George Clinton has written his memoir and in doing so continues to do things his own creative way, starting with the title. Does he call it something classic or brief like “My Story” or “A Life”? Of course not. The actual title of the book is “Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You?” because, of course that’s the title. This is, after all, THE one-and-only George Clinton we’re talking about.
It’s an entertaining book that takes you through his entire career, from the early days of The Parliaments, to the creation of both Parliament and Funkadelic, and beyond. George is honest about some of the negatives in his personal life, including the bad business deals and the drugs. But he also gives nice behind the scenes info on the creation of many P-Funk songs.
One sample of the interesting stories in the book: George says they took a break during the recording of the classic “Get Off Your Ass and Jam” and someone he describes as a smack addict wanders into the studio and offers to record a guitar solo for $25. George thinks : Why not? The kid lays down some guitar, not even stopping when the track ended. George was so impressed he gave the guy $50 and he went on his way. The band was even more impressed on listening back to the solo later and it made it on to the record. But George has no idea who the guy was, was never able to find him, and never saw him again.
Like Uncle Jam himself, even the book cover is funky and cutting edge. “Blipp” the cover and you’ll enter another dimension of the book and hear some music.
I was able to experience Parliament/Funkadelic live a couple times (probably somewhere in the 1978-1980 period). I remember being entertained at the stage props (including the bird on the cover of “Motor Booty Affair” flying out over the crowd), but mostly by the vast number of people on stage and the varied costumes and antics. It was a party for sure, and it blew my young mind.
So allow me to use George’s book as an excuse to dig into the Trapezoid Archive and share something which I believe they gave away at one of the shows I attended. It was a flexidisc with a fan club application on the sleeve…
…but inside was a small card explaining the music on the disc was an unfinished song and there was a contest to write the lyrics.
I’m sure I made an attempt to write some amazing, original and funky words that I never mailed in, but they are now (thankfully) lost to the winds of time. I wonder, though, if George might give me another chance?