Lately I've been turning to a lot of music that I couldn't get into a few years ago and have found with more mature ears that I love the music. Lately I've discovered how much I really do like the Rolling Stones, for example.

Anyway, upon hearing lots of samples of Funkadelic tracks, I realised how amazing and ahead of their time their body of work is. I've always seems to love Funkadelic but I have a harder time with Parliament. I think it has something to do with Parliament being more commercial and strictly funk, while Funkadelic tried to mix genres more and make a statement.

So if you were to contrast the two groups what would you say? Is my estimation of them correct? Bring me over to the Parliament side! Any favorite albums, etc... I'm really curious.

There is no contrasting the two groups cause its a ParliaFunkaDelicMent Thang!!! But seriously I have to say the best Parliament albums are:
Mothership Connection
Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome
The Motor Booty Affair
Chocolate City
The Clones Of Dr.Funkenstein

Its easier to pick more Funkadelc albums due to the fact that they had more albums under that name. I couldn't possibly imagine one without the other so I can't choose one,gotta go for both.

I disagree, only in the latter funkadelic years ie the warner years did a kinda uniformed Pfunk sound emerge. Otherwise they were very different acts. I much prefer Funkadelic to Parliament. Ironic that with a name like Funkadelic they were more of twisted acid rock band that incorporated funk grooves. Parliament albums were like one big party that didn't stop until Trombipulation and i find some of their albums exhausting as a whole. Funkadelic had a lot more going on and lyrically they covered more bases especially in their earlier years before the fonk really took over on One Nation Under A Groove, even that was political!

Oh Fave Funkadelic albums

Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow
Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On
One Nation Under A Groove

Parliament

Chocolate City
Mothership Connection
Motor Booty Affair

Check out the Pfunk All Stars album Urban Dancefloor Guerillas, thats pretty darn good too.

"the clones of Dr.Funkenstein"
from 1976 & their "Mothership connection"
from 1975 is their masterpieces I think.
also I newly redescovered their excellent
live album "P-funk earth tour" from 1977.
music way ahead of it´s time.
/peace manki

Best Funkadelic: Standing on the Verge of Getting it On

WildheartXXX said:

I'm aware of the uniform sound that emerged in the later Warner Brothers years of Funkadelic. This is most likely due to the two recording acts having the same core members. Funkadelic debuted in 1969 and the Parliament most are familiar with emerged around 1973. Yes Funkadelic in the early years was more rock influenced than the Parliament act ever was. The point I was making is that these two acts were like two sides that made up one brain(left and right side if you will). Both groups were just as important because without one the other could not exist. If you don't know what I'm getting at look at the history of Clinton and Co's groups.
The original group was called The Parliaments and they were a doo wop group. By the time the acid rock group came to be George wanted to use the name The Parliaments for it. The name was at the time tied up in an old contract under which he still owed material to a certain label. The back up band for this group was called Funkadelic and this became the name of the whole act.
At the time Funkadelic had a cult following and of course was more experimental and less polished and the message wasn't being heard by many.Parliament was later revived after the earlier contract disputes was settled as a way of getting the political message across to a wider audience. Thus Parliament was a more polished and disciplined musical act used to get the message across. Once Mothership Connection became a success the Funkadelic of old was gone for good,and the two groups became more and more indistinguishable. When they did live shows the set list was always from both groups so the audience got the bet of both.
It was always a "PARLIAFUNKADELICMENT THANG" so you couldn't have one without the other,this being the whole point of my statement. yes you can prefer one to another but they were both just as important.

Supernova said:

yeah... it's hard to imagine that people may not be able to see the social relevance in songs like "chocolate city"...


"uh, what's happening CC?
Ttey still call it the White House
but that's a temporary condition, too.
can you dig it, CC?"


"and when they come to march on ya
tell 'em to make sure they got their james brown pass
and don't be surprised if Ali is in the white house
reverend ike, secretary of the treasure
richard pryor, minister of education
stevie wonder, secretary of FINE arts
and miss aretha franklin, the first lady"




chocolate edit...
[This message was edited Sun Feb 2 5:38:37 PST 2003 by EllisDee]

I really can't think what my favourite Funkadelic album would be...

Jasziah said:

Indeed best Pfunk album of them all!!!

All I know is I'm going to buy a shitload of Funkadelic albums in the coming weeks, and a few Parliaments too!

So what would you suggest as favorite Pfunk/George Clinton albums in the 80s and 90s?

I think most of the GC stuff is out of print. If you can get hold of them though

Computer Games
R&B Skeletons In The Closet

Pfunk All Stars - Urban Dancefloor Guerillas.

Dont bother with Dope Dogs, with the exception of the brilliant Dog Star Fly On its lousy.

TAPOAFOM is also pretty good too. I think this is credited to George Clinton and The Pfunk All Stars from 1996 (his last album). It's really mellow sounding and fortunately rap free.

Aside from the last Parliament albums "Gloryhallastoopid" and "Trombipulation" (which only impress in parts) and the slight inconsistency in later Warner Bros Funkadelic (One Nation excepted) you can't lose.

As a Prince fan you may also find interest in George's two solo albums on the Paisley Park imprint "Cinderella Theory" and "Hey Man Smell My Finger".

I enjoy there 70's Stuff on Westbound&then Casablanca Era before coming to Warners.they each balance one another IMHO.So Prolific,Funky&Ground-Breaking not to mention unlimited in styles,vibes&influence.

EllisDee said:

I can dig it, CC.

Supernova said:

:LOL:

Parliament was just doing what was true 2 them & the funk...They may have had some very popular songs, but I don't think it was pre-thought out 2 B more commercial as it was doing what was just plain funky.

I dig both & the mix between them "P-Funk" as well as some of the off-springs that were created.

One of akind music vision costumes album covers live shows etc.. made P-Funk such a new breed force in music with a super rich legacy...Its so easy 2 see why alot of people "used" "took" "copied" from the orginal source, as they did JB etc...

Since U got ideas 4 what albums 2 pick up and dig on, I'd tell U 2 check out some of there live concerts floating around on video if U can find them. And U can get the Mothership Connection now on DVD...Great stuff that lets U see & hear so much... leaving U wishing U was around way way back when they did these eye popping tours.

mistermaxxx said:

*Yep witout a dout bro...them 70's...