The Bill Laswell topic

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IDK if it makes sense to compare artists of such a stature, and George certainly was much more influential (though Bill’s impact on the early developments of hip-hop and world music can’t be denied), but Bill Laswell is a true giant.

His discography is vertiginous both in quantity (he’s among the most prolific artists of all time) and diversity (there’s hardly a genre he didn’t touch): http://www.silent-watcher.net/billlaswell/discography/alphabeticalindex.html

Most funk fans are probably mostly familiar with his 90s collaborations with P-Funk alumnis, but there’s really a whole continent to discover if one is inclined to delve into other genres :heart_eyes:

So, to me, as someone who’s heard nearly everything those artists released, he’s up there with George and Prince: a true visionary, someone who developed a whole musical universe that’s purely his own, leaving us with a remarkable legacy.

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George Clinton new Patreon page
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He’s done so much stuff. Besides the pfunk related stuff from the 90s, I also like the later dub/ambient stuff.

I really hope Laswell gets well soon!
billlaswell.bandcamp.com

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Here we go…misunderstanding time…

I probably own almost 100 albums he (Laswell) either produced, co produced or played bass on.
Love his work.

there is however, not an equal level of comparison to the Clinton discography. I’m sorry that offends people on the
“PFUNK FORUM.”

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Bill’s output is insane. I was listening to Praxis a few weeks ago, and decided to dig into his discography. It stretches across so many genres.

Axiom Funk is still a favorite of mine. I remember picking it up from Columbia House, and was on of my first introductions into the world of P-Funk. It blew my mind.

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@silentboatman Thanks for creating a thread dedicated to Bill Laswell.

I’m not sure if it’s clear to people that my OP was actually a reply in another thread, so that’s the context if it seems a little confusing ^^

@DannyBedrosian I don’t know that anyone was offended, I certainly wasn’t, I was just making conversation (I’m not a native English speaker so IDK, maybe my phrasing sounds more dramatic than intended, in which case I apologize if it gives the wrong impression).

I suspect that, growing-up, P-Funk was for you what Prince was for me, so maybe you’re a little partial to George Clinton, IDK. For decades, I would have defended the thesis that Prince’s body of work surpasses any other. Now, at 49, it just seems to make little sense to me to try and hierarchize artists like that, because I don’t really know what objective criterias could possibly be used.

I mean, yeah, if someone comes and tells me “Chromeo’s body of work is equal to George Clinton’s”, I’d be like “nope”, because no matter how much I love Chromeo, their work is quite derivative, they didn’t release that much music and they didn’t inflence generations of subsequent artists. But how does one compare and hierarchize people such as Prince, George Clinton, Bill Laswell or, for that matter, Ryuichi Sakamoto or Haruomi Hosono or Frank Zappa or James Brown and so on?

I can’t really find any objective criterias to hierarchize those bodies of work and I don’t even know that it makes sense to try. I have my preferences (I don’t really care for Zappa’s music, for example), but beyond that, I just know that they’re all giants, they all had a major impact on the history and evolution of modern music, they all left a vertiginous amount of recordings… It’s like discussing “is Miles Davis better than John Coltrane or the other way around”? Man, I don’t know… Who does know?

Mostly, I just wanted to express my love and admiration for Bill Laswell’s work, because I have a very intimate history with it, it’s important to me, and I think Bill Laswell is really underrated simply because so few people know about his work (most people I know know who Prince is, many know who George Clinton is, hardly any of them has even heard the name Bill Laswell—it’s sad, really). And, on a side note, I originally discovered Laswell thanks to his collabs with the P-Funk people, so one passion led me to another (same way Prince led me to George in the first place).

Now if you wish to offer a rationale and explain why Bill Laswell’s work can’t be compared to George Clinton’s, it’s cool, I’ll hear the arguments, maybe I’ll even be like “oh, OK, Danny really has a point there”. It’s just a friendly, respectful discussion among geeks, I’m cool, we’re just nerdin’ here :slight_smile:

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Again, I’m surprised I have to say this here on the P-Funk Forum of all places. But the cultural comparison between George Clinton and Bill Laswell is so disparate that it hardly needs explanation. It’s hard to know where to even start, but I notice as the historiography of musical culture goes on in western civilization, the generations become less and less acknowledging and knowledgeable about the, as you guys said “hierarchy” so to speak, of artists.

The work speaks for itself, so it’s hard for me to go any further than the three books that I’ve already written on the subject. I’d say probably the best idea is to buy those books, LOL, and that will give you a better idea of why Clinton’s contribution could easily be argued as culturally and musicologically more important at least in terms of impact and worldwide recognition.

Yes Bill Laswell has played music from all over the world. Yes Bill Laswell is known internationally, I’m not denying that… But if you take 100 random people from almost anywhere, and ask them all who George Clinton is and who Bill Laswell is, well the results would speak for themselves.

In fact I’m usually the one in the room who has to argue for Bill laswell’s cultural connectivity, so to speak because most people have no idea who he is nor even care. And others, you would be surprised, especially in music circles, have much more to say about the actual contribution and how much or little weight it actually carries.
I’ve never worked in that camp and have no idea the inner workings beyond what I know from people who have.

I guess finally and most importantly, the longevity and impact once again of Clinton is far surpassing that of Laswell. I know this is just my opinion so to speak, but let’s look at the 71 year history and discography of the P. Laswell’s musical contribution, while great, of course and while discographically large, still only makes about half of that in terms of time.

Secondly let’s look at the impact in terms of charting and hits. How many hits came out of the Bill Laswell camp? And how many of those “hits” were actually contributed most notably by Laswell personally and specifically? Now let’s compare that to P-Funk and more specifically George Clinton’s production output which is the majority therein. There are many hits that can be mentioned, most of which are still played on the radio today; others have been sampled so much that they have expanded beyond the musicological output originally intended and have grown into something greater than their original selves. None of this can be mentioned with the Laswell discography.
And lastly, the live output and contribution of Clinton and camp Far supersedes That of any group that came out of the lazwell camp. The volume and international spread of P funk’s live work more than speaks for itself and is very hard to compare to almost any other band especially in terms of sheer volume and cultural importance.

I almost feel insane for having to describe this and give my opinion on this. It seems so obvious. If one was comparing George Clinton, and maybe James Brown or Sly Stone or the Beatles or Motown, some other great act like that that has had a similar type of cultural impact or perhaps a greater cultural impact,then I would understand how this conversation would be worth having. But Bill Laswell is such a niche name in the music business; you have to be extremely Underground to even know who he is, and considered avant garde to own any of his work, which by the way, I love.

I am perhaps the only person my age in my fairly large worldwide social circle who even knows who he is let alone enjoys the great discography that he has given us over the years. Perhaps it is the age or generational naivete for lack of a better word that is causing this misunderstanding to even occur.

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I have Funkcronomicon - Axiom Funk on cassette. I played the Sacred To The Pain track to death.

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I’m not sure those results would speak for themselves. Maybe you run in cooler circles than I do (I am sure you do, actually, being as connected to the P as you are…) but I think in my neck of the woods, if you were to take 100 random people, you might find that zero of them know George, or Bill.

But that said, your point is well-made that if you were to expand this polled sample to a statistically significant number, eventually you would find that GC is much more well-known than Bill Laswell. That is obvious.

I know that I would not know a single thing about Bill Laswell if not for his frequent collaborations with P-funk, most often Bernie and Bootsy.

(I realize that this conversation is ongoing because @lotusflow3r began comparing the relative “value” provided to subscribers by each artist, and to be honest, that’s a conversation worth having, but for the time being I’m just going to watch and occasionally ask questions to better understand).

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