Live: P-Funk Earth Tour

Performer: Parliament
Engineer: Jim Callon
Producer: George Clinton
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Parliament: Garry Shider, Glen Goins (vocals, guitar); George Clinton, Calvin Simon, Fuzzy Haskins, Raymond Davis, Grady Thomas, Debbie Wright, Jeanette Washington (vocals); Michael Hampton, Eddie Hazel (guitar); Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Rick Gardner, Richard Griffith (horns); Bernie Worrell (keyboards, synthesizers); Cordell Mosson, William "Bootsy" Collins (bass); Jerome Brailey (drums, percussion); Lynn Mabry, Dawn Silva, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper (background vocals). Recorded live at the Los Angeles Forum, Los Angeles, California on January 21, 1977. Although studio manipulation was a huge part of George Clinton's Parliament and Funkadelic records of the '70s--think of the vocodered voices and tape tricks all over albums like MOTOR-BOOTY AFFAIR and ONE NATION UNDER A GROOVE--funk is by nature a live music. 1977's P-FUNK EARTH TOUR, then, is an essential document of Clinton's tribes at the height of their collective power, stripping down and reworking their sleek and powerful grooves into entirely new shapes. With a set list that comes primarily from 1975's MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION and the follow-up CLONES OF DOCTOR FUNKENSTEIN, and a lineup drawn from both Parliament and Funkadelic--both psychedelic soul guitarist Eddie Hazel and Fred Wesley's gutbucket Horny Horns are on hand--Clinton and company simply burn throughout. From the loose, wobbly jazz of the opening "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)" through to a blinding fusion of the apocalyptic "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)" and the crowd-participation "Get Off Your Ass and Jam," this is absolutely as good as funk gets. This CD version omits one of the two studio tracks, "Fantasy Is Reality," which can be found on the compilation TEAR THE ROOF OFF.

The first of P-Funk mastermind George Clinton's many bands, Parliament was formed in the 1950s as a doo-wop group called the Parliaments. In the early 1970s it became one of several outlets for Clinton's outrageous blend of funk, rock, and the absurd. Originally intended as the more traditional foil to Funkadelic's progressive leanings, Parliament was eventually enveloped by the same over-the-top theatrics as all of Clinton's other projects.

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