punknaynowned
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Parliamentary Politics - for Scallopino cuz he asked
Mommy, what's a Funkadelic?
I logged, I googled. I cut and pasted.
[Johnny Tuscadero's got nothin on this one ]
# What are the politics of the funk?
It's varied over the years. The early Funkadelic albums talked a lot about justice, poverty, and freedom, with America Eats Its Young being the most
overtly political. The lyrics dealt harshly with those who had no compassion for the poor and helpless ("Biological Speculation"), hyprocisy ("If You
Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause"), and stratification between classes. The latter subject was a particular favorite, either directly
in songs like "You And Your Folks...", "I Got A Thing", and "Everybody Is Going To Make It This Time", or by example in songs like "Cosmic Slop" and
"Trash A Go-Go". Perhaps the most open example of Funkadelic tackling an issue was "March To The Witch's Castle", a prayer for the U.S. Vietnam War
veterans. Yet the group rarely sought to preach, preferring a more indirect approach to the problems of the day. This was more true of Parliament than
Funkadelic; like in most other things, Parliament was less direct musically and lyrically, yet it hold more subtle, hidden and couched meanings than
many Funkadelic songs. Funkadelic's more forceful music fit in well with its message at the same time, particularly when Parliament was dormant.
Parliament dealt with more compelling social issues, particularly on Osmium. That dealt with the "Cosmic Slop"-like scenario of a mother selling
moonshine in order to support her 14 children ("Moonshine Heather"), an early cry against the rape of the environment ("Living The Life"), and another
cry against politics ("Come In Out Of The Rain", featuring the great line, 'People keeping waiting for a change, but they ain't got enough sense to
come in out of the rain'). Parliament's most famous political song was probably "Chocolate City", urging the use of the vote rather than violence to
change the system. Beginning around the Mothership Connection era, Parliament's message was hidden in the whole Starchild allegory.
Starchild represented life, freedom, sex and positive energy. His opponent, Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk, represented hyprocrisy, constriction, repression of
emotions and actions, and death. The true message was that everyone had a choice; everyone could move towards maximum funk in their life. Their most
brilliant and subtle song on this topic was "Funkentelechy", mocking the consumer society. When Clinton asks, "Would you trade your funk for what's
behind the third door?", he's asking you how much your life is worth. Will you trade your soul, your integrity, in order to achieve something that's
ultimately meaningless? It's clear that they believe it's never too late for anyone; in "Flash Light", even Sir Nose finds the funk.
Today, Clinton takes aim at those whom he perceives as being responsible for being responsible for creating conflict amongst the different divisions
in society: black vs white, men vs women, gay vs straight, pro-choice vs pro-life, police vs citizens. He blames the government and corporations for
this problem, and boils a lot of it down to money. Conflict creates money, and keeping both sides of an issue against each other further keeps them
blind to the real causes of a conflict. This is the basic theme of "Martial Law". He particularly comes down hard on the government's so called War On
Drugs, brilliantly satirizing it from the point of view of a government pawn in "Dope Dogs". 'There's more profit in pretending that they're stopping
it than selling it' goes the line, a sharp distillation of the nature of the problem. He also has said that the best weapon that the government has is
ignorance, which is why he believes that teachers should make more money than anyone else. This is compounded by the power of the media, whose
dominating presence over an uneducated population can make people swallow most anything.
Clinton's lyrics have become a bit more direct in the last few years, addressing lyrics like nuclear war, but the best results are usually achieved
when his approach is more subtle, or through someone else's point of view. P.Funk stands for freedom, unity and justice: a world party!
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punknaynowned
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here's a great link tho really out-of-date:
http://www.duke.edu/~tmc/pfunk.html#todo
more later
promise
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scallopino
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Thanks punk. i loved parliament ever since i first heard a clip of "Breakdown" on Encarta '99. I was quite young! I listened to it over and over and
over again. They also had McCoy Tyner with Billy Cobham and other cool stuff.
i wish i knew what album Breakdown is on. it must be an early one from the late sixties.
I'm listening to it right now and at the moment Tear the Roof Off The Sucker is playing. As a band the ensemble vocals are so cool. This is also what
i love about Sly and The Family Stone. Is George the real low voice? And i can hear Bootsy's unmistakable falsetto.
I haven't really listened to the lyrics yet so i can't comment on the social commentary throughout.
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scallopino
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Thanks punk. i loved parliament ever since i first heard a clip of "Breakdown" on Encarta '99. I was quite young! I listened to it over and over and
over again. They also had McCoy Tyner with Billy Cobham and other cool stuff.
i wish i knew what album Breakdown is on. it must be an early one from the late sixties.
I'm listening to it right now and at the moment Tear the Roof Off The Sucker is playing. As a band the ensemble vocals are so cool. This is also what
i love about Sly and The Family Stone. Is George the real low voice? And i can hear Bootsy's unmistakable falsetto.
I haven't really listened to the lyrics yet so i can't comment on the social commentary throughout.
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scallopino
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Oops.
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punknaynowned
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I've got breakdown on a cd called First Thangs that includes the 1st PArliament record Osmium and some other things. I can't remember if it was a
single or not. I'll look it up later.
theres's a discography on that website listed above as well as much of the lyrics.
Mothership has got the brecker brothers (who zappa got to play horrns on the ZINY record and who also contributed to some Steely Dan records) with
Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker (formerly with James Brown) doing the arrangements and contributing some. Talk about a dream horn section!!
George does the narration here and some of the more ethereal vocals and it's usually his voice that gets sonically tweezed in so many ways but he's
more a baritone than bass, cept he likes to squeeze those high melodies.
Yer right, Parliament was quite a bit more vocally oriented than Funkadelic which was guitar dominant. This is the rec with the new addition of
Bootsy Collins on bass, patenting his hershey squirt stylings: I STILL can't get over that sound
also Bernie Worrell on organ is simply off the chart.
I only wish that rekkid was five times as long
This record is what made Snoop Doggy Dog famous: the Mothership Connection is where he took all the substance, the backbone of that whole first record
of his. Despite his fame he didn't add an iota of anything except his words which are stoopid for stupidities sake. George was cool with it all tho
and even showed up to be in a couple Snoop and Ice T videos and I'm sure he's making a killing off it. check it out <grin>
I'm crazy over Sly n The Family as well : I consider Sly's story an American Tragedy.
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punknaynowned
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aggghhh! I wrote out a long well-thought out presentation with examples of how in appreciation, some of P-Funk's lyrics are kind of a culmination for
me.
How I loved John Lennon, the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed, when I was young, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, etc as I went thru my 20's and so forth. Now I
love Funkadelic, and David Bowie
But I lost the post.
A couple years ago, I stumbled on "Everybody's Gonna Make It This Time" from Funkadelic's America Eats It's Young:
Our mothers and our fathers
They had lives to live
Oh, and today, is proof that mistakes were made
There's not a doubt in my heart
They've done the best that they know how
And there's still time for us to make a change
We got to learn from the mistakes that were made in the past
We got to clean so that we can use our minds
'Cause in order to get it together
We got to get our heads together
Everybody is going to make it this time (x2)
Our country and our cities, they have been betrayed for money
Ooooh, and somehow, the people, they will make a change, yeah
There's not a doubt in my mind
If hunger and anger place the blame
There won't be a country left to change
We got to see what we're doing in the name of comfort
We've got to see, we've got to feel the warning signs
But in order to get it together
We've got to get our heads together
Everybody is going to make it this time (x2)
We've got to learn from the mistakes
That were made in the past
We've got to clean so that we can use our minds
But in order to get it together
We've got to get our heads together
Everybody is going to make it this time (x2)
(Everybody, make it, yeah whoa!)
Everybody is going to make it this time (x9)
(Got to make it, this time, whoaa! Wooo, woo, woo, hey!)
{G Clinton, B Worrell}
1972
(:
[Edited on 1-5-08 by punknaynowned]
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scallopino
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Yeah, those funksters had a great message, on top of all the great music. 'Stand!' by Sly and the Family Stone is one of my all time favourite albums
because of the themes of understanding and acceptance in nearly all the songs. It's just a joy to listen to the lyrics.
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