Parliament/Funkadelic
Fifteen-year-old George Clinton was straightening hair in a local
barbershop when he formed the doo-wop group The Parliaments in
1956 (The name was inspired by Parliament cigarettes). By the
early 1960s, the group had solidified into the five-man lineup of
Clinton, Ray "Stingray" Davis, Clarence
"Fuzzy" Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas.
Renamed Parliament, the group released their debut album, Osmium, in
1970 - the same year as Funkadelic's synapse-shredding album, Free
Your Mind . . . And Your Ass Will Follow. Producer Ruth
Copeland (a native of County Durham in the UK) embellished the
funk tomfoolery with - of all things - pedal steel guitar and
yodelling (Little Ole Country Boy) and pipes (the
distinctly creepy The Silent Boatman).
While recording the album Maggot Brain (1971), Clinton
told guitarist Eddie Hazel, "play like your Mama just
died". The result was 10 minutes of Hendrix-style guitar
anguish which contributed to the heaviest rock album the P-Funk
crew ever created.
George Clinton took acid every day for two years. Once while
tripping, he dived naked into the crowd and crawled away, only to
discover he was in a school. Busted for crack possession in 2003,
Clinton favours Viagra these days.
Gary "Diaperman" Schider passed away in 2010.
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