George Clinton Talks Back

From doo-wop to the P-Funk Mothership, George Clinton has led his funky voyage through the musical universe and beyond.

- John Wirt

The journey began in New Jersey in 1955, when Clinton formed his doo-wop group, the Parliaments. During this first Clinton era, he also made weekly trips to the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The showmanship he saw there set the stage for the outlandish performances that Clinton’s various musical collectives—Funkadelic, Parliament, the P-Funk All Stars and ParliamentFunkadelic—staged in the decades that followed.

In 1967, years of singing and writing songs paid off with the Parliaments’ only hit, “(I Wanna) Testify.” But the Detroit-based Revilot Records’ business troubles compelled Clinton to leave the label and change the name of his group. Business and legal issues obliged him to record under various names throughout his career. In 1968, for instance, the Parliaments became Funkadelic. Two years later, Funkadelic became Parliament.

Using Motown Records as a model, Clinton assembled a collective of more than 50 musicians. In the 1970s, the group recorded as both Funkadelic and Parliament. Funkadelic worked in a psychedelic rock-band format. Parliament mixed the funk and soul influences of James Brown and Sly Stone with crazy costumes, science fiction and ’60s psychedelia. Later, a spaceship prop dubbed the P-Funk Mothership hovered above the band’s audiences.

The Parliament-Funkadelic collective reached its commercial crest in 1978–79. “Flash Light,” “Aqua Boogie,” “One Nation Under a Groove” and “(Not Just) Knee Deep” reached number one on the rhythm and blues charts. The albums One Nation Under a Groove and Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome sold a million copies each.

In 1980, more music business troubles prompted Clinton to release music as simply George Clinton. His success continued with several R&B hits, including another number one song, “Atomic Dog.”