GEORGE CLINTON
Name: George Clinton
Born: 22 July 1941 Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States
George Clinton (born July 22, 1941) is an American musician and the principal
architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and
Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funk artist as of
1981. He has been called one of the most important innovators of funk music,
next to James Brown and Sly Stone.
Clinton was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, grew up in Plainfield, New
Jersey, and currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida. In Plainfield, he ran a
barber salon, where he straightened hair, and soon formed a doo wop group,
inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, called The Parliaments. For a period
in the 1960s Clinton was a staff songwriter for Motown. Despite initial
commercial failures, The Parliaments eventually found success under the names
Parliament and Funkadelic in the seventies (see also P-Funk). These two bands
combined elements of bands/musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family
Stone, Cream and James Brown while exploring different sounds, technology, and
lyricism. This article focuses on Clinton's solo efforts after 1981.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Clinton recorded several nominal "solo" albums,
although all of these records featured contributions from P-Funk's core
musicians. The primary reason for recording under his own name was legal
difficulties, due to the complex copyright and trademark issues surrounding the
name "Parliament" (primarily) and Polygram's purchase of his former label (as
part of Parliament), Casablanca Records. In 1982, Clinton signed to Capitol
Records as a solo artist and as the P-Funk All-Stars, releasing Computer Games
that same year. "Loopzilla" hit the Top 20 R&B charts, followed by "Atomic Dog",
which reached #1 R&B, but peaked at #101 on the pop chart. In the next four
years, Clinton released three more studio albums (You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish,
Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends and R&B Skeletons in the Closet) as well as a
live album, Mothership Connection (Live from the Summit, Houston, Texas) and
charting three singles in the R&B Top 30, "Nubian Nut", "Last Dance", and "Do
Fries Go with That Shake". This period of Clinton's career was marred by
multiple legal problems (resulting in financial difficulties) due to complex
royalty and copyright issues.
In 1985 he was recruited by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce their album
Freaky Styley, because the band members were huge fans of George Clinton and
funk in general. Clinton, in fact, wrote the vocals and lyrics to the title
track which was originally intended by the band to be left an instrumental piece.
The album was not a commercial success at the time, but has since sold 500,000
copies after the Chili Peppers became popular years later.
Though Clinton's popularity had waned by the mid 1980s, he experienced something
of a resurgence in the early 1990s, as many rappers cited him as an influence
and began sampling his songs. Alongside James Brown, George Clinton is
considered to be one of the most sampled musicians ever.
In 1989, Clinton released The Cinderella Theory on Paisley Park, Prince's record
label. This was followed by Hey Man, Smell My Finger. Clinton then signed with
Sony 550 and released T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational
Mothership) in 1996, having reunited with several old members of Parliament and
Funkadelic.
In the 1990s, Clinton appeared in films such as Graffiti Bridge (1990), House
Party (1990), PCU (1994), Good Burger (1997) and The Breaks (1999). Most
recently he appeared as the voice of The Funktipus, the DJ of the Funk radio
station Bounce FM in the 2004 video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in
which his song "Loopzilla" also appeared. Rapper Dr. Dre sampled most of his
beats to create his G-Funk music era. He's also worked with Tupac Shakur on the
song "Can't C Me" from the album All Eyez on Me; Outkast on the song "Synthesizer"
from the album Aquemini; Redman on the song "J.U.M.P." from the album
Malpractice; Souls of Mischief on "Mama Knows Best" from the album Trilogy:
Conflict, Climax, Resolution; Killah Priest on "Come With me" from the album
Priesthood and the Wu Tang Clan on "Wolves" from the album "8 Diagrams".
On December 6, 2003, Clinton was charged with one felony count of cocaine
possession and a misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia in
Tallahassee, Florida. Just two weeks later, he made his first public
appearance since the arrest, jamming on stage with the jam band Phish in Miami.
On August 11, 2004, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor drug-paraphernalia
charges, while the felony charge was dropped.
He had a cameo appearance in the season 2 premiere of How I Met Your Mother on
September 18th, 2006.
"You're Thinking Right", the theme song for The Tracey Ullman Show, was written
by Clinton.
He appeared on the intro to Snoop Dogg's Tha Blue Carpet Treatment album,
released in 2007.
He also appeared in the film PCU (Jeremy Piven, David Spade) and played a
concert for the big party.
Clinton founded a record label called The C Kunspyruhzy in 2005.
Clinton allows audience members to tape his live performances for private, non-commercial
use only.
Name: George Clinton
Born: 22 July 1941 Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States
George Clinton (born July 22, 1941) is an American musician and the principal
architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and
Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funk artist as of
1981. He has been called one of the most important innovators of funk music,
next to James Brown and Sly Stone.
Clinton was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, grew up in Plainfield, New
Jersey, and currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida. In Plainfield, he ran a
barber salon, where he straightened hair, and soon formed a doo wop group,
inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, called The Parliaments. For a period
in the 1960s Clinton was a staff songwriter for Motown. Despite initial
commercial failures, The Parliaments eventually found success under the names
Parliament and Funkadelic in the seventies (see also P-Funk). These two bands
combined elements of bands/musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family
Stone, Cream and James Brown while exploring different sounds, technology, and
lyricism. This article focuses on Clinton's solo efforts after 1981.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Clinton recorded several nominal "solo" albums,
although all of these records featured contributions from P-Funk's core
musicians. The primary reason for recording under his own name was legal
difficulties, due to the complex copyright and trademark issues surrounding the
name "Parliament" (primarily) and Polygram's purchase of his former label (as
part of Parliament), Casablanca Records. In 1982, Clinton signed to Capitol
Records as a solo artist and as the P-Funk All-Stars, releasing Computer Games
that same year. "Loopzilla" hit the Top 20 R&B charts, followed by "Atomic Dog",
which reached #1 R&B, but peaked at #101 on the pop chart. In the next four
years, Clinton released three more studio albums (You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish,
Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends and R&B Skeletons in the Closet) as well as a
live album, Mothership Connection (Live from the Summit, Houston, Texas) and
charting three singles in the R&B Top 30, "Nubian Nut", "Last Dance", and "Do
Fries Go with That Shake". This period of Clinton's career was marred by
multiple legal problems (resulting in financial difficulties) due to complex
royalty and copyright issues.
In 1985 he was recruited by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce their album
Freaky Styley, because the band members were huge fans of George Clinton and
funk in general. Clinton, in fact, wrote the vocals and lyrics to the title
track which was originally intended by the band to be left an instrumental piece.
The album was not a commercial success at the time, but has since sold 500,000
copies after the Chili Peppers became popular years later.
Though Clinton's popularity had waned by the mid 1980s, he experienced something
of a resurgence in the early 1990s, as many rappers cited him as an influence
and began sampling his songs. Alongside James Brown, George Clinton is
considered to be one of the most sampled musicians ever.
In 1989, Clinton released The Cinderella Theory on Paisley Park, Prince's record
label. This was followed by Hey Man, Smell My Finger. Clinton then signed with
Sony 550 and released T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational
Mothership) in 1996, having reunited with several old members of Parliament and
Funkadelic.
In the 1990s, Clinton appeared in films such as Graffiti Bridge (1990), House
Party (1990), PCU (1994), Good Burger (1997) and The Breaks (1999). Most
recently he appeared as the voice of The Funktipus, the DJ of the Funk radio
station Bounce FM in the 2004 video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in
which his song "Loopzilla" also appeared. Rapper Dr. Dre sampled most of his
beats to create his G-Funk music era. He's also worked with Tupac Shakur on the
song "Can't C Me" from the album All Eyez on Me; Outkast on the song "Synthesizer"
from the album Aquemini; Redman on the song "J.U.M.P." from the album
Malpractice; Souls of Mischief on "Mama Knows Best" from the album Trilogy:
Conflict, Climax, Resolution; Killah Priest on "Come With me" from the album
Priesthood and the Wu Tang Clan on "Wolves" from the album "8 Diagrams".
On December 6, 2003, Clinton was charged with one felony count of cocaine
possession and a misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia in
Tallahassee, Florida. Just two weeks later, he made his first public
appearance since the arrest, jamming on stage with the jam band Phish in Miami.
On August 11, 2004, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor drug-paraphernalia
charges, while the felony charge was dropped.
He had a cameo appearance in the season 2 premiere of How I Met Your Mother on
September 18th, 2006.
"You're Thinking Right", the theme song for The Tracey Ullman Show, was written
by Clinton.
He appeared on the intro to Snoop Dogg's Tha Blue Carpet Treatment album,
released in 2007.
He also appeared in the film PCU (Jeremy Piven, David Spade) and played a
concert for the big party.
Clinton founded a record label called The C Kunspyruhzy in 2005.
Clinton allows audience members to tape his live performances for private, non-commercial
use only.