Parliaments Band Analysis

Prior to leaving behind the name Parliaments, the band initiated in New Jersey, 1955, with the inspiration to be a doo wop group, but only able to have one hit song in 1967. The leader of the American band, George Clinton, at first went with the name, Parliaments, but due to record label issues with Revilot Records. Under the new label, Atlantic Records, he decided to take one of the suggestions made by band member and bassist, Billy Nelson. The new name they would go under was, Funkadelic, because of the psychedelic culture in the 1970s and their funk sound. George Clinton would then have the 50 plus band members to become the new name with the musical influences of James Brown and Sly Stone, in which, they would later become the pioneers

Then Funkadelic’s drummer creates the funk, with beats that makes the listener groove along. The psychedelic and funk sounds are clearly heard with the opening track,“Mommy, What’s A Funkadelic?”, due to the intro’s vocals creating a dialogue of infinite echoes all over the listener’s ears while the drums, guitars, and bass make it funky. The fusion of psychedelic rock and funk is the foundation of the album and it is done phenomenally good with each song sounding as if it will never find an ending, but also wanting to groove with the beat forever. The vocals singing in harmony or in a sequence such as the song,”I’ll Bet You”, gives a mind-expanding experience with every shouting echoe. The electric guitars are exceptional to give off a psycho-dynamic sound in songs like,”I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody’s Got A Thing” and “Qualify and Satisfy”. The bass is funking it up in,”Music For My Mother” while the drums groove on in,”Good Old Music”.

In the lyrical aspect of, Funkadelic, there is not a lot of lyrics within the songs because it is mainly focused on the instrumentals and having lyrics that create a groovy chorus. When lyrics are heard, they tend to create imagery and there is some sexual innuendos here and there, but none the less it fits greatly with

The influences of James Brown is not simply in the sound of funk ,but is seen with the lengths of each song. Within the album, the longest song is little over 9 minutes and the shortest song is 2 and half minutes, therefore, Brown’s musical influences goes beyond musical sound. Then the Sly Stone influences are heard within the song, “Music for My Mother”, beginning with a low tune, but suddenly exploding with resonating guitar riffs and vocals, then returning to a gradual lower tune in the end of the song. Overall, the record Funkadelic earns the title of being one of the first pioneers in psychedelic funk