RhoDeo 1206 Grooves

Hello, today's artists have been up to the downslope and carved out their own niche in the globalmusic mind..PPP FFFunk from the start of the seventies onwards they laid their grooves on us, and even, as you can see at the bottom, if i posted several vinylrips 4 years ago (Rhotation Grooves 10 & 20), I think a further and deeper look into their discography is essential. So the coming weeks Fridaynght Grooves will be...

"A Parliafunkadelicment Thang"

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The mastermind of the Parliament/Funkadelic collective during the 1970s, George Clinton broke up both bands by 1981 and began recording solo albums, occasionally performing live with his former bandmates as the P.Funk All-Stars. Born in Kannapolis, NC, on July 22, 1940, Clinton became interested in doo wop while living in New Jersey during the early '50s. He formed the Parliaments in 1955, based out of a barbershop back room where he straightened hair. The group had a small R&B hit during 1967, but Clinton began to mastermind the Parliaments' activities two years later. Recording both as Parliament and Funkadelic, the group revolutionized R&B during the '70s, twisting soul music into funk by adding influences from several late-'60s acid heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Sly Stone. The Parliament/Funkadelic machine ruled black music during the '70s, capturing over 40 R&B hit singles (including three number ones) and recording three platinum albums.

By 1980, George Clinton began to be weighed down by legal difficulties arising from Polygram's acquisition of Parliament's label, Casablanca. Jettisoning both the Parliament and Funkadelic names (but not the musicians), Clinton signed to Capitol in 1982 both as a solo act and as the P.Funk All-Stars. His first solo album, 1982's Computer Games, contained the Top 20 R&B hit "Loopzilla." Several months later, the title track from Clinton's Atomic Dog EP hit number one on the R&B charts; it stayed at the top spot for four weeks, but only managed number 101 on the pop charts. Clinton stayed on Capitol for three more years, releasing three studio albums and frequently charting singles -- "Nubian Nut," "Last Dance," "Do Fries Go With That Shake" -- in the R&B Top 40.

In 1985, he was recruited by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce their album Freaky Styley, because the band members were huge fans of George Clinton and funk in general. Clinton, in fact, wrote the vocals and lyrics to the title track which was originally intended by the band to be left as an instrumental piece.

During much of the three-year period from 1986 to 1989, Clinton became embroiled in legal difficulties (resulting from the myriad royalty problems latent during the '70s with recordings of over 40 musicians for four labels under three names). Also problematic during the latter half of the '80s was Clinton's disintegrating reputation as a true forefather of rock; by the end of the decade, however, he experienced something of a resurgence in the early 1990s, as many rappers cited him as an influence and began sampling his songs. Alongside James Brown, George Clinton is considered to be one of the most sampled musicians ever.

In 1989, Clinton signed a contract with Prince's Paisley Park label and released his fifth solo studio album, The Cinderella Theory. After one more LP for Paisley Park (Hey Man, Smell My Finger), Clinton signed with Sony 550. His first release, 1996's T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. ("the awesome power of a fully operational mothership"), reunited the funk pioneer with several of his Parliament/Funkadelic comrades from the '70s. Clinton's Greatest Funkin' Hits (1996) teamed old P-Funk hits with new-school rappers such as Digital Underground, Ice Cube, and Q-Tip.

Clinton founded a record label called The C Kunspyruhzy in 2005 releasing How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? (How Late Do You Have To Be Before You Are Absent?) is a double album by George Clinton & the P-Funk All-Stars. It is their first album of new studio material since 1996's T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M., which was primarily due to a lengthy court battle over ownership of Clinton's recordings.

The album features appearances by Prince and Jazze Pha, alongside members of Parliament-Funkadelic. Its compiled from different sessions over the last decade and is presented as a taste of more new Parliament and Funkadelic material to come. Clinton cited it as "one of the best records we've ever done".Despite mixed criticism towards its indulgent style, How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? received generally positive reviews from music critics.

In 2008 Clinton released a cover album "George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love", the album includes guest appearances from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sly Stone, El DeBarge, System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian, Carlos Santana, RZA, and gospel singer Kim Burrell.

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Following the dissolution of his Parliament-Funkadelic empire, which collapsed in 1980-1981 after a creative and commercial downturn, George Clinton re-emerged in 1982 on Capitol Records as a solo artist. Computer Games, his solo debut, is actually only solo in its billing, however, as the album features several of the core P-Funk musicians with whom Clinton had collaborated in years past, most notably Bootsy Collins, Gary Shider, Fred Wesley, and Walter "Junie" Morrison. All the same, Clinton is clearly in the spotlight throughout Computer Games, and his vocal performances are as wacky and charming as ever, especially on the album's two hit singles, "Atomic Dog" and "Loopzilla." From a musical standpoint, there's a heavy emphasis here on synthesizers and drum machines, considerably more so than on any previous P-Funk effort. This was partly because of the times, for it was the early '80s, after all, but also partly because of the smaller stable of musicians on hand. Whatever the reason, Computer Games marks a sharp break from Clinton's past in many ways, and though it was a tremendously successful rebirth, with "Atomic Dog" topping the R&B chart and eventually becoming immortalized by hip-hop postmodernists, in an unfortunate twist of fate this debut effort also ended up marking the zenith of his solo career, as he would progressively stumble creatively in subsequent years.

George Clinton - Computer Games (263mb)

01 Get Dressed 3:41
02 Man's Best Friend / Loopzilla 12:51
03 Pot Sharing Tots 3:44
04 Computer Games 6:44
05 Atomic Dog 4:46
06 Free Alterations 4:19
07 One Fun At A Time 4:29

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On his first album for Prince's Paisley Park record label, George Clinton's willingness to experiment with samplers and hip-hop (including guest appearances by such artists as Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy) resulted in a slightly inconsistent record, but it has more than enough truly fine songs to make The Cinderella Theory rank among his best solo albums.

George Clinton - The Cinderella Theory (347mb)

01 Airbound 4:21
02 Tweakin' 6:21
03 The Cinderella Theory 5:09
04 Why Should I Dog U Out? 6:28
05 Serious Slammin' 4:56
06 There I Go Again 4:56
07 (She Got It) Goin' On 4:27
08 The Banana Boat Song 4:06
09 French Kiss 3:58
10 Rita Bewitched 5:00
11 Kredit Kard 3:47
12 Airbound (Reprise) 0:36

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Hey Man, Smell My Finger is everything a great George Clinton album should be -- conceptually disjointed, overlong, silly, sloppy, and funky as hell. Thankfully, the music here is his best since Computer Games, and the album proves just how responsible he is for much of the music of the 1990s. This is Clinton's second and last release for the Paisley Park label, owned by Prince. The album features an array of musical guests including Prince, Dallas Austin, Humpty Hump from Digital Underground, Ice Cube, N'Dea Davenport, Dr. Dre, and Herbie Hancock, as well P-Funk alumni including Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Maceo Parker, and Fred Wesley. Hey, Man, Smell My Finger furthers Clinton's incorporation of hip hop elements such as electronically produced beats, rapping by Clinton, and sampling of older P-Funk material. The album received critical acclaim from most music critics and was followed by a supporting tour. It went out of print soon after Paisley Park Records folded in late 1993.

George Clinton - Hey Man... Smell My Finger ( 497mb)

01 Martial Law 7:13
02 Paint The White House Black 7:49
03 Way Up 5:07
04 Dis Beat Disrupts 3:29
05 Get Satisfied 3:55
06 Hollywood 5:21
07 Rhythm & Rhyme 5:40
08 The Big Pump 3:34
09 If True Love 3:57
10 High In My Hello 5:16
11 Maximumisness 5:02
12 Kickback 3:41
13 The Flag Was Still There 5:58
14 Martial Law (Single Version) 4:13

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