Funkadelic

Though frequently overshadowed by Parliament, their sister outfit, Funkadelic extended the Black rock concepts first advanced by Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, merging 1960s psychedelia and blues with the heavy rhythms of soul and funk. The group emphasized full-length albums containing social and political statements while Parliament concentrated on singles, yet Funkadelic achieved comparable commercial results, above all in the late 1970s when exchanges between the two ensembles drew Funkadelic’s sound toward a consolidated P-Funk identity.

In keeping with the classic soul practice of a support ensemble warming up audiences before the headliner appears, Funkadelic originated as the touring and backing unit for George Clinton’s doo-wop ensemble the Parliaments. After nearly a decade of performances, the Parliaments added a rhythm section in 1964—guitarist Frankie Boyce, bassist Richard Boyce, and drummer Langston Booth—for live work and recordings; two years later the three musicians enlisted in the Army. By mid-1967 Clinton had assembled a replacement lineup featuring his longtime associate Billy “Bass” Nelson, born January 28, 1951, in Plainfield, New Jersey, together with guitarist Eddie Hazel, born April 10, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York. Following interim changes on drums and keyboards, rhythm guitarist Lucius “Tawl” Ross, born October 5, 1948, in Wagram, North Carolina, and drummer Ramon “Tiki” Fulwood, born May 23, 1944, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, completed the roster.

The Parliaments scored several hits in 1967, yet contractual disputes with the Revilot label forced Clinton’s hand. He decided to abandon the Parliaments name and instead record the backing musicians, augmented by vocal contributions from the former Parliaments—essentially the same collective under a new designation. Nelson proposed the name Funkadelic to capture the members’ growing engagement with LSD and psychedelic culture. Clinton launched the Funkadelic label in mid-1968 but soon placed the group with Detroit’s Westbound imprint.

Funkadelic’s self-titled debut appeared in 1970, crediting only producer Clinton and the five core members—Hazel, Nelson, Fulwood, Ross, and organist Mickey Atkins—while also featuring the ex-Parliaments, assorted Motown session players, and Rare Earth’s Ray Monette. Keyboardist Bernie Worrell participated without formal credit, although his photograph accompanied the rest of the band on the inner sleeve.

Worrell, born April 19, 1944, in Long Beach, New Jersey, received his first credit on the follow-up, 1970’s Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow. Having known Clinton since the early 1960s, Worrell quickly became indispensable to the P-Funk operation, handling arrangements and production on most subsequent Parliament and Funkadelic releases. His classical education at the New England Conservatory and Juilliard, combined with the early-1970s surge in synthesizer technology, enabled him to craft the horn charts and jazz-fusion-style keyboard lines that later defined the P-Funk sound. Shortly after the third album, Maggot Brain, the collective gained another major contributor, bassist Bootsy Collins, born October 26, 1951, in Cincinnati, Ohio, whose propulsive lines had previously powered James Brown’s J.B.’s alongside his brother, guitarist Catfish Collins. The Collins brothers were performing in a Detroit band in 1972 when Clinton recruited them.

The Clinton–Worrell–Collins configuration debuted on 1972’s America Eats Its Young, after which several founding members departed. Eddie Hazel served a year in prison following a drug-possession and assault conviction, Tawl Ross exited for health reasons tied to an LSD and speed overdose, and Billy Nelson left amid further financial disagreements with Clinton. Funkadelic recruited teenage guitar prodigy Michael Hampton as a replacement, although both Hazel and Nelson later rejoined for selected P-Funk projects.

Funkadelic switched to Warner Bros. in 1975 and issued its major-label debut, Hardcore Jollies, the following year to modest sales and reviews. That same year Westbound mined its archives for Tales of Kidd Funkadelic, which outperformed Hardcore Jollies and yielded the R&B Top 30 single “Undisco Kidd.” In 1977 Westbound released The Best of the Early Years while Funkadelic prepared its landmark 1978 album One Nation Under a Groove.

During the most prosperous period in Parliament/Funkadelic history, Parliament first reached the summit with “Flash Light,” P-Funk’s initial R&B number one; “Aqua Boogie” later duplicated that achievement. Funkadelic’s title track from One Nation Under a Groove, however, held the R&B top spot for six weeks that summer. The album, which demonstrated increasing stylistic convergence between the two bands, became Funkadelic’s first platinum-certified LP—the same year Parliament’s Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome attained the same status. In 1979 Funkadelic’s “(Not Just) Knee Deep” also topped the R&B chart, and its parent album Uncle Jam Wants You attained gold certification.

Just as Funkadelic appeared to peak, internal fractures emerged. Commercial success strained long-standing relationships; in 1977 original Parliaments members Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas departed to record independently. Early in 1981 they charted with “Connections and Disconnections,” released under the Funkadelic name. At the same moment the original Funkadelic appeared with the title track from The Electric Spanking of War Babies.

Throughout 1980 Clinton confronted mounting legal complications stemming from Polygram’s purchase of Casablanca, Parliament’s label. Retiring both the Parliament and Funkadelic designations while retaining the musicians, Clinton launched his solo career with 1982’s Computer Games. He and many former Parliament/Funkadelic associates continued performing and recording through the 1980s as the P-Funk All Stars, yet the decade’s rejection of 1970s aesthetics produced critical and commercial disregard for the ensemble that had partly originated the disco sound. Renewed interest arrived in the early 1990s through funk-rooted rap by Digital Underground, Dr. Dre, and Warren G, as well as funk-rock acts such as Primus and Red Hot Chili Peppers, restoring recognition to Clinton and his circle as pivotal figures in recent Black music history. Occasional archival projects followed, including the previously unreleased 1989 recording By Way of the Drum (issued 2007) and Toys, a collection of earlier Westbound sessions (issued 2008). In 2014 the group returned with the new double album First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate, whose 200-minute length roughly equaled the combined duration of its first five LPs. Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins, an original Parliaments member and enduring P-Funk participant, died on March 17, 2023, at age 81.