>> What is it that FZ and George Clinton have in common?
>Funky shit?
I was gonna say Pure, Uncut Funk. I know that Pedro Bell was very highly influenced by the work of Calvin Schenkel. And the P-Funk Mobb has tons of what you could call "Conceptual Continuity." Not to mention that Clinton (George, not Bill) is a huge Zappa fan. - - - - - - - Jody B. (aka Jack P. Armstrong) "The program for this evening is: we do a bit, and then we stop for a bit, and then we do a bit more." - Robert Wyatt
On 22 Mar 2000 00:23:57 GMT, stucoho...@aol.com.net.org (Jack P.
Armstrong) wrote: >>> What is it that FZ and George Clinton have in common?
>>Funky shit?
>I was gonna say Pure, Uncut Funk. I know that Pedro Bell was very highly >influenced by the work of Calvin Schenkel. And the P-Funk Mobb has tons of >what you could call "Conceptual Continuity." Not to mention that Clinton >(George, not Bill) is a huge Zappa fan.
One day I was flipping through one of those "Histories of Rock & Roll" books. This delightful summation of all thinks worthy in Rock from the past century saw Zappa as deserving approximately two passing references, one of which, most interestingly for purposes of this thread, being a quotation from George Clinton along the lines of "Every black man in America must listen to Frank Zappa." Wish I'd written down the name of the book.
This got me thinking whether any hidden Zappa influence on George Clinton might be detected in Clinton's music. The few examples I provide herein reflect the sparseness of my collection of all things Parliafunkadelic, sadly. I'm sure there is much more (if the quotation can be trusted). I will omit *musical* parallels because I am underequipped educationally in that department (and frankly I don't hear many).
1. Some of the *intelligible* lyrics (there aren't many of them) from "Alice In My Fantasies" (G. Clinton, G. Cook):
"You can be my dog and I will be your tree and you can pee on me. Mama said never eat the yellow snow. So where did he go?"
This track was released in 1974 (on the Funkadelic album "Standing on the Verge of Getting It On") 'rounds about the time Zappa released his "Apostrophe'" album, featuring "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow." I can't quite catch the other lyrics to see if there is more of a connection. OK, big deal, we have mothers telling their sons to not eat yellow snow on these two albums.
2. Check out the musicians' credits from "Standing on the Verge" in comparison to a typical Zappa version thereof:
BERNARD (BERNIE) WORRELL: Spaced Viking; keyboards & vocals * CALVIN SIMON: Tenor vocals, congas & suave personality * CLARENCE 'FUZZY' HASKINS: an prototype werewolf; berserker ocatve vocals C 'BOOGIE' MOSSON: World's Only Black Leprechaun; bass & vocals EDDIE 'SMEDLEY SMORGANOFF' HAZEL: Maggoteer lead/solo guitar & vocals GARY SHIDER: Rhythm/lead guitar, doowop vocals, sinister grin * GEORGE CLINTON: Supreme Maggot Minister of Funkadelia; vocals, maniac froth & spit. Behavior illegal in several states R 'TIKI' FULWOOD: Percussion & vocals. Equipped with stereo armpits RON BRYKOWSKI: Rhythm/lead guitar; polyester soul- powered token white devil * 'SHADY' GRADY THOMAS: Registered and licensed genie; vocals * RAY (STINGRAY) DAVIS: Subterranean bass vocals, supercool & stinky fingers
OK, now from "We're Only In It For the Money":
FRANK ZAPPA: Guitar, piano, lead vocals, weirdness & editing BILLY MUNDI: Drums, vocal, yak & black lace underwear BUNK GARDNER: All woodwinds, mumbled weirdness ROY ESTRADA: Electric bass, vocals, asthma DON PRESTON: Retired JIMMY CARL BLACK: Indian of the group, drums, trumpet, vocals IAN UNDERWOOD: Piano, woodwinds, wholesome EUCLID JAMES MOTORHEAD [italicized] SHERWOOD: (visible on back cover) Road [italicized] Manager, soprano & baritone saxophone, all purpose weirdness & TEEN APPEAL (we need it desparately) SUZY CREAMCHEESE: Telephone DICK BARBER: SNORKS
Yes, I did correctly transcribe the formatting to make the point: the Funkadelic liner notes use nearly identical formatting (all-caps names followed by colons, sentence-case descriptions of instrumentation and "special features," use of ampersands). Most striking is the parallel between Jimmy Carl Black, described as Indian of the group, and Ron Brykowski, called the token white devil. And you can see other parallels, including the humor.
3. The liner notes of "Standing on the Verge" then tell a long parable, very much in the style of the fantastic story in Frank Zappa's "Grand Wazoo" album. In both stories, key nouns, especially proper nouns, are in ALL CAPS, like in a cheesy religious pamphlet.
Summary of the George Clinton story: The Cosmic Strumpet of MOTHER NATURE birthed the Apostles [Sun] Ra, [Jimi] Hendrix, [Sly] Stone & CLINTON to preserve all funkiness of man for all eternity. But reactionary NIXON-OUS HEATHENS sought to subjugate the followers of FUNKADELIA, and the Cosmic Strumpet sent Maggot Minister CLINTON on a quest to defeat the evil forces in order to attain the GRIP OF THE FUNKAPUS. He hopped into the PARLIAFUNKADELICMENT THANG and flew to Babylon to destroy hordes of supertrys, halfshafts, rambunctious niggaphites, slackmacks and clodfathers. Returning victorious in his P.F.T., CLINTON is tempted by luscious negresses but resists so as to not delay his eventual coupling with the Cosmic Strumpet (who is his mother, BTW, lest we forget).
Zappa's THE LEGEND OF CLETUS AWREETUS-AWRIGHTUS & THE GRAND WAZOO, in a similar free- associational style, loosely describes a dream by the scientist Uncle Meat of a historically inaccurate replica of ANCIENT ROME, where the forces of CLETUS AWREETUS-AWRIGHTUS, the Funky Emperor, do weekly battle against the army of MEDIOCRATES OF PEDESTRIUM. The battles consist of each group of musicians playing music (something like a Battle of the Bands). The results of each engagement are posted on THE CHARTS every Monday. The story also tells of the unfunky prudes (known as QUESTIONS (Christians)) whom CLETUS asks to repent their unmusical ways or be destroyed (by being dissolved into a vat of UnDifferentiate Tissue). Zappa's story ends more ambiguously than the Clinton story, with the weekly battles against the outsized M.O.P. army looking to continue ad infinitum.
Of course, this all amounts to next to nothing in the grand scheme of things. But, at least, I get the impression that George Clinton was listening to quite a bit of Zappa by the early- to mid- 70s. Although Bootsy was undoubtedly the biggest direct lyrical influence on Clinton, I *sense* a lot of Zappa je-ne-c'est-qua in some of the lyrics of Parliafunkadelic. (See "Agony of Defeet" with its topical similarities to Zappa's "Stinkfoot," for example). Maybe someone more knowledgeable can contribute.
On Thu, 23 Mar 2000 17:38:21 GMT, steve_o_be...@my-deja.com wrote:
Excellent post. I think you're definitely on to something here.
My own P-Funk collection is pretty sparse these days since the last break-in at my house ten days ago. For some kooky reason, the burglar left all my Zappa CDs behind, which is exactly what happened the last time some junkie helped himself to my CD collection. Definitely proving something.
Well, I can't contribute any sold fact to this theory, but I do have one similar tidbit. The whole reason why I started getting into the whole Parlafunkadelicment Thang in the first place was due to an article about George Clinton in Musician magazine from about 1985 or so that stated that George was the "Black Frank Zappa" in the opening paragraph. Well, I couldn't let that description go by without further investigation. While I'm a pretty big George Clinton fan the only similarities that I see between him and Frank are; 1) They have (/had) a similar work ethic when it comes to music. George was pretty prolific, writing for, producing and playing with many different bands at once and releasing several LP's every year. 2) They both had "fuck'em if they don't like it" attitude that resulted in some very original and interesting music. They both did it exactly how they wanted to with no concern towards what the average pop music fan might think. 3) As Steve pointed out, they both have (/had) a great sense of humor that could be found all over their music and even on the packaging.
As far as I can tell, the comparisons stop there. While I enjoy the music of George Clinton, he ain't no Zappa. I think George really respected Frank for proving that you don't have to pander to the radio in order to get your personal vision released.
They say the bigger the headache, the bigger the pill. They call me The Big Pill Much Love, Dr. Funkenstein
> > What is it that FZ and George Clinton have in > common?
> One day I was flipping through one of > those "Histories of Rock & Roll" books. This > delightful summation of all thinks worthy in Rock > from the past century saw Zappa as deserving > approximately two passing references, one of > which, most interestingly for purposes of this > thread, being a quotation from George Clinton > along the lines of "Every black man in America > must listen to Frank Zappa." Wish I'd written > down the name of the book.
> This got me thinking whether any hidden Zappa > influence on George Clinton might be detected in > Clinton's music. The few examples I provide > herein reflect the sparseness of my collection of > all things Parliafunkadelic, sadly. I'm sure > there is much more (if the quotation can be > trusted). I will omit *musical* parallels > because I am underequipped educationally in that > department (and frankly I don't hear many).
> 1. Some of the *intelligible* lyrics (there > aren't many of them) from "Alice In My Fantasies" > (G. Clinton, G. Cook):
> "You can be my dog and I will be your tree and > you can pee on me. Mama said never eat the > yellow snow. So where did he go?"
> This track was released in 1974 (on the > Funkadelic album "Standing on the Verge of > Getting It On") 'rounds about the time Zappa > released his "Apostrophe'" album, > featuring "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow." I can't > quite catch the other lyrics to see if there is > more of a connection. OK, big deal, we have > mothers telling their sons to not eat yellow snow > on these two albums.
> 2. Check out the musicians' credits > from "Standing on the Verge" in comparison to a > typical Zappa version thereof:
> BERNARD (BERNIE) WORRELL: Spaced Viking; > keyboards & vocals > * CALVIN SIMON: Tenor vocals, congas & suave > personality > * CLARENCE 'FUZZY' HASKINS: an prototype > werewolf; berserker ocatve vocals > C 'BOOGIE' MOSSON: World's Only Black Leprechaun; > bass & vocals > EDDIE 'SMEDLEY SMORGANOFF' HAZEL: Maggoteer > lead/solo guitar & vocals > GARY SHIDER: Rhythm/lead guitar, doowop vocals, > sinister grin > * GEORGE CLINTON: Supreme Maggot Minister of > Funkadelia; vocals, maniac froth & spit. Behavior > illegal in several states > R 'TIKI' FULWOOD: Percussion & vocals. Equipped > with stereo armpits > RON BRYKOWSKI: Rhythm/lead guitar; polyester soul- > powered token white devil > * 'SHADY' GRADY THOMAS: Registered and licensed > genie; vocals > * RAY (STINGRAY) DAVIS: Subterranean bass vocals, > supercool & stinky fingers
> OK, now from "We're Only In It For the Money":
> FRANK ZAPPA: Guitar, piano, lead vocals, > weirdness & editing > BILLY MUNDI: Drums, vocal, yak & black lace > underwear > BUNK GARDNER: All woodwinds, mumbled weirdness > ROY ESTRADA: Electric bass, vocals, asthma > DON PRESTON: Retired > JIMMY CARL BLACK: Indian of the group, drums, > trumpet, vocals > IAN UNDERWOOD: Piano, woodwinds, wholesome > EUCLID JAMES MOTORHEAD [italicized] SHERWOOD: > (visible on back cover) Road [italicized] > Manager, soprano & baritone saxophone, all > purpose weirdness & TEEN APPEAL (we need it > desparately) > SUZY CREAMCHEESE: Telephone > DICK BARBER: SNORKS
> Yes, I did correctly transcribe the formatting to > make the point: the Funkadelic liner notes use > nearly identical formatting (all-caps names > followed by colons, sentence-case descriptions of > instrumentation and "special features," use of > ampersands). Most striking is the parallel > between Jimmy Carl Black, described as Indian of > the group, and Ron Brykowski, called the token > white devil. And you can see other parallels, > including the humor.
> 3. The liner notes of "Standing on the Verge" > then tell a long parable, very much in the style > of the fantastic story in Frank Zappa's "Grand > Wazoo" album. In both stories, key nouns, > especially proper nouns, are in ALL CAPS, like in > a cheesy religious pamphlet.
> Summary of the George Clinton story: The Cosmic > Strumpet of MOTHER NATURE birthed the Apostles > [Sun] Ra, [Jimi] Hendrix, [Sly] Stone & CLINTON > to preserve all funkiness of man for all > eternity. But reactionary NIXON-OUS HEATHENS > sought to subjugate the followers of FUNKADELIA, > and the Cosmic Strumpet sent Maggot Minister > CLINTON on a quest to defeat the evil forces in > order to attain the GRIP OF THE FUNKAPUS. He > hopped into the PARLIAFUNKADELICMENT THANG and > flew to Babylon to destroy hordes of supertrys, > halfshafts, rambunctious niggaphites, slackmacks > and clodfathers. Returning victorious in his > P.F.T., CLINTON is tempted by luscious negresses > but resists so as to not delay his eventual > coupling with the Cosmic Strumpet (who is his > mother, BTW, lest we forget).
> Zappa's THE LEGEND OF CLETUS AWREETUS-AWRIGHTUS > & THE GRAND WAZOO, in a similar free- > associational style, loosely describes a dream by > the scientist Uncle Meat of a historically > inaccurate replica of ANCIENT ROME, where the > forces of CLETUS AWREETUS-AWRIGHTUS, the Funky > Emperor, do weekly battle against the army of > MEDIOCRATES OF PEDESTRIUM. The battles consist > of each group of musicians playing music > (something like a Battle of the Bands). The > results of each engagement are posted on THE > CHARTS every Monday. The story also tells of the > unfunky prudes (known as QUESTIONS (Christians)) > whom CLETUS asks to repent their unmusical ways > or be destroyed (by being dissolved into a vat of > UnDifferentiate Tissue). Zappa's story ends more > ambiguously than the Clinton story, with the > weekly battles against the outsized M.O.P. army > looking to continue ad infinitum.
> Of course, this all amounts to next to nothing in > the grand scheme of things. But, at least, I get > the impression that George Clinton was listening > to quite a bit of Zappa by the early- to mid- > 70s. Although Bootsy was undoubtedly the biggest > direct lyrical influence on Clinton, I *sense* a > lot of Zappa je-ne-c'est-qua in some of the > lyrics of Parliafunkadelic. (See "Agony of > Defeet" with its topical similarities to > Zappa's "Stinkfoot," for example). Maybe someone > more knowledgeable can contribute.
