George Clinton Artistfacts

July 22, 1941
George Clinton, the master of funk, brought together about 100 outstanding musicians in the '70s to rotate in and out of the groundbreaking bands Parliament and Funkadelic, collectively known as Parliament-Funkadelic or P-Funk. He was the primary songwriter and producer in these outfits, and often a vocalist as well. 1982 he released his first solo album, Computer Games, backed by his P-Funk crew. It includes one of his most famous songs, "Atomic Dog."
Many of his song titles and hooks, "Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow," for instance, came to Clinton when he was in... let's call it an "altered state."

"Just tripping," he told Songfacts. "I would say things like that, and this guy, Ernie Harris, would write them down, and I'd put them in the next song."
Prince was a huge George Clinton fan, and also a friend. When Parliament-Funkadelic was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1997, Prince gave the induction speech.
Clinton arranged solo projects for many of the musicians he worked with, including Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker and Bernie Worrell. He usually co-wrote the songs and oversaw these projects, using many of the same musicians from Parliament-Funkadelic. The most successful of these was Bootsy's Rubber Band from Bootsy Collins. In 1978, their song "Bootzilla" knocked the Parliament hit "Flash Light" from the top spot on the R&B chart.
Clinton thinks it's important to keep evolving, so change is a constant. "You've got to keep coming up with new concepts, keep yourself interesting, because if you don't the novelty wears off," he said in New York Rocker. "Then you take that step and change it again. You know it's going to alienate some people, but you have to do that every time their attention span catches up to you. And the more drastic the move the better, as long as you can define it."
The G-Funk sound popularized by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in the early '90s was often based on Clinton's music. For instance, the song "Dre Day" is built on a sample of Funkadelic's "(Not Just) Knee Deep."

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