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PHOTO ESSAY

For Those About to Frock

A salute to music’s craziest costumes

By Matthew McKinnon
June 19, 2006

Parliament-Funkadelic

Who: Two bands, both led by the inimitable George Clinton, whose combined membership peaked at 50-some musicians. Clinton started Parliament (née the Parliaments) in his New Jersey barbershop in 1955. They began as a doo-wop group in need of a backing band, which became Funkadelic, a rhythm section that Clinton assembled from his hair-straightening clientele. Both bands then toiled in anonymity for more than a decade before finding their groove. Near the end of the ’60s, James Brown and Sly Stone poured funk’s foundation; in the ’70s, Parliament and Funkadelic erected the love palace above.

The look: When the ’60s got weird, Clinton and co. became eager students of its counterculture. The P-Funk family absorbed the philosophical and sartorial teachings of Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and like-minded travellers. By the late ’70s, at the peak of their fame, its varied members came to resemble the house band for an intergalactic orgy. Clinton used the proceeds from Parliament’s chart-busting sales to fund a dizzying array of outré outfits and lavish concert stagings. The excess almost bankrupted his operation, leading to Funkadelic’s stripped-down Anti-Tour in 1979. For casual fans, the P-Funk brand now conjures images of Clinton’s technicolour hair or star bassist Bootsy Collins’s eccentric eyewear.

The sound: Clinton included, many master musicians are veterans of P-Funk: Bootsy and brother Catfish Collins, Eddie Hazel, Bernie Worrell and, briefly, Stone himself. From the end of the ’60s through the beginning of the ’80s, label shenanigans forced Clinton to drop Parliament’s name, absorb its musicians into Funkadelic — and then return his allegiance to a reformed Parliament, only to see it fold as result of further business snafus. His leadership, or lack thereof, prompted several mutinies along the way. Somehow, however, Clinton helmed one stellar album after another throughout the tumult. It now seems impossible to imagine funk’s evolution absent his contributions.

The sum: Quite literally, funk phenomena. The P-Funk family’s influence on modern music overwhelms, most notably via hip hop’s eager sampling of Parliament’s catalogue. The legacies of Parliament, Funkadelic, Bootsy’s Rubber Band and assorted satellite groups live on via the P-Funk All Stars — coming soon to a concert hall or corporate retreat near you.

 

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