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George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars
Review 07/04/96 From: Mike Theiss
Mothership Reconnection -- Central Park [from rec.music.funky] The P-Funk party for me, actually started on the night of July 3rd. I went to the "P-Funk Salute" at the Wetlands night club, where a group of great local musicians collectively recognized as the "True Funkateer Atomic Maggot Ensemble" played two sets of P-Funk covers. The group included members of Rhythm Republic (who played a set of their own material before the tribute) and other New York bands, which I don't remember the names of, since I'm not from NY, or up on the scene. The two sets (must have been at least 2 hours or so in all) included many of the P-Funk favorites. Some of the most memorable for me were "I'd Rather Be With You", which just stood out to me as an excellent performance of a song that's pretty hard to do, and "Maggot Brain" which was a brilliant arrangement. They used there three piece horn section (two trumpets and a bone) much to their advantage, in a fairly simple arrangement which effectively added a lot of intensity to the song. Rather than start right out with a guitar solo, they had a flugel horn solo at the beginning of the song, and it worked beautifully. I don't remember much more set details, but overall the show was tight and well inspired. Funkateer Tim Kinley spinned some of his (very large) collection of P-Funk cds between sets, and showed us some of his rare unreleased P-funk concert video footage on a screen behind the stage. In attendance at the event were P-Funk artists Pedro Bell and Ronald "Stozo" Edwards, as well as band members Greg Thomas and Gabe Gonzales. Stozo was selling advanced copies of the "T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M." t-shirts designed for the big show the next day, as well as 16" x 10" posters which were designed collectively by Pedro, Stozo and Overton Loyd. They feature self portraits of each of the artists and a bunch of other comics. There were also many other prominent figures in the funk movement in the audience, too numerous to name. It was a great event to watch, and from what I've heard, it was probably well worth missing P-Funk's Letterman show appearance to be at the show. ----------------------------- P-Funk Concert July 4th, 1996. After YEARS of anticipation, hours of standing in line, and mega-minutes of announcer's cheesy monologues, it was appropriate that one of the foremost masters of funkology was the first to take the stage in this wonderful event. The show started with a display of pure funk keyboard genius, in which Bernie Worrell played an improvised arrangment of several beautiful melodic passages on a few of his vintage boards and teased the audience by looking out into the crowd and making funny mouth movements to mimick curious mini-moog sound effects blurbs, showing Bernies ability to TALK fluently with his instrument. After about 5 minutes or so, George Clinton sneaked on the stage and came out and said "Behold, the world of Woo, BERNIE WORRELL!" The crowd roared as George gave Bernie his props, and Bernie and drummer Frankie "Kash" Waddy kicked into "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)" The band builded up gradually, but not as gradually as usual. Rather than vamp on the familiar groove overly long, they kept it short and sweet. And BELIEVE me, with Bernie's brilliant reharmonization and re-interpretation of the keyboard part it was SWEEET! The band gradually joined the stage in this song, and then kicked into "Cosmic Slop". The excitement peaked during Michael Hampton's guitar solo near the end of the song, when Bootsy Collins joined the stage and added his infinitely bottomnicient mutronated space bass into the mix. Rodney "Skeet" Curtis had already been playing since "P-Funk" so the addition of Bootsy's bass and HUGE multi-amplifier bass rig created a MONSTOROUS sound unlike I'd ever previously experienced. The band then proceded into an inspired medley of "Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On", "Good To Your Earhole" and "Pumpin' It Up", during which keyboardist Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins remained on stage to perform with the rest of the band (which included too many members for me to remember who all was there at this point). "Pumpin' It Up" got particularly exciting when Garry Shider hyped the audience up and Skeet and Bootsy went off on the bass end of things. Then they kicked into Chuck Brown's "Bustin' Loose" with the always catchy horn break. I think it was Andre Foxxe who followed up with a guitar solo. Then George began a "Shit, Goddamn" chant, which smoothly went into a live rendition of "If Anybody Gets Funked Up (It's Gonna Be You)". With Bootsy and Skeet's fat bass duo and the band's multi-guitar army invasion squad this song sounded MUCH funkier and livelier than any remix could have ever dreamed of doing for the studio rendition of this cut. I was getting pretty sick of the song, but it sounded great here. Amp Fiddler's keyboard work was sparse, leaving out un-necessary wandering, and putting a great new hook, which echoed the "illegal" in the vocal melody. The music actually STOPPED after this song (the first time in at least 40 minutes or so) and then fired up "Summer Swim". Drummer Frankie Waddy left the throne as another guy that I didn't recognize took over. Though I love this song, it didn't seem to adapt well to live performance, and seemed kind of dull, that is to say, until the end of the song. At one point, the band cut out and left the vocalists and audience members to sing the vocals. Then Skeet came in with a steady, rather Grahamesque bass line (basically the "Dance To The Music" bass line with a few added chord changes). The new bass line (and brilliant bassmanship from Skeet of course) coupled with blastings from the P-Funk horns and vocals by Steven Boyd and other band members added an extra bit of energy which made the song a lot more interesting and in fact, EXCITING! Next was a great rendition of "Give Up The Funk", in which (in addition to Ray Davis's typically great bass vocal introduction) Bernie Worrell's funky presence on the clavinet was much welcomed, making it stand out from your average 90's P-Funk performance of the tune. Naturally, the P-Funk Horns launched into "Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples", via the "Wind Me Up" segment. Unlike some recent performance, they didn't do the whole "Thumpasorus Peoples", but just the second half of the tune, as was tradition until fairly recently. Despite the absence of the first part of the tune, the song was still great, augment by several different lines from the P-Funk horns, including the "Daah Daah, Dot Doddle Dee Daaah Daah" hook, from Parlet's "Pleasure Principle" and a few lines that sounded to be brand new! In P-Funk Horn tradition, the song was closed out with the horn line from Kool & The Gang's "Hollywood Swingin". Then they creeped into "Underground Angel", in which the rap was performed by George's granddaughter, Shonda Clinton. Next up, Louie Kababie came out and had the crowd roaring with laughter in his rendition of "Booty". To those that aren't familiar with this cut (only released as the b-side of "Paint The White House Black") it consists of some of George Clinton's most brilliant lyrics since the late 70's. For an example of some of the word play "If I went to medical school, I'd be a booty doctor/givin' butts a check up every time a try to clock 'em". Louie followed with "Babblin' Kababie". Next Skeet slipped into a flowing, laid back slap bass line and Tracey "Trey Lewd" Lewis came out and did a rap which I'm not familiar with. Ironically the groovy bassline eased to a stand still slightly after they started chanting "Ain't no party like A P-Funk party, cause a P-Funk party don't stop!" Then George did his "Teachers work harder than you do, no matter what you do." bit, which led into the ultra mellow, slow version of "Dope Dog". Vocalist Steven Boyd, put his emotions out on the table in his goosebump forming improvised vocal runs, meanwhile the P-Funk Choir (highlighted in particular by Garry "Mudbone" Cooper and Ray Davis) sang in beatuful harmony "US Custom Coast Guard Dope Dooooooog". Then George came out and did the whole rap, led into the rapid-fire "Just Say Ding" monologue. Michael "Clip" Payne, of course was in full effect, with his brilliant augmentation of George's rap ("DIIIINNNNG DONG!!!! DIIIIIIING DONG!!!!!!!"). Amp Fiddler played an eerie organ passage remniscent of "Prelude" on the "Clones of Dr. Funkenstein" album, as George introduced Belita Woods, who is still doing the same damn song she's been doing for the last 2 years! (Sorry) But this performance of "More Than Words Can Ever Say" (or whatever the correct title of this Otis Redding tune is) was different. Belita and the rest of the band usually sound tight on this tune, and they sounded pretty average on this performance. But Garry Shider was ON FIRE with his bluesy guitar work this night!!!! I could have sworn he was about to launch into an all out guitar SOLO (and I wish he would have) cause he was just SMOKIN'. I always knew Garry was a great guitarist, but DAMN, he's THE MAN! He proved that he can get down with the baddest of them with his bluesy soul guitar augmentations on this song. He totally stole the show. Also in prominently in effect was Mudbone Cooper, who contributed excellent background backgrounds. Next, as a sort of extended introduction to "Maggot Brain", George merged the Maggot Brain intro with "Rhythm & Rhyme", in one of the most intense numbers of the show. ""I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe, I was not offended, for I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own shit, therefore this rap rendition, in tradition of competition, makes a mutherfucker, before the first emission...." The band easied into a heavy black rock number. Now this is FUNKADELIC! The tune is one they've been doing before Maggot Brain for around two years now. In the past, Clip has receted lyrics to an outtake called "Oil Spill" over the song, which I think may have been composed by Mike Hampton. It's a slow, dark groove which uses the Phyrgian mode (mainly the flat 2nd which creates a really dark sound). The band eased into the groove behind George's monologue, but then it slowly builded to a manic frenzy of insanity, as the music exploded with intensity (drummer Gabe Gonzales went OFF and shined bright in this number) and George SCREAMED the lyrics to "Rhythm and Rhyme" at the top of his lungs. Staring at the crowd with an evil glare encompassing the anger of a mother who had just lost her youngest to a drunk driver, George ran around the stage and exclaimed "FUCK THAT SHIT!!!!!!!! FUCK THAT SHIT!!!!!!!!!!! MUTHERFUCK THAT SHIT!!!!!!!! SUCK MY DICK!!!!!!!!!", etc. in a shockingly dramatic display of anger and rage. Then, the explossive segement calmed and the guitar squad eased in with the broken chords from "Maggot Brain" as George finished the lyrics to "Rhythm & Rhyme" over that groove in a more relaxed but serious manner. Mike "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton of course delivered a typically brilliant rendition of the classic Eddie Hazel composition afterward. As usual, "Maggot Brain" was followed with Blackbyd's feature (which he composed by the way) "Fly On" (A.K.A. "Dog Star") which in my opinion is one of the best compositions to grace the P-Funk albums of the 90's. This funk-rocker not only features smokin' guitar work from Blackbyrd, but has a really catchy bassline, sure to have your head nodding and your booty swingin'. Next, in the words of Michael "Clip" Payne, "P-Funk wanna give it up to the young ones, ya dig?". P-Funk brought De La Soul out, and they performed their classic hit "Me Myself and I" with Funkadelic playing the segment they looped from "(Not Just) Knee Deep" LIVE behind them. After the song was over, De La pretended to leave the stage, until George called them back to do "a little bit of that new one" and they performed two cuts of their new album "Stakes Is High", the title track, in a medley with "The Bizness" (for which they brought out Common Sense, who appears on the studio track). Then, in by far the most unwelcomed and unneccesary portion of the show (in my opinion), they brought out some R&B clone named "Kyle Jason" who I would guess is an upcoming Sony artist, though he hasn't released anything to date, so I can't say for sure. He did a song that talked about "The Life Of A Hustler Ain't No Joke". What a blatant waste of P-Funk's precious stage time! Kyle wasn't a bad singer, but the song was pretty damn cheesy and it definitely did not have it's place in this show OF ALL PLACES. This guy MUST be on Sony, I can't think of any other possible explanation for his presence, it had to be some kind of record company politics play -- cause his segment definitely wasn't funky. Fortunately, the unfunkiest number of the show was followed up by a peak in funkiness. Next, George Clinton led the crowd in a familiar chant to call Bootsy Collins to the stage "BOOTSY! We want BOOTSY!!!!!!" Oddly, the crowd seemed to have trouble getting into it. Maybe the downpour of rain had a part in it? Then when Bootsy finally came to the stage, many of us could not even see his funky face cause a bunch of inconsiderate, selfish and DEAF mutherfuckers held there umbrellas up, to cover their asses, effectively blocking the view of most all of those sitting behind them (who were also being rained on at the same time). But despite the fact that I couldn't SEE Bootsy, his presence was felt as he kicked into a short but sweet rendition of ""Stretchin' Out (In A Rubber Band)". Then he said they were pressed for time and had to get the Mothership down, so he started with the chant (from the Brides Of Funkenstein's "Disco To Go") "The Mothership Connection Is Here!" and then eased into "Ahh...The Name Is Bootsy Baby", which included among other things the "Auld Lang Syn" bass solo. In addition to several different chants led by Bootsy, the furious audience in the back arrived at another rhythmic chant, "PUT!!!! the umbrellas down! Put! the umbrellas DOWN!" But those with the umbrellas in front either weren't listening or they didn't give a shit about anybody but themselves, cause the umbrellas remained raised, still blocking our view. Accompanied by Bernie Worrell, Garry Shider (Guitar), Frank Waddie, Mudbone Cooper, Robert ""P-Nut" Johnson and others, Bootsy vamped on "Ahh..." for a healthy length of time. While the groove was still going, George came out and said "Are ya'll ready to Fly?" and led the crowd into the "Swing Down, Sweet Charriot" melody. Then the band cut out, and eventually kicked into "Mothership Connection" Highlighted by Bernie's brilliant sythesizer, this was definitely the best performance of the song I've heard in years. Q-Tip of a Tribe Called Quest even came up and danced on stage and sang backgrounds for a bit! Then in the second ("Swing Down") movement, the band PROVED the "Fully Operational Mothership" theory as the intense vamp (greatly augmented by the presence of Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins) built to an amazing intensity, which climaxed when the MOTHERSHIP descended from above the stage! The new Mothership looks beautiful. Almost exactly like the old ship they used back in the 70's. George Clinton appeared out of a cloud of smoke at the door of the spaceship, and descended the ships stairs as the band kicked into the booty bumpin' groove of "Dr. Funkenstein"!!!!!! They only played it for a short amount of time (unfortunately) in favor of moving the show on, kickin right into the smash single "Flash Light", in the usual medley featuring improvised horn solos and lines from the Eddie Harris standard "Freedom Jazz Dance". A long version of "Atomic Dog" featuring Louie Kababie rapping "Rhythm & Rhyme" and Mase of De La Soul contributing turntable work followed. During the song, Amp Fiddler even seemed to be suprised, as Bernie Worrell contributed some improvised spaceboard communications. Amp was the designated keyboardist for the tune, but Bernie through in some delightful treats before he left backstage. From there the band went into their energetic James Brown medley (the bass line of "Give It Up and Turnit a Loose", the guitar vamp from "Sex Machine" and the horn line from "Get On The Good Foot") with several solos and trade-offs from each of the P-Funk Horns. When this song wrapped to a halt, The Brides Of Funkenstein (Dawn Silva and Sheila Brody) came out to perform Bootsy's classic "Vanish In Our Sleep". While this song sounded beautiful, I don't think I was the only one that was suprised near the end of the song when George Clinton vanished back up into the spaceship, FOR GOOD! I thought for sure they'd come back out and perform one of the P-Funk classic anthems like "One Nation Under A Groove" or "Aqua Boogie" (or since the Brides were up there, how about "Disco To Go"?) that had been missed in the evening. Unfortunately, the City of New York had told them they could not play any later than 10 o'clock, and the Summerstage staff prevent any further funking from going down. But even if the 3 and a half hour set was rather short for such an occasion, it was still the most remarkable P-Funk Show I've ever experienced (well, either that or the show the next day, I haven't decided), and there WAS an aftershow at Tramps that night!!! But for those that couldn't make the aftershow, it was still truly beautiful just to see Bernie, Bootsy and George sharing the stage together, getting down on the ONE in harmony. Even if the set list included mostly the typical numbers and left out a number of popular jams, it was still an extraordinary show, intense and funky throughout. It was well worth the bus ticket and hotel bill for the trip from Boston down to New York that I incurred. Not only was the show AMAZING, but the whole atmosphere was beautiful. It was a FUNK CONVENTION!!!!! I met so many wonderful and funky people. I had the oppurtunity to meet online funkateers (who I had only known by words, and in a few situations voices from the telephone) ONE on ONE and hang out and talk with them face to face! I met people that had come from as far as Europe and Japan for the event! This may sound cliche, but it truly was One Nation Under A Groove. But that's only half the story! Stay tuned for Part II of my post (The Aftershow) and Part III (The show on the 5th -- which featured a substantially different set list), which I plan on posting, as soon as I have the chance to write them. But before I leave -- here's the personnell at the show (to the best of my recollection) followed by the setlist: George Clinton (Maggot Overlord) Bernie "Wizard Of Woo" Worrell (Keyboards) Bootsy Collins (Friendly Boo Vocals and Space Bass) Frankie "Kash" Waddie (drums) Gabe Gonzales (drums) Joseph "Amp" Fiddler (keyboards) Michael "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton (guitar) DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight (guitar) Garry Shider (guitar, lead and background vocals) Billy "Bass" Nelson (guitar) Cordell "Boogie" Mosson (guitar) Andre Foxxe Williams (guitar, Bride wanna-be) Rodney "Skeet" Curtis (bass) Lige Curry (bass, vocals) Star Cullars (bass on "Vanish In Our Sleep") Greg Thomas (saxophone) Benny Cowen (trumpet) Greg Boyer (trombone) Michael "Clip" Payne (vocals, monologues and "man in the box" operator) Belita Woods (vocals) Ray Davis (bass vocals) Grady Thomas (vocals) Gary "Mudbone" Cooper (vocals) Robert "P-Nut" Johnson (vocals) Dawn Silva (vocals, Bride Of Funkenstein) Sheila Brody (vocals, Bride Of Funkenstein) {Formerly "Sheila Horne"} Steven Boyd (vocals) Paul Hill (vocals) Linda Shider (vocals) Maruga (percussion) Tracey ""Trey Lewd" Lewis (rap) Shonda Clinton (underground angel, rap) Louie "Babblin' " Kababie (raps) Special Guests: De La Soul Common Sense Kyle Jason Q-Tip Contrary to advertisement Fred Wesley WAS NOT there. Contrary to an inaccurate USENET post, Maceo Parker also WAS NOT there. Setlist: Wonderful World of Woo (Bernie Worrell prelude) P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) Cosmic Slop Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On/Good To Your Ear Hole/Pumpin' It Up/Bustin' Loose/Get Off Your Ass And Jam If Anybody Gets Funked Up (It's Gonna Be You) Summer Swim Tear The Roof Off The Sucker/Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples Underground Angel/Booty/Babblin' Kababie/Trey Lewd Rap Dope Dog (Slow version) Just Say Ding (Monologue) More Than Words Can Say (Featuring Belita Woods) Rhythm & Motherfucking Rhyme (Black Rock Frenzy Version) Maggot Brain Fly On Me Myself And I (De La Soul) Stakes Is High The Bizness Life Of A Hustler Ain't No Joke (Kyle Jason) Stretchin' Out In A Rubber Band Ahh....The Name Is Bootsy Baby Mothership Connection Swing Down Dr. Funkenstein Flash Light Atomic Dog Give Up The Sex Machine and Turnitaloose on the Good Foot (JB Medley) Vanish In Our Sleep (Featuring the Brides of Funkenstein) (By the way -- I DIDN'T sit there taking notes during the show! I was having a funky good time dancing. I didn't take notes 'til afterwards!!!!!!) One last note. A big NOSE up in the air goes out to Ticketmaster. Those BASTARDS had us pay $50 for "reserved seats" which were in the VERY BACK of the place!!!!!! I ended up standing in the general admission section anyway. Fortunately, I only bought a $50 ticket for the show on the 4th, but SHIT MAN, I could have bought another t-shirt with that $25 I wasted!!!! You can bet that's the last time I buy premium tickets from THOSE assholes! As George Clinton said in such an appropriate manner in his performance of "Rhythm and Rhyme" that evening "F U C K T H A T S H I T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"