History Music / GeorgeClinton

Signed with Westbound Records, they released several records starting in 1970 and gained a small following. The same year, Clinton decided to expand with an off-shoot group named ''Parliament'', which featured most of the musicians from Funkadelic, and originally covered much of the same musical ground before both groups moved away from psychedelic rock and became more funk-oriented. More spinoffs, including ''The Brides of Funkenstein'' followed. And later Bootsy started his own career with ''Bootsy's Rubber Band''.

* 1970 - ''Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow''

* IceCreamKoan: Is there funk in Heaven? George Clinton says... "Is Seven Up?"

* LastNoteNightmare: The crashing effects of "Wars of Armageddon"

* TakeThat: "Let's Take It to the Stage" contains jokes at the expense of various funk bands like [[SlyAndTheFamilyStone Slick and the Family Prick]], [[{{Rufus}} Sloofus]], [[KoolAndTheGang Fool and the Gang]] or [[EarthWindAndFire Earth Hot Air and No Fire]]. Also insinuates that the 17 minute gap in the Watergate tapes was erased because that's where RichardNixon recorded himself doing drugs.

* '''Bernie Worrell''' - keyboards, synths. Played an important part in arranging the ensemble's songs, known for his high-pitched spacey Minimoog lines that tend to be ripped off so often by gangsta rappers. Also played for the TalkingHeads in TheEighties, appearing on ''StopMakingSense''.

George Clinton is a famous and acclaimed {{Funk}} musician. If {{James Brown}} was the [[TropeMaker pioneer]] of funk, George Clinton was the man who arguably [[TropeCodifier fulfilled its potential]] as the driving force of Parliament-Funkadelic. He is known foremost for his conceptual vision, socially conscious lyrics and production skills. The bands themselves are famous for their excellent musicianship, fierce live performances and outlandish albums boasting satirical comic-book artwork, its most famous covers being the ones drawn by Pedro Bell and Overton Loyd. Besides being considered a member of funk's "holy trinity" (alongside JamesBrown and [[SlyAndTheFamilyStone Sly Stone]]), he's also the second or third most [[{{Sampling}} sampled]] musician, depending on who's counting.

George Clinton was born in 1941 in Kannapolis, North Carolina and grew up in Plainfield, NewJersey. After some time in a barber salon, he became a staff songwriter for Motown, while fronting a small-time doo-wop group named The Parliaments, which had a hit in 1967 with "(I Wanna) Testify". But this band disintegrated, and Clinton instead formed Funkadelic, a band which played a combination of psychedelic rock and funk, influenced by other famous musicians such as {{Jimi Hendrix}}, James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone.

The period of 1975-1979 is widely considered Parliament-Funkadelic's "classic period", when they released a string of concept albums full of bizarre spacey imagery and their own [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-Funk_mythology mythology]], which were critically acclaimed and commercially successful, backed by an elaborate stage show that rivaled {{Pink Floyd}}. The same period resulted in a stream of side-projects and more off-shoots, out of which only Bootsy's Rubber Band earned any comparable success or visibility.

* '''Mallia Franklin''' - vocals.

* 1982 - ''Computer Games''
* 1983 - ''You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish''

* {{Chorus Only Song}}: "Get Off Your Ass and Jam", "Nappy Dugout".

* {{Concept Album}}: An entire P-Funk mythology, as a matter of fact.

* {{Image Song}}: "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?"
* {{Intercourse With You}}: "Loose Booty", "I Call My Baby Pussycat", "Miss Lucifer's Love", "Nappy Dugout", "Trash A-Go-Go", "Red Hot Mama", "Alice in My Fantasies", "Sexy Ways", "No Head No Backstage Pass". Those are just the ''Funkadelic'' songs.

* {{In The Style Of}}: "Maggot Brain" somewhat imitates JimiHendrix. Early albums (1970-1972) owed quite a bit to the influence of Motown's psychedelic soul bands and hard funk.

* {{Last Chorus Slow Down}}: [[SubvertedTrope A bit of a subversion]]: "Nappy Dugout" speeds up the drumbeat at the end.
* {{Last Note Nightmare}}: The crashing effects of "Wars of Armageddon"
* LooneyTunes: Theme quoted in "Sir Nose D'Voidofunk"
* {{Looped Lyrics}}
* {{Money Song}}: [[SubvertedTrope Subversion]], as most of their songs criticize materialism. Best known examples: "Funky Dollar Bill", "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks" and "Cosmic Slop" (the last two are about poverty).

* {{The Power Of Rock}}: Er, {{Funk}}. Refer to mythology.

* {{Protest Song}}: "Funky Dollar Bill", "Better By The Pound", "The Placebo Syndrome" and "Wizard of Finance" criticise the American society's materialism and complacency. "March to the Witch's Castle" is about scarred Vietnam War veterans returning to America [[hottip:*: a lot of which have become drug addicts and have been abandoned by wives who thought they were missing in action or died in combat]] and questioning their involvement in the war. "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks" is a call for unity among the disadvantaged. "Cosmic Slop" is about a mother who becomes a prostitute to feed her children.
* {{Sampling}}: G-funksters and gangsta rappers lifted bits of the music for their own tracks in the early 90s.

* {{Silly Love Songs}}: "I Wanna Know If It's Good to You", "Can You Get to That", "Let's Make It Last", "Baby I Owe You Something Good", "I Misjudged You".
* [[{{Single Mom Stripper}} Single Mom Prostitute]]: PlayedForDrama in "Cosmic Slop".

* {{Stage Names}}
* TakeThat: "Let's Take It to the Stage" contains jokes at the expense of various funk bands like [[SlyAndTheFamilyStone Slick and the Family Prick]], [[{{Rufus}} Sloofus]], [[KoolAndTheGang Fool and the Gang]] or [[EarthWindAndFire Earth Hot Air and No Fire]]. Also insinuates that the 17 minute gap in the Watergate tapes was erased because that's where RichardNixon recorded himself doing drugs.
* {{Title Only Chorus}}

* {{Big Bad}}: Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk.
* {{Big Damn Heroes}}: Mr. Wiggles and the citizens of Atlantis.

* {{Boss Battle}}: the confrontation on ''Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome''.
* {{Call Back}}: Too many {{Mythology Nod}}s to count.
* {{Evil Is Dumb}}: Sir Nose.

* {{Heroic Archetype}}: Starchild, Mr. Wiggles.
* {{I Am Song}}: "Behold, I am Funkadelic/I am not of your world/but fear not, I will do you no harm..."
* {{I Want Song}}: "Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk (Pay Attention - [=B3M=])"
* {{It Runs On Nonsensoleum}}: Try reading the full mythology ''without'' experiencing this or WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs.
* {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}: Sure, he's a sucker who can't dance or swim and wants to impose the Zone of Zero Funkativity on humanity, but Sir Nose is so incompetent you wonder why Starchild even bothers.

* {{Loads And Loads Of Characters}}: both the amount of bandmembers and in its mythology.

* {{Messianic Archetype}}: Star Child.

* {{Redemption Quest}}: Sir Nose traces his ancestry.
* {{Super Drowning Skills}}: Sir Nose, who is of course too cool to dance or swim.
* {{Villain Song}}: "Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk (Pay Attention - [=B3M=])", "Rumpofsteelskin"

* '''Eddie Hazel''' - guitar. Possibly the most famous and influential black guitarist after JimiHendrix. Later left the band, returned, toured sporadically, died in 1992.

* {{Sampling}}: G-funksters and gangsta rappers lifted bits of the music for their own tracks in the early 90s. Whether or not this was a good thing, or a disgrace to the original songs, is [[YourMileageMayVary up to you.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "we love to fu[[spoiler:n]]k you, Funkenstein!" They use this play on words more than once.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Lots of the songs were, in fact. Hell, Clinton admitted that the idea behind ''Free Your Mind'' was to see if they could cut a whole album while tripping on acid.

* '''George Clinton''' - vocals, keyboards, synths, RecordProducer, mastermind. P-Funk just wouldn't exist without him. Famous for his outlandish costumes and rainbow dreadlocks. [[{{XKCD}} Randall Munroe]] tried to start a rumour that he had a Ph.D in Mathematics. ''TheOnion'' are also fans.

* {{Single Mom Stripper}} : "Cosmic Slop". [[PlayedForDrama Not pretty]].

* TakeThat: "Let's Take It to the Stage" contains jokes at the expense of various funk bands like [[SlyAndTheFamilyStone Slick and the Family Prick]], [[{{Rufus}} Sloofus]], [[KoolAndTheGang Fool and the Gang]] or [[EarthWindAndFire Earth Hot Air and No Fire]]. Also insinuates that the 17 minute gap in the Watergate tapes was erased because that's where RichardNixon was recorded smoking drugs.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Actually, it was. Lots of them, in fact. Hell, Clinton admitted that the idea behind ''Free Your Mind'' was to see if they could cut a whole album while tripping on acid.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: "March to the Witch's Castle" ([[JustifiedTrope "Help him understand that when his loved one remarried, they were truly under the impression that he was dead and would never return"]]).

* {{Protest Song}}: "Funky Dollar Bill", "Better By The Pound", "The Placebo Syndrome" and "Wizard of Finance" criticise the American society's materialism and complacency. "March to the Witch's Castle" is about scarred Vietnam War veterans with a bleak future. "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks" is a call for unity among the disadvantaged. "Cosmic Slop" is about a mother who becomes a prostitute to feed her children.

* 1996 - ''Testing Positive'

* ContinuityNod: Clinton has a habit of recycling his older melodies in new contexts while making it seem more like creative fun than lack of originality. For example: The Funkadelic song "Red Hot Mama" borrows the melody from their older song "I Bet You", and the Parliament Song "Do That Stuff" takes a riff from "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" by Funkadelic. And we haven't mentioned how many lines he recycles between albums as a MythologyNod.

* '''George Clinton''' - vocals, keyboards, synths, RecordProducer, mastermind. P-Funk just wouldn't exist without him. Famous for his outlandish costumes and rainbow dreadlocks. [[{{XKCD}} Randall Munroe]] tried to start a rumour that he had a Ph.D in Mathematics. ''TheOnion'' are fans

--> ''There's a good time waiting for you, come on and let's get free''

* 1971 - ''[[MagnumOpus Maggot Brain]]''

* 1975 - ''[[MagnumOpus Mothership Connection]]''

* 1996 - ''T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M.''

George Clinton is a famous and acclaimed {{Funk}} musician. If {{James Brown}} was the [[TropeMaker pioneer]] of funk, George Clinton was the man who arguably [[TropeCodifier fulfilled its potential]] as the driving force of Parliament-Funkadelic. He is known foremost for his conceptual vision, socially conscious lyrics and production skills. The bands themselves are famous for their excellent musicianship, fierce live performances and outlandish albums boasting satirical comic-book artwork, its most famous covers being the ones drawn by Pedro Bell and Overton Loyd. Besides being considered a member of funk's "holy trinity" (alongside James Brown and Sly Stone), he's also the second or third most [[{{Sampling}} sampled]] musician, depending on who's counting.

George Clinton was born in 1941 in Kannapolis, NC and grew up in Plainfield, NJ. After some time in a barber salon, he became a staff songwriter for Motown, while fronting a small-time doo-wop group named The Parliaments, which had a hit in 1967 with "(I Wanna) Testify". But this band disintegrated, and Clinton instead formed Funkadelic, a band which played a combination of psychedelic rock and funk, influenced by other famous musicians such as {{Jimi Hendrix}}, James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone.

Not to be confused with BillClinton (a similarity ''TheOnion'' once played on), [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Clinton_%28vice_president%29 vice president George Clinton]], or the decidedly white and not-very-funky soundtrack composer [[http://www.last.fm/music/George+S.+Clinton George S. Clinton]].

* Parliament - "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)", "Flash Light", "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)", "Mothership Connection (Star Child)", "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)", "Funkentelechy", "Dr. Funkenstein", "Chocolate City", "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)"
* Funkadelic - "One Nation Under a Groove", "(Not Just) Knee Deep", "Maggot Brain", "Cosmic Slop", "Get Off Your Ass and Jam"
* George Clinton - "Atomic Dog", "Man's Best Friend/Loopzilla", "Do Fries Go with That Shake"

* '''George Clinton''' - vocals, keyboards, synths, RecordProducer, mastermind. P-Funk just wouldn't exist without him. Famous for his outlandish costumes and rainbow dreadlocks. [[{{XKCD}} Randall Munroe]] tried to start a rumour that he had a Ph.D in Mathematics.

[[{{xkcd}} Randall Munroe]] admitted that he once attempted to start a rumour that Clinton had a Ph.D in mathematics.

Not to be confused with BillClinton, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Clinton_%28vice_president%29 vice president George Clinton]], or the decidedly white and not-very-funky soundtrack composer [[http://www.last.fm/music/George+S.+Clinton George S. Clinton]].

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Too many examples...

* {{Ear Worm}}

* {{Face Of The Band}}: George Clinton, unsurprisingly. Maybe Bootsy too, but anybody else...
** Gary Shider too, because of his "Diaperman" persona and [[AuthorExistenceFailure recent death]].

* {{Sampling}}: [[DeadHorseGenre G-funksters and gangsta rappers]] lifted bits of the music for their own tracks in the early 90s. Whether or not this was a good thing, or a disgrace to the original songs, is [[YourMileageMayVary up to you.]]

* TearJerker: "March to the Witch's Castle".

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/georgeclinton.jpg

* MadScientist: Dr. Funkenstein. Kiss me on my ego!

The P-Funk collective provides examples of the following tropes;

The P-Funk mythology provides examples of:

* {{Super Drowning Skills}}: Sir Nose, who is of course to cool to dance or swim.