Happy Birthday Eddie Hazel: Performing With The Parliaments In 1969

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel was born on this date in 1950. While Hazel sadly died on December 23, 1992, he left the world with an amazing and highly influential body of guitar work that includes some of the greatest solos of all time, most notably his signature song “Maggot Brain” which arrived on a Funkadelic album of the same name in 1971.

Two years earlier, an early iteration of the Geroge Clinton-led Parliament-Funkadelic known as The Parliaments, appeared on the public television program Say Brother. The band featured vocalists Clinton, Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas, Calvin Simon and Ray Davis along with Tawl Ross and a teenaged Hazel on guitar, keyboardist Mickey Atkins and a rhythm section of drummer Langston Booth and Billy Bass.

Originally airing on July 10, 1969, The Parliaments delivered a five-song set beginning with a cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Into My Own Thing” as well as early renditions of Parliament-Funkadelic tunes “What Is Soul,” “Testify” and “Friday Night, August 14th.” The appearance concludes with a psychedelic soul jam on “Mommy, What’s a Funkadelic?” which sees Eddie tearing into a wild guitar solo.

In honor of Eddie Hazel, watch The Parliaments perform on Say Brother in 1969 below:

[Originally Published April 10, 2022]