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The mothership has returned
By Michael Hargrave
mhargra1@mscd.edu

Photo courtesy of georgeclinton.com George Clinton and the amazing technicolor dreadlocks.

With album names such as Hey Man … Smell My Finger, How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent and Testing Positive, one need not be a genius to ascertain that George Clinton is one funked-up motherfunker.

Born in North Carolina – although he now claims Sirius as his star of origin – Clinton started his career straightening hair in a barbershop. Before claiming the title “King of Interplanetary Funk,” he wrote songs for Motown while earning a bachelor’s in mathematics. With the combination of mathematical precision, cosmetic profession and musical experience, Clinton was ready to blast off into interstellar melodic mastery.

Clinton is prolific, having produced and released more than 50 singles, EPs and full-length albums under several different band names and as solo projects. “His Funkness” even had a cameo as a secret character in the hit video game NBA Jam.

Clinton also provided the inspiration for Snoop Dog’s “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” with his hit “Atomic Dog.” However, most of the white middle-school-through-30-year-old male demographic didn’t even notice the sample. They didn’t pay homage to Clinton, and continued their gang-bangin’ hard-knock lives ignorant of a funk classic.

But now they have their chance to redeem themselves in an upcoming spectacle of sexual innuendo laced with hip-hop beats and extraterrestrial guitar solos.

Often attired in psychedelic garments, Clinton sways his multicolored locks of hair as he instigates all-night jam sessions featuring an often large ensemble of funkably-apt spacemen and women – up to 22 singers, musicians and dancers at a time. All are notorious for performing well past their designated set time.

Lasers, the occasional spaceship and a variety of mind-altering aesthetics are to be expected at P-Funk Allstars shows. Their use of extracurricular props, tricks and direct interaction with the audience challenges everything the DARE program ever proclaimed to be true about recreational drug use.

When Clinton sings, “Everybody would wish I would die so they can write my life story,” it’s proof of paranoid schizophrenia from any psychology text. Perhaps such musings are a direct result of drug abuse. Whatever the source of his wacky lyrics, the music speaks for itself, and it is confident as well as defiant of mainstream R&B’s protocol for composition and production. Clinton is not afraid to use odd samples, incoherent poetry and heavy-metal guitar rhythms and solos on top of his grooves.

Clinton’s musical endeavors are in a state of constant flux. So is the nature of his fans. P-Funk shows attract a diversity of funk enthusiasts including techno weirdos, obligatory hippies, veteran funksters and seventh-grade art teachers. They will all be there dancing every way imaginable for the sole purpose of bringing this “One Nation Under a Groove.”