Hangin with Mr. Clinton

Posted on 25th Jul 07 by Liam Tyrrell | 0

Artist: George Clinton " Interview
Author: Liam Tyrell

Sometimes you can end up in the most unusual places. It was no exception last 5th July when I trotted on down to Tripod to meet George Clinton" he of Parliament and Funkadelic fame. Not that Tripod in itself is that unusual you understand" but because this man is a law unto himself" in fact" he"s more like a statute book unto himself.

So it was that I arrived in the rather janitorial surroundings of what passes for backstage on Harcourt St. and waited patiently for my chance. Like some coiled spring or hungry cheetah" I stood" stock"still" noiseless in my preparation until the call came through the haze of smoke" which was garden"variety in some ways" and less so in others" "George is ready for you."

I was led down a corridor past endless occupied rooms where the various members of the P"Funk All"Stars had taken up their individual residences until I reached the door of the disabled toilets. This was where George had holed up to chill out before the show. And this was where I was to attempt to interview him" in an entirely serious manner.

A man of such renown has achieved most things I thought" so I enquired as to what was missing" what was left for him to do" "Start all over again"" was his reply as he laughed long and hard. And the best thing he"d ever done" "The best thing I ever did was get my spaceship licence"" said George" "I couldn"t tell you how long it took" light years… It took a while" it took a minute."

For the uninitiated" George started out singing Doo"Wop in the North Eastern U.S." but he knew he was on to something straight away. George: "I didn"t know how far I could go" but I knew I could do it the rest of my life. That"s just where I was headed. I knew I could do it for the rest of my life after Testify was out. It took so long to get that hit record" and then we had a couple of records after Testify and it looked like we had to start all over again to get the second one. The first one don"t mean shit if you"re looking for hit records and you"re trying to keep up with the times and trying to be in style. What I realised was that after trying ten years to get that hit record" I thought "I can"t go through that again." So hits meant doing rock"n"roll and blues" the music of my mother and listening to stuff I heard in school" and I said "Oh shit" Motown getting ready to end already". It was getting ready to look like ink spots. And as soon as I realised we could change up and not be in a band that had to have a hit record every time we put one out" then I realised we could do it for the rest of our lives."

"Once we did Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow and got out of the suits and ties and things" I realised you could define your own self. And that"s what happened with us" we started to define ourselves. After Free Your Mind and all that Funkadelic" there was no competition. So we just done our own thing."

"I learned one thing back then. The music that you hear parents say "I hate that music"" and older musicians say "that ain"t really music"" you gravitate to that music. You go to that and you"ll be in style all the time."

Both of George"s bands" Parliament and Funkadelic" made music that was fun most times" but it could also be strongly political too. I wanted to know how he felt about the role of music in politics today.

George: "If there ever was a role for it there"s one now. You got to find that route to get heard. Cos nowadays" it"s like the 1960s where all that stuff went underground. And you need that shit today" we need someone to get like Radio Free America because they can blot it out now you know."

Mr Clinton is referred to as the Prime Minister of Funk quite a bit" most notably on the Wikipedia entry for the man himself. However" he was surprised to be told that he was referred to in this way. George: "Prime Minister"" That"s a new name for it" I enquired if he would have liked to have been a politician for real. George: "HELL NO"" Prime Minister or President"" Corporations run the world… besides They can"t get no pussy."
So after 30 years playing to packed venues night in night out" I wondered if he still enjoyed it. George: "Ah yeah" hell yeah" it"s a circus. That"s the only other place I know where 3 generations of a family will go at the same time. You got grandparents and kids or great"grandparents and they"ll all go at the same time and have little fun. But our shows are like that. I see people that I"ve known and they come up and say "Are you still doing this"" and then their great"great"grandkids are coming and saying "They don"t know nothing about the P"funk.""

P"Funk shows are a little different" whereas most artists will have you strip searched on the way in to check for recording devices" George actively encourages his fans to tape the shows for their own use. George: "That"s cool you know. The same thing ain"t gonna happen 2 nights in a row anyhow. I like the Grateful Dead. Their mode of operation was probably one of the best. Them" Phish" you know" just like go out and Jam."

So what"s next for these masters of interplanetary funk then" George: "We got a new record out right now" "How Late Do U Have 2B B4 UR Absent"" and we"re doing a record right now with the Wu"Tang Clan. We"ll do anything that we can come up with that"s radical."

That was it from George then until he hit the boards later on that night" where he and his P"Funk All"Stars put on a 4 hour funk extravaganza. That could be the best value gig you"ll ever get" 15"plus amazingly talented musicians playing songs that are instantly recognisable" although mostly by virtue of the fact that just about every hip"hop artist has sampled them to shreds. A pretty spectacular show that did not leave the second full house in 2 nights wanting and resulted in this reporter freeing his mind" so that his ass might follow.