(Pre) Funky Friday- Doo Wop Skeletons In Clinton's Closet-The Parliaments

Name two artists who came into music via their love of doo wop, exploded into the popular consciousness in the 70's, operated with a deep contempt of the music business, put together ultra talented bands, presented (still present) legendary live shows, used humor to make much larger points, and always seemed to be just a little bit ahead of their time.

My answer is George Clinton and Frank Zappa. Sure, some of their methods were different, but their career arcs have many similarities, including loyal worldwide fan bases and massive revisionist critical acclaim. The world just needed time to catch up with what they were doing.

 The key similarity, though, is their doo wop roots. Most folks in the 70's would've pegged Funkadelic or the Mothers of Invention as "acid rock", probably because that was the surface look, feel, and sound of their bands and the music they played. But group vocals styles were always a part of their music, from Zappa's tribute/satire to Doo Wop, Crusin' With Rueben and The Jets or P-Funk's constant reinvention of their early doo wop material in songs like , The Goose, I Wanna Testify,or All Your Goodies Are Gone, which became funkier as later versions emerged.

George Clinton and Frank Zappa used "the forms and clichés of their era and perverted them" (The Real Frank Zappa Book). Did one influence the other? If anything, it was probably Zappa that influenced Clinton..although George's genius was the sheer amount of synthesis that went into P-Funk music; nothing short of a primer of rock and roll era music from doo wop to hip hop. In the end both Frank and George used whatever freedom their outsider status conveyed on them to make some timely and timeless records, that repay repeated listens with new revelations. Long lost brothers? Maybe not.

The transitional records made by the Parliaments from their doo wop days to their Funkadelic days have been readily available, and most folks with some knowledge of the history assume the Parliament's 1968 top 20 R&B (Motown inspired, but clearly headed in a new direction) hit , I Wanna Testify, was the beginning of the P-Funk story. Truth is, George and his crew had been paying dues for more than 10 years. So, before the madness of Parliament's Osmium (1970) and Funkadelic's self titled debut (1970), there were these stabs at doo wop stardom, put together by some friends who met at a Plainfield,NJ barbershop.

1958 7" Poor Willie /Party Boys -APT 45-25036
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1959 7" Lonely Island/(You Made Me Wanna) Cry -Flipp FL-45-100/101
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I pulled these off the (I think) bootleg CD I Wanna Testify (go get testify), which includes all the prehistoric P-Funk in one place on CD for the first time.

Finally, here's I Wanna Testify, the first paydirt for George Clinton, and probably the only reason the mothership ever had a chance to leave this planet. Testify's success enabled George and his crew, to tour, to get sued for using the name Parliaments (precipitating the need to invent the name Funkadelic), and most importantly, to relocate to Detroit and psychedelicize into a unit capable of funkatizing entire galaxies.

Cheers to George, for 50 years of survival and subversion..and cheers to Frank for his incredible output of sonic genius and unrelenting truth telling.

(I Wanna) Testify/I Can Feel The Ice Melting- Revilot-207
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P.S.-The first song at my second wedding was I Can Feel The Ice Melting.
P.P.S.- To Explain my title pun check out the title cut from this '86 George Clinton solo record
R&B Skeletons In The Closet

Go Get R & B Skeletons In The Closet

Funkateers Rejoice - By Way Of The Drum

originally posted 4.28.07
In 1989 I lived in New London,CT, worked as a roofer, DJ'ed at WCNI (Connecticut College), and lived in a house with 4 other DJ's from the station. All of us were long past finishing or getting kicked out of college. Needless to say music was pretty important to us and I learned an awful lot there.

The characters were: Me, Mr.P-Funk, Hip Hop guy (listening then:X-clan, James Brown,PE,Black Heat); Rob: By day an accountant, by night a hard drinking, indie rock animal. (Slint,Fetchin' Bones); Greg: Mr.Acoustic, listener to all things americana. (Doc Watson,Johnson Mountain Boys);Tim (we called him King Tubby), muckety muck at WCNI and all around collector of "good" music, but specializing in reggae;Tapes: the sound guy at the local music haunt, The El N' Gee, where over the years many of todays MOG heroes paid some dues. Tapes had all those shows,over 1,000 in his collection. (The Reducers, Joe Louis Walker).

I probably would've stayed in this music cocoon for eternity, except that New London was a military sub building town and peace was breaking out all over the world and folks didn't want to buy any more submarines. So as good a time as I was having (and I was having a very good time), the town was running about 50% unemployment. This eventually led to a lay off for me from the roofing job I had. There I was in music nirvana, but I had no job.

Unemployment did not stop me from going to the local Strawberries and picking up a new Funkadelic single I'd read about called By Way of the Drum. It said all the right things on the back, produced by George Clinton, Eddie Hazel-Guitar, and from the forthcoming album,By Way of the Drum. Now he're was something to save that government check for! I waited and waited for this record, so long I almost forgot about it, so long that I moved from New London (unemployment ran out).

I ended up in Chicago, a new phase in my life and eventually the P-Funk machine started up again with tours, George Clinton Albums, and a renewed interest in all things funky. My move to Chicago forced me to dump all my 12" vinyl including, By Way of the Drum, and with my first music biz job and all my new surroundings I finally forgot about the "lost" Funkadelic LP.

I am now, almost 20 years on, happy to report that By Way of the Drum, has been found! Re-issued by Hip-O Select and currently only available on line, I now have the CD in my grubby little hands, and for me, that is a very cool thing. I'm not going to tell you that Drum is on the level with classics like Maggot Brain or even Uncle Jam Wants You, but it is different (in a good way) from material The Mob released in the late 80's- early 90's. The 80's sounding drums and synths are in full effect, but the guitars are hard and up in the mix a lot more. "Sunshine of Your Love "(one of the only covers I've ever seen on a legit Funkadelic record) and 'Some Fresh Delic" feature guitar goodness from Hazel,Hampton, and McKnight, and the rest of the LP is certainly not de void of funk with hip hop styles very much present. In the end, if you are not a fan, this prolly ain't for you, but if you are it is a good day.Funk on,children.

Highlights from By Way Of The Drum