Parliament-Funkadelic’s ‘Funky Genius’ Talks Legacy and Music Making as 2024 Pop Conference Keynote – Annenberg Media

When George Clinton took the stage, the entire Bovard Auditorium audience jumped to its feet for a standing ovation. The 82-year-old GRAMMY winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee wore a flashy red crystal hat and a floor-length black and white sequined coat that sparkled against the stage lights every time he moved.

Clinton is the musical mastermind behind Parliament-Funkadelic, affectionately called “P-Funk” by many, a group that embodies an eccentric kind of Afrofuturism that is shaking up the rock world with a new sound – funk. Iconic songs like “Atomic Dog,” “Flashlight,” “Knee Deep,” “Maggot Brain” and “One Nation Under a Groove” represent just a small part of the legacy Clinton will leave behind.

Legacy was a central theme in his appearance at Pop Conference on March 7.

Clinton spoke with noted journalist, author and editor Daniel Smith in the main discussion. The conference, now in its 22nd year, features over 40 papers, roundtables and panels. Smith was able to ask Clinton about Parliament-Funkadelic’s origins, influences and how it made its mark on the music industry.

P-Funk emerged as a result of the doo-wop music that Clinton grew up listening to in 1950s New Jersey. The “criminal” sound, Clinton recalled, was in vogue from The Temptations and Gladys Knight and the Pips to Little Richard and Elvis Presley.

It was with their influence in the early 1960s that the teenage Clinton formed Parliament. At first, the group conformed to the style of the time with matching costumes and coordinated dance steps — the latter of which Clinton still managed to mime when Smith played one of Parliament’s oldest songs.

Although the group was sold by Motown in the late 1960s, Clinton took over as songwriter and producer. Parliament’s first hit, “Testify,” was produced by one of Detroit’s independent labels. But when Beatlemania swept the nation and rock bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin dethroned doo-wop, Clinton felt it was time for a change.

“I completely dropped out. They [the other band members] do it one by one; they were still trying to keep the costumes together and all that. But I just did it because I knew we had to change […]. They called him a “hippy”. [look].’ It was like practicing being poor,” Clinton laughed.

With P-Funk’s new look—which sometimes, he recalls, involved a cut-up Holiday Inn bed sheet worn as a poncho or a cloth buttoned and tied like a diaper—Clinton established himself as a producer. His unique style of vocal manipulation and music mixing are defining characteristics of this P-Funk sound. The heavy bassline and electronic bounce is distinctly Clinton/P-Funk — the kind that makes the listener want to “kick off their shoes and put their feet up.” Revolutionary stylistic methods, combined with the classical style of expert keyboardist and Julliard-trained P-Funk founder Bernie Worrell, launched the psychedelic era for which P-Funk is best known.

The group, founded and joined by formally educated or otherwise extremely talented songwriters, musicians and producers, quickly found its groove. 1971’s Maggot Brain was produced in just two days. But some of their risqué material, often toeing the line between hilarious and vulgar, were points of contention with their record label. The song “Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers)” was one such example.

“The libel made us pay [the fees] out of our pocket, but I wanted it. I wanted it there. It [the album] there had to be some stuff in it,” Clinton said. “I remember the A&R guy saying, ‘why mess up One Nation.’ [Under a Groove]’now?'”

“I didn’t want to put out an album that I thought was perfect. “We always throw something out there so that somebody says, ‘Why did you do that?'” Clinton continued. “We felt we could do anything. Funkadelic was usually very weird. We weren’t trying to make pure funk records.”

The dynamic sound and expert technique that P-Funk is known for can be partially traced to the large number of artists that make up the group. P-Funk was like a revolving door, with many musicians (some famous and some no-name) circulating in and out of the group over the years. Clinton recalled a story in which a young man on the street offered to play a guitar solo for $25.

The lick ended on the record “Get Off Your Ass and Jam”.

“From the moment that sound was heard, he hit that note. He played top to bottom without stopping,” Clinton said. “Nobody could say the word. I was going to give him more but he was gone so fast! We never found out who he was.”

Many bands emerged as a result of P-Funk’s connections and wider influence, such as Zapp & Roger – who are best known for their hits like ‘I Want to Be Your Man’ and ‘More Bounce to the Ounce’, as and their influential use of the chat box.

“More Bounce to the Ounce,” released in 1980, was where the sampling technique really hit its stride, Clinton explained. Sampling refers to using a part of another song in a new song. Sample machines were not as widely available at the time.

“We literally had to cut the ribbon. This baseline is only five seconds long; we cut it from another song called “Funky Bounce” that was on Zapp’s first album. I didn’t hear a hit single on the record at first, but that baseline was so infectious,” Clinton said.

“Accepted [Troutman] he wasn’t even there when we did it because he was [already] gave me this one – it was ready to go out. We received [new] groove, I called him over and told him to play his “West Montgomery” tracks that he loved to play. And that was the whole song. We just did it [sang] “More Bounce” and he [Roger] do the talk-box harmony on the mono and the guitar.”

Smith also asked Clinton about the challenges of being an artist and musician in the age of social media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Clinton explains, they went on the air and “rocked with the DJs” to get attention for their music. But because of the relative decline in national radio listenership over the past 50 years, the way artists sell their music has changed.

Social media platforms like TikTok have replaced these traditional outlets for promotion. Clinton himself sometimes uses TikTok with his grandchildren (who, he said, affectionately call him “Granddude”). He even has a Patreon account where fans can access unreleased tracks from “One Nation Under a Groove,” “Maggot Brain,” and “The Mothership Connection,” among others.

During the conversation, Smith asked Clinton several times when he realized he could sing (and decided he wanted to share his voice with the world). But with so many stories to tell and songs to discuss, the audience didn’t really get the full answer until the last few minutes of their conversation.

“There was a guy right on Hollywood Boulevard, he was singing — an old guitar player who was about 65 or 70 years old. I told him to teach me his song. And I actually recorded that song with that guy. And we weren’t really going to follow the song that way,” Clinton recalled of one of her most formative moments.

“We kind of went [as if] I knew what I was doing. And so I began to receive [into] singing out of character – I was in character all the time. But during “One Nation [Under a Groove],’ that it was momentum. I felt so good – on top of the world.”

Pop Conference 2024 will continue at various locations on the USC campus through Saturday, March 9.