SOD: Parliament "Mothership Connection"

I saw George Clinton last winter. He played at City Winery as the special guest of 420 Funk Mob. Dr. Funkenstein may not have had his disciples with him, but he gave one hell of a performance. He wasn't donning his usual eclectic hairstyles, robes, and colors, but was a much toned down version of himself. I'd personally never seen him look so plain.

But his performance was full of energy, and the place itself is small and quite intimate. Especially when it's not crowded, which it wasn't. I was right up on the front of the small stage, and exchanged a few "pounds" and "fives" with George as the show progressed, certainly a highlight for me.

But George is older now. He's less audible, less energetic, less Dr. Funkenstein. After all he's 70 and still performing. He's part of a whole cast of musicians born in the forties and fifties, still trying to make a living touring the land. Some of these performers are impossible to watch, they're simply spent. Others are parodies of themselves, mere caricatures of former glory. Some, have kept in shape, and kept their craft maintained. Those acts are always worth seeing. Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger (not Keith Richards) come to mind. So does Patti Smith and David Byrne. Even guys like B.B. King are still worth a damn on stage, because the man can still play and sing extremely well! Granted, he can barely walk, but he can still put on a show.

Now George can move, he can even groove. He can sing, though his voice seems to be hurting. But compared to what he was back with Parliament and Funkadelic, well it's night and day. Parliament was an influential band, the beginning of a sound. They fused soul, funk, psychedelic rock and even some jazz into a sound that you wanted to (even needed to) dance to. A sound that largely changed the direction that kind of music would take. They were an amalgam of so many different styles and themes, that they became something completely different. The album Mothership Connection perhaps best represents this.

Hailed as one of the all-time greats (album wise), Mothership Connection had a lot of players. Stacked with 17 vocalists (including Clinton and Bootsy Collins), 6 horns (with Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley who had just left James Brown's band), 4 Guitarists, 2 Bassists, 4 drummers and a keyboard, Parliament achieved a huge sound. The album has also been heavily sampled in the years since it's release, with Dr. Dre relying on it heavily to create his blockbuster album The Chronic. "Mothership Connection" the song, was the third single to come from the album, and introduces "Star Child" to the world. This is George Clintons alien alter-ego that has come to earth to bring Funk (with a capital "F") to humanity. It's all written in the P-Funk mythology, much of which is quite entertaining. It turns out George was a bit of a Star Trekkie, so he loved the idea of somehow incorporating the final frontier into his music. I'm sure glad he did.