Parliament-Funkadelic discography
Part 1: Intro
The funk is more addictive than any drug. “Getting funky” was a term jazz and blues players had used when they were really getting in a groove, keeping it in the pocket, and jamming rather than rigidly sticking to the song’s structure. In New Orleans, musicians combined jazz, blues, gospel, and other styles giving birth to funk as a distinctive genre. James Brown honed in on the funk and stripped it down to a style of dance music with an emphasis on the first beat of every measure. Years later, George Clinton helped invent his own style called P-Funk.
George Clinton started the Parliaments in the 50’s when he was in middle school singing doo-wop with neighborhood kids. Eventually they tried their luck at Motown but blew it, although the audition got Clinton a job as a songwriter. Eventually they had a minor hit in the mid-60's with “I Want To Testify” but after a couple more years they got tired of the Northern Soul scene and decided to do their own thing. The Parliaments rebooted themselves as Funkadelic, putting the musicians right up front along with the vocalists. Wherein, the Parliaments only released one off singles searching for a hit, Funkadelic was an album-oriented band. Funkadelic was funk rooted in hard psychedelic rock, country blues, and soul. George also reinvented the Parliaments as Parliament and made them one of the biggest bands of the 70’s, bringing in former James Brown musicians to create over the top funk space-operas. Side projects, solo albums, and spin-off groups followed. P-Funk was futuristic and over the decades has never stopped recording or touring. P-Funk's 70's and 80's material has been frequently kept in the public consciousness and introduced to younger generations through hip-hop samples, collaborations, and homages. It’s about to be 2020 and Clinton is talking about retiring, leaving behind him a massive catalogue of funk but the funk will linger.
This is an attempt at reviewing every P-Funk release from 1970 to 2020. In the interest of time I am not including singles, greatest hits collections, compilations, and I am only including only a handful of EP's and live albums. There is no way I am going to get around to every single record that a member of P-Funk released or played on so this is by no means a definitive list but I think I will be able to review all the main releases and most of the side-projects.
I’m grading on a 5 point system.
1 = funk addicts only
2 = better than that otha shit
3 = it’s ahh-rite
4 = daaaaamn! this is smokin’!
5 = classic! stankiest funk in existence
Next up, in part 2, I am going to review P-Funk albums from 1970 to 1971.
* ps - all the photos are just from image searches on google, if I’m using your photo and you want credit or taken down let me know.
Part 1: Intro
The funk is more addictive than any drug. “Getting funky” was a term jazz and blues players had used when they were really getting in a groove, keeping it in the pocket, and jamming rather than rigidly sticking to the song’s structure. In New Orleans, musicians combined jazz, blues, gospel, and other styles giving birth to funk as a distinctive genre. James Brown honed in on the funk and stripped it down to a style of dance music with an emphasis on the first beat of every measure. Years later, George Clinton helped invent his own style called P-Funk.
George Clinton started the Parliaments in the 50’s when he was in middle school singing doo-wop with neighborhood kids. Eventually they tried their luck at Motown but blew it, although the audition got Clinton a job as a songwriter. Eventually they had a minor hit in the mid-60's with “I Want To Testify” but after a couple more years they got tired of the Northern Soul scene and decided to do their own thing. The Parliaments rebooted themselves as Funkadelic, putting the musicians right up front along with the vocalists. Wherein, the Parliaments only released one off singles searching for a hit, Funkadelic was an album-oriented band. Funkadelic was funk rooted in hard psychedelic rock, country blues, and soul. George also reinvented the Parliaments as Parliament and made them one of the biggest bands of the 70’s, bringing in former James Brown musicians to create over the top funk space-operas. Side projects, solo albums, and spin-off groups followed. P-Funk was futuristic and over the decades has never stopped recording or touring. P-Funk's 70's and 80's material has been frequently kept in the public consciousness and introduced to younger generations through hip-hop samples, collaborations, and homages. It’s about to be 2020 and Clinton is talking about retiring, leaving behind him a massive catalogue of funk but the funk will linger.
I’m grading on a 5 point system.
1 = funk addicts only
2 = better than that otha shit
3 = it’s ahh-rite
4 = daaaaamn! this is smokin’!
5 = classic! stankiest funk in existence
Next up, in part 2, I am going to review P-Funk albums from 1970 to 1971.
* ps - all the photos are just from image searches on google, if I’m using your photo and you want credit or taken down let me know.
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