FUNK, FUSION & HIP-HOP-MUS F011B

Parliament Funkadelic Full Concert at Capitol Theatre 1978

The Performance as a Whole:

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I was unable to attend a live performance hence I decided to analyze the Parliament Funkadelic concert that took place on the 6th of June 1978. The venue for the concert was Capitol Theatre, which had a multi-camera system to capture the show in decent, black-and-white quality with better sound. The clip of this performance appears raw, which made me feel like the concert was taking place in real-time, with dead air and clumsy feedback blasts between songs. The performance started with band intros and an opening monologue from James Wesley Jackson, followed by songs such as Uncle Jam, followed by Cosmic Slop, then Funk was ready to roll Cholly, which was followed by Get Up The Funk, then Red Hot Mama, which was followed by Into You, Maggot Brain, Let’s Take It To The Stage, One Nation Under A Groove, Sweet Chariot (Mothership Connection) and Flashlight. The climax of the concert was crowned by a drum solo and reprise of Standing On The Verge Of Getting It Down and One Nation Under A Groove (P-Funk 2:58:09). I was really intrigued by this performance and most of the time I found myself dancing to the music and at times I had to rewind the YouTube clip to get the lyrics. Indeed this concert portrayed Parliament Funkadelic as a true unit that makes the audience feel like everything is right in the whole world.

Individual Songs:

One of the songs that caught my attention was One Nation Under A Groove whereby the audience and P-Funk worked together to change the perception of heteroglossic utopia into a reality. From our class readings about P-Funk, we learned that One Nation Under A Groove was among the four hits that dominated and revolutionized the music scene in the 1970s, and capturing 40 R&B hit singles. The dramatic spectacle, verbal exchanges, and lyrics in the songs brought absurd narratives of performance and interplanetary exodus in the concert hence making the audience to be part of the Afrofuturist realm that ignores boundaries of class and race. This live concert emphasized the importance of having unity of the ‘higher” spirit and mind with the “low” body hence suggesting to the audience that engaging the body through scatological humor, dance, and rhythm is essential for spiritual transcendence. P-Funk utilized various elements in this concert such as different props, costumes, dialogue, dance, and music hence converting the stage into a participatory and loosely structured drama of renewal, death, and rebirth. On stage, we can see outrageous costumes and marathon performances.

I discovered some of the characteristics from P-Funk’s performance, which I could easily relate to what the stylistic periods we learned throughout the course. For instance, this performance was characterized by heavy guitars, syncopated horn sections, spaced-out synthesizers, and a monotonic drum sound. These elements gave the concert a rhythmic movement and a distinctive groove, which got the audience dancing. Moreover, Clinton alternates between speaking and singing throughout the performance hence interjecting the audience with punch lines and catchphrases. Interestingly, Clinton paraphrases some of the lyrics from the Mothership Connection album to address the audience as he says, “Y’all ready to give up the funk?” (P-Funk 00:15:51). In neither instance does Clinton sing the “wrong” musical and lyrical phrases and this makes the concert an intensely inter-textual one hence promoting the concept of cosmic unity, which is inherent in all P-Funk’s performances. Remember, we learned that Clinton was the mastermind behind Parliament and Funkadelic after which he combined to form P-Funk.

One of the features I find so memorable in the performance is the transition from one song to the other. The distinction P-Funk created between one song’s ending and the beginning of another was nebulous. Catchphrases and lyrics from P-Funk’s catalogue were converted into other musical contexts through individual expression, collective exchange, songs, and performances. Another memorable moment is the performance of Maggot Brain, which ends with some uptempo guitar jam. Clinton launched this performance with an opening monologue and upon leaving the stage, the entire band was deeply jamming to Maggot Brain as Michael Hampton took over the solo.

Comparing P-Funk’s style with James Brown’s songs such as Sex Machine and Get on the Good Foot, P-Funk’s style emphasizes a groove-based structure with interlocking patterns of horns, drums, bass, and guitar, which form the basis of the band’s rhythm section with chord changes. A typical performance from James Brown would climax when he would feign collapse and drench in sweat. One of the band members would then appear and help Brown offstage as the last moments marshaled his dash back, rise up, and strength onstage. Although this symbolic rebirth and death emphasized black perseverance, P-Funk’s performance makes these undercurrents of redemption, exodus, rebirth, and death even more explicit. Moreover, P-Funk retains a more tenuous connection with authenticity, essence, and race.

Performance:

Each of the songs that P-Funk performed in this concert evoked my emotions, uninhibited bodily engagement, and intense dance. On stage, we learned that he used to collaborate with master keyboardist Bernie Worrel, bassist Bootsy Collins, guitarist Eddie Hazel, trombonist Fred Wesley, and saxophonist Maceo Parker. Clinton’s message of utopian politics and racial affirmation constituted a rebuke of my helplessness and despair. Additionally, P-Funk’s costumes emphasized particular physical attributes, which were invested with different life processes and bodily functions such as consumption, decay, death, and procreation. However, the black-and-white clip does not do justice to P-Funk’s three-hour performance but why should we complain if the lead singer shows up on stage wearing a diaper and knee-high boots? Moreover, the cameras give priceless shots of this performance and with the heart-warming lyrics and guitar, the audience dances off intensely. 

Conclusion:

The Parliament Funkadelic Full Concert at Capitol Theatre 1978 drew a racially homogenous audience, which shows that P-Funk is both a group and a collective with a shared vision of uniting people from diverse cultural and musical backgrounds. Through dialogue, revision, and repetition between texts, P-Funk’s style communicates hybrid utterances of self and other. By watching this three-hour performance, I learned that P-Funk’s concert is characterized by heavy guitars, syncopated horn sections, spaced-out synthesizers, and a monotonic drum sound, which are elements that give the concert a rhythmic movement and a distinctive groove. It connects with what we learned that P-Funk is the genesis of hip-hop from a rhythmic perspective. Moreover, the concert enables its audience to understand the importance of having unity of the ‘higher” spirit and mind hence emphasizing that engaging the body through dance and rhythm is essential for spiritual transcendence.

Works Cited

P-Funk. Parliament Funkadelic Full Concert at Capitol Theatre 1978. 11 June 1978, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOvM9LWRmOA.