The George Clinton Effect

George Clinton once lamented that whenever any of the P-Funk acts scores a hit record, he automatically becomes a member of that band. He declared himself a ‘Bride’ after the P-Funk spin-off act, the Brides Of Funkenstein, scored a top ten R&B hit in 1978 with the single “Disco To Go”.  This particular outlook was central to the expansion of the Parliament-Funkadelic empire, an empire that launched an all-out assault on American popular music.

The vast majority of acts that came out of the P-Funk stable were able to create at least two studio albums. Bootsy’s Rubber Band and Parlet were the lone exceptions (Parlet recorded 3 studio albums, and Bootsy would create 5 albums while remaining in partnership with Clinton). Through all of this activity, there were a number of acts that were able to produce only one album. Like any album in the illustrious P-Funk discography, they put their heart, soul, and foot into these albums, taking full advantage of a single opportunity to give up the Funk.

The following is a partial list of P-Funk members who produced only one album.

EDDIE HAZEL-“GAME, DAMES AND GUITARS THANGS” (WARNER BROS.-1977)

The principal instrumentalist who would represent a dominant presence on the first three Funkadelic albums was finally able to record his first solo project, an album that would serve as the missing Funkadelic for 1977. Game, Dames… divides itself between popular rock classics (the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’”) versus soulful and spirited originals (“Frantic Moment” and “So Goes The Story”). Due to Eddie’s passing in 1992, Game, Dames… became the only album Eddie recorded in his lifetime. A posthumous release, Rest In P, emerged in 1994.

“QUAZAR”- (ARISTA-1978)

P-Funk guitarist/vocalist Glenn Goins, after a financial dispute with George Clinton, left the band to form his own Funk unit known as Quazar. Quazar also features instrumental support from P-Funk drummer Jerome “Big Foot” Brailey and Daryl Dixon (the saxophonist on the Parliament single “Flash Light”). Quazar was poised to make a significant impact in the Funk arena. Unfortunately, tragedy would strike when Glenn Goins succumbed to Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in July of 1978. Without Goins as the guiding force for the band, there would unfortunately be no follow-up album. Members of Quazar would go on to work with artists like Sting, Alicia Keys, Bootsy Collins, and Justin Timberlake.

“SWEAT BAND” (UNCLE JAM/CBS-1980)

One of numerous album releases that emerged during the “December Is Funk Month” campaign of 1980, Sweat Band was the first project released on the newly founded Uncle Jam Records label. The indirect result of a lawsuit brought against Bootsy Collins by a folk/country music group called the Rubber Band. Much like the dual identity of both Parliament and Funkadelic, Bootsy would develop his own alter ego in service of the Funk. In fact, this album was released in the same week that his fifth album for Warner Bros., Ultra Wave, hit the record store racks under the simple title, Bootsy. The album’s first single, “Freak To Freak,” was the highest charting track from this project (#25 on the Billboard R&B singles charts).

“GODMOMA HERE” (ELEKTRA-1981)

“James Brown has always been the Godfather of Soul, and I thought it was time that we had some Godmomas running around!”-Bootsy Collins in 1981.

Godmoma was a trio of singers (Cynthia Girty (alias “Sugar Baby”, Carolyn Myles, and Tony Walker (alias “T-Baby”) originating from the Motor City of Detroit, Michigan. Their countrified vocal energy caught the eyes and ears of Mr. Collins, which resulted in him producing their only album entitled Godmoma Here. The high-spirited vocal trio would lend their talents to two more Collins-related projects. The 1980 album, Ultra Wave, and the last album he would record for Warner Bros., The One Giveth, The Count Taketh Away, from 1982.

INCORPORATED THANG BAND-“LIFESTYLES OF THE ROACH AND FAMOUS” (WARNER BROS-1988)

Along with the album What’s Bootsy Doin’? by Bootsy Collins, Lifestyles Of The Roach And Famous signaled a comeback of sorts for the P-Funk organization. Consisting of Lige Curry (bass, lead vocals), Andre Foxxe (guitars, keyboards, and lead vocals), Angel Keener (vocals), Claudia White (vocals), and Dean Ragland (drums), the “IncTB” pumped out industrial strength P-Funk to help close out the 1980’s (George Clinton would end the decade with his first album in 3 years, the Cinderella Theory). This particular project would also produce one of the first P-Funk promotional videos for a spin-off act (outside of Bootsy) in the form of the first single “Body Jackin’”.

MALLIA FRANKLIN -“FUNKEN TERSEPTER” (P-Vine-1995)

P-Funk vocalist Mallia Franklin was probably George Clinton’s most effective talent scout. She was responsible for bringing numerous vital instrumentalists to the band, including Bootsy Collins and Junie Morrison. Mallia recorded tracks between 1981 and 1986. Tracks that finally saw the light of day in 1995 via the album Funken Tersepter, released by P-Vine Records in Japan. The lineup for Funken Tersepter reads like a who’s who of the P-Funk main invasion force. Eddie Hazel, Garry Shider, Blackbyrd McKnight, Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, and various other players all lend their talents to this project. Funken Tersepter would, unfortunately, be Mallia Franklin’s only album as she would pass away in February of 2010.

JIMMY G AND THE TACKHEADS-“FEDERATION OF TACKHEADS” (Capitol-1985)

Further solidifying the concept of “Family Funk”, George Clinton’s younger brother Jimmy Giles steps into the Mothership with the 1985 release Federation Of Tackheads. Various P-Funk army members, including Blackbyrd McKnight, Robert “P-Nut” Johnson, Garry Shider, Ron Ford, Lige Curry, multi-instrumentalist and former member of the band Slave, Steve Washington, and vocalists Mallia Franklin and Sheila Washington, assist in making the cream rise to the top. “Break My Heart” was a minor hit from the album. 

-Tim Kinley

Photo: Quazar (promo photo from Arista Records)