I don’t know what to expect from our interview. Clinton has been my personal hero/god (musical or otherwise) since my 14-year-old self discovered Atomic Dog on a late night Rage-binge. As with his musical output, Clinton often conducts his interviews from another dimension. But after an elongated process of criss-crossing from various hotel switchboards in LA, George is lucid as ever, exuding wisdom with an inimitable, weather-beaten and warm cadence.
The world is a different place than the one The Parliaments – Clinton’s late-’50s outfit which evolved into Parliament – first emerged. Still, the messages put forth by P-Funk over the past six or so decades remain pertinent. Whether its Funkadelic’s social commentary of You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks, Parliament’s career-long narrative of good versus evil (or in this case, Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome), or Clinton’s solo cry to Paint The White House Black.
Or it can be as simple as “shit, goddamn, get off your arse and jam!”
“Those things are still relevant – free your mind and your arse will follow – I think there’s a resurgence of people finding out about what we were talking about,” Clinton rationalises. “A lot of what we said was through dance music, and people just danced to it, but now they’re beginning to relate to the things that we said. In the late ‘60s, early ‘70s when Funkadelic were doing rock stuff, with a lot of social messages – like Maggot Brain. But in the ‘70s they related to the dancing at first. But now they’re relating to what was said – Think, It Ain’t Illegal Yet, Funkentelechy, Three Blind Mice – all the stuff we was talkin’ about back then.”
Constantly evolving since what has become fabled performances in the ‘70s, the P-Funk live experience is still quite like no other. Though Clinton has been a relatively constant visitor to Australia over the years, this will be the first time in over a decade that we will see the full, 22-piece, P-Funk spectacular. “We like doing what we do. That’s the main thing that makes it easy for us to do it. Everybody loves what they do,” Clinton beams. “Our shows have always been like a circus. The grandparents will go, the parents will go, and the kids will go. We have enough history and enough styles of music that everybody relates to us in some kind of way. They don’t mind seeing their parents’ heroes, or their kids’ heroes. We kind of get around that, which is hard to do because kids hate their parents’ stars and vice-versa. Kids don’t like their older brothers’ and sisters’ heroes. But I think with hip hop having so much P-Funk DNA, a lot of the younger generation transfer to us kind of easy. It’s for three generations, all the way from 75 to 80 year-olds, to 12, 13 year-olds.”
And it’s not just the audience exhibiting intergenerational qualities. Legendary guitarist Garry Shider (aka Star Child, aka Diaper Man) passed in 2010, but his legacy lives on. “His son is with us now,” explains Clinton. And Clinton himself is joined onstage by his granddaughter Sativa (who often busts out a show-stealing rap). “That feels good. First of all it keeps you closer to young people. They keep me posted on what’s coming up – my son is there, my grandson,” Clinton states.
While the P-Funk legacy is one of the most influential forces in music – applying to rock as well as rap, “To some extent, yes. You get groups like Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction. You can hear P-Funk in them,” Clinton assesses – there is still the insatiable quest to discover new music. “[P-Funk’s influence] feels good, but I’m trying to find something new. I love the fact that stuff’s still alive, but I’m out there to find what’s next and to find something new, I search YouTube to find what’s cookin’ for the most part. There’s a small clique of people putting it out, and they’ve got the power. So you have to find alternative ways to find new shit or to get new shit played, to get people to hear your new shit. I think YouTube is probably the richest with that right now,” Clinton offers.
“I feel more comfortable with the internet being an alternative to regular record companies because record companies weren’t doing anything for artists anyway. Now you at least have a chance of getting stuff out there when you want to, and you’re getting paid. If you only sell a few, you still make more money than what you were getting from the record companies,” he says.
Suffering from the follies of the business aspect of music more than most, Clinton is still a tireless crusader for musicians’ intellectual property rights. “I’m fighting for the rights to my stuff right now, but I’m glad we’re surviving and we’re still around to fight for the rights to our stuff, or to at least put in motion. We’ve been to congress, to senators, to record companies. Especially now with the new copyright law taking effect next year, for the first time in a long time – since 1978. That’s getting ready to be tested. Record companies don’t want to abide by the law. I’m glad to still be around to watch it change.”
Too sprawling to encompass here (I recall spending countless hours researching in the pre-Wiki era during high school), the rich Parliament mythology and cast of characters – namely protagonists Star Child and Dr Funkenstein, and antagonist Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk – provides fertile ground for either stage or the big screen. When I raise the possibility with Clinton, he reveals the wheels have already been set in motion. “We’re working towards that right now. A P-Funk show, a play. And a movie of the Star Child, Sir Nose, Mr Wiggles, Dr Funkenstein, Clones, the Mothership,” he lists. “There will be a movie somewhere along the line.”
As for the future of P-Funk, you get the sense that the group will be eternal. Clinton agrees. “I don’t think it will stop. It will just be different. There’s a group called Drugs that’s a part of it right now, one called 420. Members have their offshoots, but there will always be some P-Funk, some Funkadelic around.”
As for the imminent touchdown of the Mothership in Australia, we’re in for more than something a little special. “We’ll be doing everything up there. Funk got Viagra in it. You’re ready to be hard. We got the energy, the people give it back. It makes it so easy to do when the people are part of the show.”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
