I posted about this on reddit a while ago, but it didn’t yield any useful results, so I figured I’d give it a shot here. I’m wondering if there are any available live recordings by the original Funkadelic lineup at all. And by the original lineup I mean Eddie Hazel, Tawl Ross, Bernie Worrell, Billy Bass Nelson and Tiki Fulwood btw.
The closest I’ve found are this video, which features Mickey Atkins in place of Bernie and Langston Booth in place of Tiki, and the 1971 Live At Meadowbrook album. The thing about the Meadowbrook show, as I’m sure many of you know, is that Tawl Ross and Tiki had quit the band shortly before the show, and were replaced by Harold Beane and Tyrone Lampkin, who had basically no time to rehearse. And when it comes to Tyrone’s drumming, the lack of rehearsal really shows (no disrespect to him; it was probably George’s fault). The drumming is quite messy a lot of the time, and it lacks the deep pocket grooves of Tiki’s drumming. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great show, but it’s not the transcendent experience it could have been.
So yeah, does anyone know if there are any bootlegs or anything that feature the entire classic lineup? There’s something really special about that lineup, and it would be a real shame if there aren’t any live recordings of them.
This is the holy grail of live P-Funk recordings and as far as I know none have ever surfaced and no one can even say if they exist. The closest visually is the one Detroit tv show that shows the original lip syncing to “I Got a Thing…”
I really wish something is out there!
I haven’t heard of any live sets from before Meadowbrook either. But yeah, that would be awesome! And don’t forget what Rob Bowman wrote in the Meadowbrook liner notes. Someday…
Ed Wolfrum remembers recording the group about a year earlier. Unfortunately, no one present knows where the tapes are. Now if these could only turn up, we could finally hear the original group with Tiki on drums and Tawl on rhythm guitar. The mind boggles at the thought!
You should definitely read it, great liner notes. The only one that’s maybe even better is the one from Music For Your Mother - Funkadelic 45s (also by Bowman).
Doh! It just hit me that the second video I posted is the same one that you posted… I must’ve been tired or something.
This has been my absolutely most sought out for recording since '96 when I bought the Meadowbrook album. Every few years I poke around the internet and look for something without success, though I did find a live Eddie Hazel’s New Funkadelic from Philly (1/31/92) albeit with dodgy sound. Someone else in this feed mentioned the importance of Tiki Fulwood’s drumming and I will second that. In fact, after Tiki left Funkadelic he played for a week with Miles Davis. A live recording of any sets from that period ranks 2nd on my list of most sought after recordings. Cheers
Very similar to the third clip you posted, silentboatman (which I never saw before, so thanks!) is this very similar video, which is more "finished’ but clearly the audio is dubbed over, i.e. it’s the same footage of them in a studio but minus the sounds they were making; the audio is from the record. There IS some cool other footage of band members tooling around on what seem like some sort of mopeds. I think this is all from that short period the band was based in Toronto, I think, and working on/recording “America Eats Its Young”…
Welcome to the forum!