THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE SMALLWOOD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
GEORGE CLINTON is probably the most sampled man in music.
Saucy snippets of ``Dr. Funkenstein'' and his '70s-styled acid-funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic can be found on a raft of hits from a sea of artists, from early rappers Sugarhill Gang to a coterie of contemporary hip-hop acts like Digital Underground, De La Soul, Public Enemy and Dr. Dre.
But the looting of his old grooves has Clinton seeing green, not red, as he's currently enjoying the resurrection of a colorful career that's stretched over three decades. Last year the flamboyant funkster released the critically applauded ``Hey Man. . . Smell My Finger'' on avid Clinton-fan Prince's Paisley Park label. This year, he's on the hot alternative rock Lollapalooza tour, which arrives in Charles Town, W.Va., on Monday and in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday.
Clinton's even put out his own collection of sample-ready snippets from his back catalog, ``Sample Some Of Disc, Sample Some Of DAT,'' ``to help keep the funk alive,'' he noted recently from the Lollapalooza stop in Pittsburgh.
``When I realized that sampling was the new way of making these records, I immediately wanted to try to provide (contemporary artists) with the parts without all the the music in the way. Sampling has really made the stuff brand new.
``Now I sample my records off of their records,'' he added with a laugh.
Clinton's groovy musical journey began when he formed a doo-wop version of the Parliaments in Plainfield, N.J. Motown Records signed the group, then shelved them, fearing they sounded too similar to the Temptations.
``After we put the first Parliament record out, `(I Wanna) Testify' (a Top 20 hit in 1967), we realized we had to have a different kind of a thing to keep going because everything had become psychedelic,'' Clinton remembered. Parliament became the vocal portion of the group, and the players were dubbed Funkadelic.
``We let the band start playing psychedelic,'' Clinton's spacey, socio-political rapping married to scorching Hendrix-ish guitars and an anarchic rhythm section, ``and we started dressing strange,'' in notoriously outrageous wigs and costumes that paralleled (and parodied) the excesses of glam rock.
When psychedelia's popularity began to fade, Clinton called in the James Brown horn section to punch up the sound.
``That was the burst of what we called P-Funk back then,'' Clinton recalled. ``We made a whole concept of it. I was trying to do what I saw the Beatles do with `Sgt. Pepper' or the Who with `Tommy' - make a funk opera.''
Clinton's commercial breakthrough came in 1976 with Parliament's ``Mothership Connection'' album; he would place seven albums in the pop Top 30 and seven singles in the R&B Top 10 in the following three years.
The '80s kept the Mothership grounded and found Clinton keeping a much lower profile. Not that he wasn't busy; he wrote, recorded and produced a variety of projects, from TV show theme songs to records by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thomas Dolby and Primal Scream.
Now Clinton's back in the limelight, guesting on albums with friends both old - like '50s rockabilly Johnny Powers - and new - Clinton worked with Ice Cube on his wildly successful ``Lethal Injection '' LP - and appearing in commercials for Apple computers and Rock The Vote.
Clinton credits funk for his current career renewal, explaining that funk is much more than a musical style.
``It's a state of mind that allows you to have a lifestyle of doing the best you can, of positively funky,'' he said. ``You don't give up; you just do the best you can and be satisfied. And usually . . . it takes you there, because whatever happens, happens, whatever is, is. You can let it be once you know you've done the best you can. When you've done the best you can, funk it.
``Something's watching over the funk, and the Mothership is ready to fly.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
George Clinton is on the hot alternative rock Lollapalooza tour.
LOLLAPALOOZA FACTS
For a copy, see microfilm
by CNB