Here’s mine. This may take a minute so sit back, dig, while I do it to you in your earhole.
I grew up in a small Texas town in north central Texas. I was 16 or 17 on a steady diet of heavy rock - AC/DC, Metallica, KISS, Aerosmith. I had a friend who was a Prince freak. (Hi Monty) So this is around 1987 so Sign O The Times. That was my only touching point to funk. I was in a mall in Brownwood and for some reason bought the Parliament cassette Greatest Hits The Bomb Uncut Funk.
I remember liking it some. I hated the second side because it was “disco”. But the first side, PFunk, just got in me.
I didn’t get Cinderella Theory, but definitely got Hey Man when it came out, so several years later. Saw a them live for the first time in 1993, so right at that time. Then fell in immediately. Started buying everything I could get my hands on, going to most every show that came to town.
At that time many of the CDs were only available as imports from Japan. All the Westbound Funkadelic and early Bootsy solo. I had all of them as imports. Pre-internet I dont remember how you knew about things like Zillatron or Axiom Funk but I had all of that as it came out for years.
It’s music that connects with me like no other. The closest to my spirit animal in musical form.
I was never into music much until I got a criminally underpaying job in junior high at a plant nursery. It was one of those jobs that was so monotonous that you would go insane without something to listen to. So I loaded up some of my dad’s music on my iPod which mostly consisted of classic rock stuff. (I mostly listened to AC/DC and Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Anyways, I become enthralled with the Chili Peppers and wanted more music like theirs. So I went to Wikipedia and just looked at who their influences were, and of course Parliament and Funkadelic were listed.
The first P-Funk album I listened to was Mothership. I remember when I first listened to it, I liked about half the songs. After about the third full listen, I was like “this is one of the best albums of all time!!!” So I went down the P-pipeline headfirst and I’ve been a huge fan ever since.
I remember it clearly. All happened over the course of a week. A lot of stuff happened that one week like it was leading me to them. For me it was both visual and audio.
These kids had this comic book or something in the back of homeroom. It was winter/spring of 1978. I was in the 7th grade. I couldn’t really see it. They lived in the hood. I was in the burbs. I kept trying to get a peek at what they were looking at.
So, the very next day, a friend of mine who played drums in the concert band (I played trumpet) came to me and kept asking me had I heard this song with this enormous bass on it. He said it was Parliament. He said you have got to hear it and you have not heard anything like it before. He was of course talking about Flashlight.
Well, that weekend, my mom and I were in the K-Mart and that is when I saw the album and it all clicked. I was not leaving that K-Mart without that record.
A few months later I discovered Funkadelic. But it was a mystery because as One Nation went up the chart to number one, the publications used the same exact picture they did when Parliament got number one on Flashlight.
So, I was like WTF is going on here!
When I did finally come across the One Nation album, I had trouble comprehending it. It sounded absolutely nothing like Funkentelechy Vs Placebo Syndrome.
I was 9 or 10. It was all about Motown up to that point along with Al Green and Isleys for me. Moms had Funkadelic’s "Let’s take it to the stage. The album cover scared the hell outta me because of the movie “Exorcist”. But I am digging the animations/drawings nevertheless. A little time had past. But not a lot. Moms then brings home "Mothership Connection, where some dude is coming out of a flying saucer on the front cover. Then on the back he’s landed in some funky alleyway somewhere. So I started reading the credits on the back. Well those names were the same names I noticed when I was checking out that very, very freaky album cover by that Funkadelic group. Low and behold these was the same mofos. I said to myself “would you look at this”? Same band members with two different names. I was impressed as how each concept was different from the other. I have not been the same since, nor do I wanna be.
I first heard of George in the late eighties. Firstly through the Chilli Peppers - Freaky Styley is still my favourite album of theirs. And a little later, Prince. Still not tempted to go looksee.
I’d hear songs like Me, Myself and I or Dre Day - Or Digital Underground - sampling the P, but I’m still not biting.
94 when a Canadian mate introduced me to Mothership and America Eats it’s young. Frankly I didn’t know what to make of the latter but it was love at first hear for Mothership. (He also had greatest hits - the bomb)
When I got back home I bought One Nation and then I was properly hooked.
Hey! Here’s my P-Funk Introduction story: I grew up in San Diego and I used to spend summers in Redondo Beach at my cousin’s. They listened to KDAY radio which was great for funk and soul music. They used to play “Get Up For The Down Stroke,” which I liked. It was a different sound. Then I saw “Chocolate City” at a record store so I bought it and have bought EVERYTHING ELSE since! Funk on!!
Now how I came upon the mysterious Casper The Funky Ghost is a whole nother tale.
Bootsy was waaaaaay up in the 'hood. Totally inaccessible to me where I was living. There was no black radio. Between Flashlight & One Nation is when it happened.
Somebody at school had a Rock & Soul Songs magazine and he was on the cover. Had no idea who he was but it was visually striking.
So, that summer of '78 I went to a camp in the hood. This dude would come in there during the lunch time recess and play this incredible jam and he would go on and on about the Hollywood Squares. He knew it word for word and would just recite and act out the lyrics as it blasted out of the 100-watt stereo. I said this has got to be connected to Parliament, I just knew it.
I finally got a lil crinkly and made it to the Sears and that is where I bought my first album with my own money. Player of The Year.
Hmmm, so this is the W.Collins listed on half the songs on the Placebo album.
I then saw Bootsy in an Ebony magazine and they were talking about Munchies. I said wait a minute, you mean there’s more!?
It was on from there. The first chance I got I went and bought Stretchin’ Out and Ahh The Name Is out the cut-out bin on the same day.
That was one of the most glorious Saturday afternoon’s I can remember. I went up in my room, shut the door, and played those albums til the grooves wore out. I literally could not believe I was immersed in funk so deep.
I got into P-Funk in the early 90s from my older brother and his friends. A friend of mine had a VHS with a 15 min promo of live from Houston. Hadn’t seen anything p-funk related and didn’t know what to expect. It was crazy. Glen calling down the mothership and GC coming out of it. It blew my mind!
I think the first album I got was that 2CD Parliament compilation Tear The Roof Off. And then I got Clones, Standing on the Verge and the first Funkadelic on vinyl. TAPOAFOM was the first album I got when it actually got released. I remember that I was so excited. I also got the CD single with some interactive CD-ROM stuff on it..
My oldest sister bought the Standing on the Verge album back in 1974. I’d listen it. I grew up in the hood, and would often hear people playing Stretching Out, Take Your Dead A** Home, Tear the Roof etc. I think the first P-Funk album I bought was Motor Booty Affair, then One Nation, etc. After I bought all the late 70s Parliament-Funkadelic albums, plus Sweat Band and Phillipe Wynn, I went backwards and bought all earlier Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy, Brides, Parlet albums on vinyl. The only album I don’t have on vinyl is Electric Spanking. For some reason, I bought that one on cassette.
it was January 1979. i was 13 and doing my maths homework in Nottingham, England. On the TV was Top of the Pops and suddenly something came over me, a new sensation that i had never felt before. I looked at the TV and all I saw was a dance routine by Pan’s People. I missed hearing what the song was and who by. I ran upstairs to me transistor radio and tuned into Radio Luxembourg, just praying that I would hear the song again. On the hour, the DJ announced his song of the week which would be played on the hour every hour. That night I never slept. Every 60 minutes I sat in awe, my body somehow taken over by the music. It was One Nation. I was hooked and spent all my pocket money on P-FUNK. In 1991, i had my first child. She is called Mallia. A year later, i welcomed a son and named him George Clinton. A third arrived in 95. His middle name is Bootsy. Only P-FUNK and Rod Temperton became my obsession. I was fortunate to write a book about the latter and am equally fortunate to still listen to the P every day.
I just found the Top of the Pops segment with One Nation. It was in fact, Legs & Co dancing…and they are in army fatigue! Looks like they were strutting to rescue dance music from the blahs before Uncle Jam.
I was honored to spend time with Rod for a BBC Radio documentary which i turned into a book after his death…both called the Invisible Man. I would have loved to have done the same with Junie. Along with George, they influenced my life like no others.
