Dr Funkenstein!
The next step for the Protector of the Pleasure Principle
With the 1975 album Mothership Connection George Clinton and Parliament first began to explore his funkily sonic concept of aliens landing on earth and giving the world funk. This would be developed over the next few albums with his latest crazy creation: Dr. Funkenstein.
In 1976 Parliament released the magnificent album The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein featuring some of the best funk musicians of the time, including Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns, having recently left James Brown’s band.
Preoccupied and dedicated to the preservation of the motion of hips…
The Cover
Clinton is in full Dr Funkenstein garb giving life to one of his many clones, as delightfully deranged as it can be, full of vibrant colour, the electric bolt of the band’s name blazoned across the top. I want to know more about what’s going on here…
Side one
Prelude gives us a blast of church organ and some spooky backwards voices soon become a deep narrative on how funk was originally buried beneath the pyramids. Soon the clones are ready to be released and we get the sharp funk of Gamin’ On Ya, jazzy horn lines and slick bass thumping. It jumps into the chorus and becomes a head-bobbing groove. I love how it nods to the early P-Funk single Come In Out of the Rain as it fades.
People keep waiting on a change
They ain’t got sense enough
To come in out of the rain
We then get the dirty twin funk guitars of Dr Funkenstein. Clinton is on fire here, rapping with style. The chorus is fantastic, chanted over a slinky beat. The claps come in and the funk builds as the doctor sets out his mission (“Preoccupied and dedicated to the preservation of the motion of hips…”) and the funk rolls on. It’s magnificent and cool. His clones are the Children of Production, which is another slice of slick funk, vocals shared by the band over a laid back funk bass. It’s pure P-Funk, wonderfully theatrical - We’re gonna blow the cobwebs out your mind - and so much deeper than the disco hits of the day.
Gettin’ to Know You has an incessant Funkadelic groove with Garry Shider singing on a bouncy number. He sings with soulful style, and the guitar is slick and smart. I love the cool “Baby, baby I love you…” and Michael Brecker’s cool sax solo.
Side two
The side opens with Do That Stuff, which bursts into life with a great drum beat before sliding into a funky, overlapping, layered bop. It was the obvious choice for a single, full of sunshine, and it’s a funky band at the top of their game. The guitar riff is deeply cool, slipping and sliding up and down the frets. It funks hard.
Everything is on the One sets out a funk mission:
Everything is on the one today y’all, that’s where it’s at
The track is full of delightful energy as well as Bernie Worrell’s typically strange squirting keyboard sounds. It is wonderfully catchy and swings from the first beat.
On I’ve Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body) we have a cool quasi-prog rock guitar opening the track before it morphs into a cool slow dance, Glenn Goins singing with passion. I love the drums on this track, not flashy but full of style. The song is lithe and sinuous in the way it twists and turns, slick and sweaty. Beautiful.
The album ends with more of the remarkable Glenn Goins’ singing. Funkin’ for Fun slips into life, funky guitar riff and expansive horns. It slides into a cool beat quickly and becomes a head-bopping funk groove. A perfect ending, that cool sax near the end is pure joy.
Parliament at this time were becoming - without them realising it - one of the most influential bands of all time, their funk sound embedded into the hip-hop of the 90s and beyond, their beats everywhere. Whilst he is still with us George Clinton needs to be celebrated of as a visionary musician.
This amazing funk vision would continue over the next few albums and I will write more of his work soon.
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About me
I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:
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Hell yeah!