Saturday, January 14, 2006

Proto-P-Funk Saturday

Wow I'm late today!

Parliament - Little Ole Country Boy

As the '60s gave way to 1970, George Clinton and his Detroit soul group The Parliaments were unsuccessful and Clinton recognized that he needed to do something new. Having deciding to mix R&B with the sounds of psychedelia he created two groups, Funkadelic, whose acid funk platters were released on Westbound, and Parliament, whose releases were on Holland-Dozier-Holland's Invictus label. Today's selection was the first Invictus single by the group, who was billed as "A Parliament Thang." "Little Ole Country Boy" has some of the elements for which the P-Funk sound would eventually be known, such as strange subject matter and multi-leveled vocals by soloists and ensemble. The Ruth Copeland-penned funker also featured a strong country-and-western sound with yodeling and steel guitar work. It's crazy but it's great. The song and the accompanying album, Osmium, made little noise upon release (although the song was re-released as the B-side of not one, not two, but three subsequent Parliament singles). It would not be until the group signed with Casablanca in 1974 that the P-Funk hit machine would be in full function.

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