P-radio

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George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic

P-Funk (short for Pure & uncut radio , and P Funk or P.Funk ) is a variety of genre radio , which in the late 1960s in the United States , first as a mixture of psychedelic rock music , Soul developed and funk. The main characters were George Clinton and Bootsy Collins with the band projects they produced Parliament , Funkadelic , Parlet and Brides of Funkenstein .

Meaning and history

The term P-Funk is also an abbreviation for the names of the two bands Parliament and Funkadelic, which were later also traded as "Parliament-Funkadelic" in combination with the "P-Funk All Stars". The term can also be interpreted as an abbreviation for "Pure Funk" or "Psychedelic Funk" and as "Plainfield Funk" (Plainfield / New Jersey was the hometown of The Parliaments , the first group of George Clinton, but conceptually based on the soul of the sixties Years and had to give up the name due to quarrels with the record company, which held the rights to the name "Parliaments"). P-Funk is also part of the title of a piece of music on Mothership Connection , an album by Parliament (excerpt: "I want the bomb. I want the P-Funk. I want my funk uncut." - German: "I want the bomb." . I want the P-Funk. I want my Funk uncut. ")

Initially more rock-oriented (than Funkadelic), P-Funk (e.g. under the names Funkadelic and Parliament ) revolutionized African-American pop music with electronically generated handclaps , synthesizer bass and jazzy brass sections to polyrhythmic grooves ( Electro Funk ) , while the singing, influenced by gospel and soul , expressed a new self-confidence with subtle lyrics. In 1975 the era of P-funk began as a real spiritual form of black music in the tradition of jazz, soul, reggae or gospel. From around 50 to 70 musicians, George Clinton, a trained hairdresser and still Doo Wop singer in the 1950s , formed an empire made up of various band projects with their own fictional P-Funk mythology . Its core is the conflict between the fictional characters Starchild (the good) and Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk (the bad) as well as the landing of a spaceship called the Mothership . The P-Funk mob turned the funk into an ideology. The live performances of the bands that united in the P-Funk mob were legendary and in some cases up to 30 musicians in bizarre disguises populated the elaborately designed stages. A concert rarely lasted less than two hours.

Many musicians started their solo careers out of the P-Funk mob . After the P-Funk mob had become a little quieter since the mid-1980s due to legal disputes and creative stagnation , the credits of many rap musicians brought the "ancestors" new popularity. In 2004, an (almost) complete P-Funk ensemble toured the United States and Europe again. As a result, P-Funk has remained the greatest influence in black music since its popular zenith in 1978.

Musical characteristics

Funkadelic's albums were more oriented towards the guitar sound of funk and rock and contain pieces with many solos and pure instrumental works. The singing was mostly done by the band members themselves. Keyboard arrangements were usually used for the melody. At Parliament, the focus was on singing, which was heavily influenced by gospel and was often inserted into harmonies that sounded strange to the listener. Keyboard and bass are the main instruments, the guitar provides riffs for the appropriate accompaniment of the main melodies.

After the two bands merged under the name Parliament-Funkadelic, various characteristics of the musical style emerged, primarily through the band members themselves. Keyboard player Bernie Worrell with spacey synthesizer melodies on the one hand and blues and jazz piano style on the other, electric bass lines shaped by Bootsy Collins, brass arrangements of the Horny Horns Combo and subtle, constant drum interludes. In the music of P-Funk, European chord structures often meet African rhythms, which result in the full ensemble sound.

With the Parliament Funkadelic Combo, a new era in the production of funk music begins in terms of recording. This is characterized above all by the multi-track recording technology that George Clinton has innovatively integrated into the P-Funk production.

Important names of the P-Funk

Bands

Musician

Influential P-Funk songs

  • Flash Light - Parliament
  • One Nation Under a Groove - Funkadelic
  • Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give up the Funk) - Parliament
  • (Not Just) Knee Deep - Funkadelic
  • Maggot Brain - Funkadelic
  • Atomic Dog - George Clinton
  • Aqua Boogie - Parliament
  • More Bounce to the Ounce - Zapp

Influenced bands and musicians

literature

  • Rickey Vincent: Funk . New York 1995.

Web links

  • Motherpage - Comprehensive collection of information about P-Funk (English)