Based on the titles of many live releases, both official and unofficial, it seems that when George & Co tour, they typically go by the name Parliament-Funkadelic. On the Live 4CD set, for example, the majority of the tracks from the 70s are credited to Parliament-Funkadelic. Same with the three unofficial live sets that have come out recently through RoxVox.
But, the two most widely available live releases from the groups that were performed during the 70s - live at Meadowbrook and P-funk Earth Tour Live, are both credited to one half of the usual touring name, Funkadelic and Parliament, respectively.
Was this just for simplicity’s sake, so that the artist name matched the names on the other records? (i.e. at the time there were no studio albums credited to both). Or, at this time were they actually just touring under separate names and only playing songs “belonging” to one band or the other?
Looking at the posters/handbills they were mostly credited Parliament-Funkadelic (until 1981). But up to around 1975 they were sometimes credited differently.
I don’t believe that was the case.
What I always thought was that the P.Funk Earth Tour album was credited to Parliament because that name was the most famous at the time.
And that Live at Meadowbrook got credited to Funkadelic just felt right, with it’s guitar heavy sound and all. But I don’t know what name that show was actually credited to. There was another show nine days earlier (on the 3rd of September 1971) that was credited to Parliament Funkadelic…
But writing this, it hit me that it could also be a record company thing. Casablanca released the Parliament stuff and Westbound/Ace released Funkadelic. Maybe they couldn’t or didn’t want to use the other name.
I see what you mean. I think for the most part they were known as Parliament-Funkadelic from what this looks like. I saw something interesting - on the same bill as them once was Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds. I wondered if that association had something to do with Blackbyrd eventually joining the mob, but I can find no association between him and Donald Byrd’s band. Just a coincidence.
I think you’re right that it’s about labels. Since posting this, I’ve been reading this article:
https://www.stereogum.com/1822964/p-funk-albums-from-worst-to-best/franchises/counting-down/attachment/live-p-funk-earth-tour/
and this writer (who knows his stuff), says, " The thing is that the Earth Tour was a Parliament- Funkadelic tour, which means putting it out as an album meant Casablanca had to stick solely to the Parliament bits. This set, pieced together from two January '77 stops in Los Angeles and Oakland, does a decent job of it, at least… the show as a whole – or at least the whole we get – is rousing from start to frequently-interrupted finish. But rough, Funkadelic-excising edits chop up the setlist’s flow"
It must be a dicey legal area, because to my knowledge there’s nothing wrong with releasing a live album with cover songs of other artists, so couldn’t Casablanca have released a parliament live album where they “covered” Funkadelic on a few tracks? Maybe not, if it was actually themselves they were covering?
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99% of the time bands tour and play their songs for only one main reason Business first and Rhythmn second, no matter how big and long their back history. It’s usually nearly, almost always a Pimpadelic type thang.
Yeah that would have been a great story, but I don’t think Blackbyrd have any connection to Donald Byrd’s band. I read that he joined the mob (first by playing live with the brides) thanks to Ron Brembry and Archie Ivy.
I agree his spelling the name with a “Y” is a banana peel. Before the P, he was a Headhunter.
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Well at least Undisco Kidd is on Earth Tour even if it is the only one listed by title.
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