DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, Professor of Television Studies at Rowan University. If funk began with James Brown, it was George Clinton who was responsible for many of the innovations in the funk music of the 1970s and '80s. He brought electronics into his rhythm tracks and used a guitar sound inspired by acid rock. Clinton created a funk empire, which included the bands Parliament, Funkadelic, P-Funk and The Brides Of Funkenstein. Parliament and Funkadelic had the same musicians, but Clinton presented his more polished material through Parliament. Funkadelic was wild and improvisational and put on extravagant stage shows that incorporated science fiction plots and elaborate mythologies. The musicians wore outlandish costumes and hairdos. In his alter ego of Dr. Funkenstein, Clinton sometimes made his stage entrance from a flying saucer. Fifty years ago, Clinton's Parliament released the now classic album, "Mothership Connection." Here's "Give Up The Funk" from that album - the band's first million-selling single.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GIVE UP THE FUNK (TEAR THE ROOF OFF THE SUCKER)")
PARLIAMENT: (Singing) You've got a real type of thing going down, getting down. There's a whole lot of rhythm going 'round. You've got a real type of thing going down, getting down. There's a whole lot of rhythm going 'round. We want the funk. Give up the funk. We need the funk. We got to have that funk. We want the funk. Give up the funk. We need the funk. We got to have that funk.
BIANCULLI: George Clinton and his Parliament. We're going to listen back to Terry's 1989 interview with George Clinton. Since then, he's released more than 30 albums, some under his own name. He had a hit in 1983 with "Atomic Dog."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ATOMIC DOG")
GEORGE CLINTON: (Singing) Atomic Dog. Atomic Dog. Life on all fours. When they're out there walking the streets. May compete, oh, the dog in you. Bow-wow-wow, yippie-yo, yippie-yay, bow-wow, yippie-yo, yippie-yay. Bow-wow-wow, yippie-yo, yippie-yay, bow-wow, yippie-yo, yippie-yay. Untied dog in a telematic society. Ain't your average Huckleberry Hound. Why must I feel like that? Why must I chase the cat? Oh, the dog in me. Woof. Woof. Woof.
SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
TERRY GROSS: George Clinton, welcome to FRESH AIR.
CLINTON: Woof. Woof. Woof.
GROSS: (Laughter).
CLINTON: Yeah, I just got deflead and got the ticks off me. I got my doggie bag, and I'm going to go get my rabies shots, and I'll be ready for it. How you doing, baby?
GROSS: (Laughter) OK. What got you back in the studios and on the road after five years?
CLINTON: Oh, I got tired of laying up being an old dog and not learning new tricks, so I said, let me get back out there, 'cause, you know, when rap started getting heavy like it is now, I said, that's an old trick right there. I can do that. So here I am back out here talking stuff.
GROSS: Well, I want to play the first hit that you had back when your group was called the Parliaments.
CLINTON: Oh, my God. Oh luscious. You know, that was a big record in Detroit. That record broke right here in Detroit. I was back at the barber shop and give it up for a minute.
GROSS: Well, here it is - George Clinton's first hit back from 1967, "I Just Want To Testify" (ph).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "(I WANNA) TESTIFY")
THE PARLIAMENTS: (Singing) Friends, inquisitive friends are asking me what's come over me. A change. There's been a change. And it's oh so plain to see. Love just walked in on me, and it's taken me by surprise. Happiness surrounds me. You can see it in my eyes. Now, it was just a little while ago. My life was incomplete. I was down so doggone low, had to look up at my feet. Don't you know that I just want to testify what your love has done for me. Everybody sing. Oh, girl, want to testify what your love has done for me.
GROSS: From 1967, that's George Clinton, The Parliaments.
CLINTON: It sounds good to hear that again.
GROSS: Yeah, it sounds really good. You were saying that when that record was a hit, you were working for Joe Bett, the publishing company of Motown Records. I once read you say that there was a lot you didn't like about Motown. You didn't like the idea of everybody in the group dressing alike and doing the same step.
CLINTON: Well, not that we didn't like it. We loved it. But we just couldn't see ourselves overcoming The Temptations or The Pips. First of all, The Temptations was from here, and the criteria for, you know, at that time was height, you know, 6', matter of fact, they were all 6'. And we were like, 5'6", 2", 3", you know, we were all over the place. It wasn't uniform. And the routines and things, we had perfect. And the suits, of course, we had perfect. And the styles was perfect. But there was no way to outdo The Pips with the routine. They were the best routine and group that I've ever seen. And The Temptations had the perfect image, plus, this was home for them. So it wasn't that we didn't like it. There was just no way for us to overcome the competition within the company. So we just threw the suit - and plus, it was hard to keep ties alike or shirts clean. Anyway, that was the hardest part of all. And so it was convenient when we realized that hippies and rock and roll and blues was the exact opposite of what we had been into all our life 'cause we could do this having fun. We'd wear a clothes bag as opposed to the suit. We'd take the suit out and throw it down and cut holes in the clothes bag and put it on.
GROSS: (Laughter).
CLINTON: You know, and it became just a big joke at first. But the music was always, like, very soulful, churchy, you know, like "Maggot Brain," psychedelic, you know, nobody had seen Black groups doing psychedelic. They used to call us The Temptations on acid or James Brown on acid, you know, but it always worked. And so, we just, you know, changed our whole thing and went that way. So it wasn't that we didn't like the routines and things, it's just that it was convenient for us to go a different route.
GROSS: How did you start moving from singing to also producing and doing these really far-out rhythm tracks? I know you were always producing. You produced The Parliaments' records, but it really became, like, a specialty of yours.
CLINTON: Well, after I realized that it was going to take more than one group to survive and - you know, and make it, any one group could be stopped any kind of ways or just be stopped 'cause they're not good enough. So not only did Parliament Funkadelic, we did Bootsy, you know, as an offshoot to brass, the Horny Horns, everybody that was in the band. So that gave me a lot of different outlets 'cause so many members in the band can write and would have liked to have their own group, but they didn't want the hassles. And so I'm always continually cutting music and trying to keep another thing happening 'cause when they say it's over with this planned obsolescence trip, you know, if you ain't got but that one record, you got a problem.
GROSS: Well, you not only have a lot of different bands that you've created and produced, you also have different alter egos that you've performed under, like Dr. Funkenstein.
CLINTON: Oh, yeah. Dr. Funkenstein, Mr. Wiggles, Sir Nose.
GROSS: Would you describe one of your alter egos for listeners who haven't seen you perform?
CLINTON: OK. Well, Sir Nose. You know, I would never dance. I shall never dance. Nobody can make me dance. I don't even make love. That voice, you know, harmonize on it and made it real high. But the voice was actually - I was imitating one of the guys that used to work in the barber shop - or used to come to the barber shop all the time. He had, you know, all the girls liked him. He was real cool. But he - as far as I was concerned, he was crazy, you know, but he was a fun dude, and everybody liked him. But most of the voices I usually usually use are character out of the barber shop 'cause, you know, the thing in the barber shop is to get up and tell lies.
GROSS: (Laughter).
CLINTON: When I saw Sugar Ray fight Joe Lewis in '27. Richard Pryor always do it. Those are the kind of things that always happened in barber shop. And I found that they were good on record. You know, like, make my funk the Pfunk. I want my funk uncut. All of those are, you know, slang that's used, like, in the streets or in the barber shop, and you find more of it in the barber shop than you do anywhere. So a lot of the characters were based on people who I know their personality was penetrating when I did it. Dr. Funkenstein was like a FM disc jockey. WEFUNK we funk, home of the extraterrestrial brothers, bringing you music to get your - together by. You know, and all of those things were, like, just different places I know that was penetrating. And I knew that the DJ was missing off of radio. They had started doing the cartridge thing. So the personalities that you used to hear on the radio, like, let me see, (rapping) attention on a radio station jocks, you got to be serious slamming on my box 'cause when I try my best to get into the decibels up so high that my neighbors call the cops. So when the thing get to tweaking, you know the groove is peaking, I mean harder than a cinderblock. OK, I know you know what I mean. I keep a party tweaking on my record machine. You know, and those kind of things or those kind of jocks is, like, missing off of radio now. And, you know, and I figured, well, if I put this on "Mothership Connection," it was the right thing at that time. And it's what most rappers tell me now that they got - or they learned rapping from, the "Mothership Connection" album.
BIANCULLI: George Clinton recorded in 1989. His now classic album, "Mothership Connection," is 50 years old. Clinton still is performing at the age of 84.
Coming up, I'll review Season 2 of the Netflix series "Wednesday," based on the famous Charles Addams characters. This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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