract, Revilot Records also took the name The Parliaments into liquidation with it, and as such, Clinton also temporarily lost the right to use the name The Parliaments due to legal differences among various record labels. And as a result, the group, which had now grown in size, were without a name and also without a record label. Just prior to Motown’s purchase of Golden World and the demise of Revilot, The Parliaments had recorded a number of songs for an album called 'Whatever Makes Baby Feel Good', but due to the problems at Revilot and losing the rights to the band name, it never got released, although many if not all of the tracks have made their way on to other later albums by Parliament / Funkadelic. But to date the intended album that the tracks were cut for has never been released. It was also at about this time that a classically trained keyboard wizard named Bernie Worrell joined the backing band, who had just changed their name to 'Funkadelic', and along with some backing from Rose Williams, Clinton and co re-recorded “Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good” and released it on their own Funkadelic label. George Clinton won back the right to use the name of The Parliaments shortly thereafter, but decided nonetheless to change the name to Parliament. When former Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland formed their Invictus label in 1967, they signed Parliament in 1968. At this point Clinton found himself in the rare position of leading two bands, Parliament and Funkadelic simultaneously.
So established at the dawn of the 1970s, the newly formed Funkadelic signed with Westbound Records and mixed hard rock, psychedelia, soul, and funk in equal measure. They released a brace of enormously influential albums throughout the decade, which cut a flaming path into the hearts and minds of an entire generation. This unit begot the musical genre "Acid Funk". In 1970 Parliament released its debut album, Osmium, on the Invictus label, and in March of that year, the Osmium album rose to Number 126 on the pop charts and Number Eight on the rhythm and blues charts. But despite its position in the R & B charts, Parliament’s Osmium was considered a flop and Billy Bass Nelson and Tawl Ross left the band. Almost from the start, a core group of musicians participated in the production of both Parliament and Funkadelic records. In 1972, George Clinton signed 'Parliament' to Casablanca Records, by which time bass player William 'Bootsy' Collins, his guitarist brother, Phelps 'Catfish' Collins, and drummer Frankie “Kash” Waddy, who were all former sideman for James Brown joined the Parliament/Funkadelic group. And so were working with Clinton in a lineup of more than 25 musicians which also included singer-guitarist Garry Shider and guitarist Cordell “Boogie” Mosson, both from the band United Soul, and drummer Tyrone Lampkin, of Gutbucket, and soon Bootsy Collins was co-writing and co-producing much of the groups’ music to which he added a distinctive new groove to their sound. So Parliament-Funkadelic, or 'The Parliafunkadelicment Thang' as it came to be known, is a Funk/Rock music collective headed by George Clinton, that specialized in the style of music known as P-Funk and performed under the two names, Parliament and Funkadelic (two bands comprised of the same members, recording for different labels), but there were also a score of offshoot groups and solo ventures. And over time, the line between Funkadelic and Clinton's many other projects became increasingly blurred. Recording under a myriad of different names, this musical ensemble had thirteen Top Ten hits in the U.S. R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits in the R&B Charts. For some idea of the recorded output from this musical stable, please take a moment to view the photo album of P-FUNK COVERS. They were elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Collectively, the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically-charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums, and memorable live performances. Sadly it all disbanded in the late seventies due to finacial and contractial problems. But even still to this day, the band tours as either George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars or George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, with many of the original members in the tour line-up. Funkadelic et all have influenced everyone from rock bands (Talking Heads, Red Hot Chili Peppers) to rap acts (Dr. Dre, Ice Cube), and the band remain among the most distinctive funk-rockers ever. And it is also estimated that the P-Funk Thang is the music now most sampled above all else, even more than James Brown records!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DOWNLOAD SOME P-FUNK FOR FREE, THEN PM ME AND I WILL SEND YOU A LINK TO DO SO WHERE POSSIBLE.

Members:

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER: Andre Williams, Bernie Worrell, Calvin Simon, Clarence Haskins, Cordell Mossoon Junior, David Lee Spradley, Dennis Chambers, Dwayne McKnight, Eddie Hazel, Frank Waddy, Gary Cooper, Garry Shider, (Garry Shider Known for his soulful voice, Shider was born in Plainfield, NJ and grew up singing with gospel legends. After a short time living in Canada, Shider returned to the U.S. to join P-Funk. He sang lead on many of the band’s most well-known songs, including “Cosmic Slop,” “One Nation,” and “Getting to Know You,” and also co-authored hits such as “Atomic Dog.” As a solo artist in the post-Funkadelic years, Shider has received accolades for his songwriting and producing work, including several Grammy nominations and Dove Gospel awards.) George Clinton, Glenn Goins, Grady Thomas, Harold Bean, Jerome Brailey, Larry Fratangelo, Lige Curry, Michael Hampton, Mickey Atkins, Mike Payne, Phelps Collins, Raymond Davis, Rodney Curtis, Ron Brykowski, Ron Ford, Tawl Ross, Tiki Fulwood, Tyrone Lampkin, Walter Morrison, William Collins, William Nelson Junior,

Artist's Website:

georgeclinton.com/