May 3, 2009
We got the funk
Posted by pete at May 3, 2009 11:16 PMI had the distinct pleasure of attending the George Clinton/Parliament-Funkadelic show last Thursday with The Thing That Walks Like a Man. My experience with P-Funk is limited to old copies of Mothership Connection and Cosmic Slop, random iTunes tracks, and - like most people - copious sampling by the likes of Dr. Dre and Public Enemy.
And P.C.U., but let's not bring Jeremy Piven into this if we don't have to.
If my advancing years have taught me anything, it's that I need to catch bands like these whenever I have the chance. Clinton's pushing 70, and hasn't really led the kind of lifestyle that lends itself to "world's oldest man" designation, and I've missed out on way too many personal favorites that either broke up (Uncle Tupelo) or died (John Lee Hooker) after I'd taken a pass on a show. Occasionally due to illness, more often because of incorrect prioritizing. So when TTTWLAM said he had a spare ticket, I was in.
We skipped the opening act, Clinton's daughter (I sense a theme in shows we attend), to have a few drinks and to afford me the chance to check out the House of Blues' gift shop. TTTWLAM is allegedly crafting his opening post for his upcoming blog about the show, so I'll hold back on my theories about why there are so many freaking Buddhas in there. Let's just say the HoB isn't the most rootsy environment for a show, Dan Aykroyd's admittedly good intentions aside.
The show itself was great. A top 20, which makes the last 13 months or so (Bruce, Maiden, and now P-Funk) a pretty outstanding run. I won't go into much detail about the show itself, except to say that I hate the expression "blissed out," mostly because it makes me think of shit like Phish and Widespread Panic, but there were definitely some stretches there where the Mr. Clinton suspiciously transported me to Funkadelica, and that was even without sharing with the fellows in front of us who were forced to bend forward almost double to light up.
I will ask that you keep an eye out for Houston's own Mary Griffin, who came in for one song. When she started singing, a guy behind me said, "Whoa...Aretha." Then she came out on stage and I turned and said, "No, man: Tina."
Just a great, great show. I've been downloading Parliament-Funkadelic selections to flesh out my iTunes selection for the last couple days and feeling grateful for the chance I got to visit the Mothership. Thanks, George.
Glad to see you caught the P-Funk! I wish their shows were the marathons of yesteryear, but I’m just happy the old man is still walking, wearing hotel bedsheets and coloring his dreads. I might suggest for you, Pete, some tracks that lie off the beaten track, but are well worth the .99 from iTunes. Check out the earliest Parliament stuff — there’s a CD called First Thangs. There’s also a really early collection of their bizarre mid-60s doo-wop incarnation as the Parliaments. Also Chocolate City is my favorite of their 70’s albums: very rough, with lots of the samples you hear the real afficiando-type DJ mixing up. For Funkadelic, you can’t wrong with Maggot Brain or America Eats Its Young.
Cheers, and funk on!