That loopy legend George Clinton is beaming down again from Planet Funk armed with the classic grooves from his colourful 50-year career. He talks to Scott Kara
The connection to the mothership is a little distorted. "Hello George. Come in Mr Clinton. Is the psychedelic funkmaster there? Come in George."
He is, but his voice is croaky and as husky as static since the 69-year-old band leader and brains behind bands Parliament and Funkadelic - who travel the world as one entity these days - has just got off the road from yet another epic tour.
While he's a little hoarse, it won't stop the man who invented P-Funk - think James Brown-meets-Jimi Hendrix in the 70s - beaming his way back to New Zealand for the Parliament Funkadelic show at the Powerstation on April 23.
"We gonna do a whole lot of funkin'. A whole lot of funkin'. We gonna come down there with the whole mob and tear the roof off the place," he says in his flippant and, yes, funky lilt.
And damn right they will be tearing the roof off the sucker - as he once declared on Give Up the Funk from Parliament's classic 1975 album Mothership Connection - since the mob he's talking about is made up of 26 musicians playing a three-hour show, with 20 to 30 minutes of that likely to be taken up with catchy 1977 P-funk popper Flashlight alone.
"It could be even longer this time ... if it don't fall apart on us," laughs Clinton on the phone from somewhere deep in the heart of Texas.
That's Parliament Funkadelic for you. While the music has an unflinching groove, it's also sprawling and chaotic, whether it's the cosmic bop of Up For the Down Stroke, the relentless knees-up of Do Fries Go With That Shake? or the steely and eerie squall of Maggot Brain, the title track from Funkadelic's loopy and legendary third album from 1971.
"You've got to be tight but still be loose enough to jam. You've got to be as tight as you can possibly be but also do what you want to do. I was able to straddle all of that and later on I just added more to it. That's the funk," says Clinton.
On top of the many band members (up to 40 or so), numerous albums (around 35 counting Clinton's solo albums), and the good, the bad, and downright weird songs, Clinton's career has been a long and often complex one - but with funk always at its core.
He was 15 when he started the doo-wop group the Parliaments in Plainfield, New Jersey. However, it wasn't until the late 60s that the group made any major headway. Also by this time Clinton was a key figure on the Detroit music scene, writing and producing for Motown Records.
"To me Motown was an education - being around all those great players and producers. And when they left Detroit we inherited the city," he says.
But before they could do that, Clinton had to do some creative jostling within his ranks after losing the rights to the Parliaments' name. His solution was to move the Parliaments backing band to the fore, call them Funkadelic, and then when he eventually got the rights to the Parliaments back (now called Parliament), the two bands charted a parallel course into the unexplored musical universe.
And with Clinton at the helm, ably assisted by lead guitarist Eddie Hazel, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and bass player Bootsy Collins, Parliament and Funkadelic forged a fruity, fiery and fun musical legacy in the 70s and into the 80s.
The sound of Funkadelic and Parliament are mostly, although not exclusively, distinct; the former a trippy funk rock-style and the latter a more psychedelic Motown, soul-inspired funk band (with some songs clocking in at 10 minutes-plus).
"Funkadelic was rock with guitar domination," says Clinton grandly. "That was rock 'n' roll, whereas Parliament was our arrangement of, like, Sly [and the Family Stone] and James Brown and taking music as far as we could go because we could do anything we wanted to do."
Ask Clinton what goes into his music and he will reel off specific styles, bands, and place names. "Doo-wop, Motown, psychedelic, jazz, rock, the Isley Brothers, New Orleans, Dr John, the Beatles."
But while it's a melting pot of influences the result is something wholly unique and often unhinged. And it also helps that elements of P-Funk are beamed in from outer space.
"Oh yeah, it came from the Starchild," deadpans Clinton, with a little chuckle.
But for that story, and other tales from Dr Funkenstein, you may want to hook up a connection with the mothership.
LOWDOWN
Who: George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic
Where & when: Powerstation, April 23
Essential albums: Parliament - Up For the Down Stroke (1974), Mothership Connection (1975); Funkadelic - Maggot Brain (1971), One Nation Under A Groove (1978)
-TimeOut
