Happy Birthday George Clinton: Performing Live With Funkadelic In 1985
By Nate Todd Jul 22, 2020 • 12:22 pm PDT
Today marks funk legend George Clinton’s 79th birthday. Along with his contemporaries James Brown and Sly Stone, Clinton is one of the progenitors of the funk genre which in turn influenced hip hop, especially the G-Funk movement in early-1990s Los Angeles. Clinton has led the groups Parliament and Funkadelic (sometimes coming together as Parliament-Funkadelic or simply, P-Funk) since the 1960s with the help of fellow funk legends like bassist Bootsy Collins, late keyboardist Bernie Worrell, saxophonist Maceo Parker, late guitarist Gary Shider and many more.
While the personnel for Parliament and Funkadelic — the bands are inextricably linked and can be thought of more as a collective — has fluctuated greatly over the years, the constant until recently (the Prime Minister Of Funk conducted his farewell tour in 2019) is George Clinton. Although the P-Funk collective began to fracture in the 1980s, George Clinton and Funkadelic came together to perform for the famed German music television program Rockpalast in 1985.
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The performance featured a career-spanning set full of P-Funk classics like “Cosmic Slop,” “Up For The Down Stroke,” “One Nation Under A Groove,” “Free Your Ass and Your Mind Will Follow,” “Maggot Brain,” “Atomic Dog” and “Flashlight.” George Clinton’s immense influence can be seen for the concert closer, a “Cosmic Slop” reprise featuring an up and coming band called the Red Hot Chili Peppers — Clinton produced RHCP’s 1985 sophomore album, Freaky Styley — and more.
To celebrate George Clinton’s birthday, watch the entire Funkadelic performance for Rockpalast in ‘85 via Funkamedic below:
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| Funkamedic | |
| Funkadelic |
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Setlist
- 00:00 Funkentelechy
- 1:12 Cosmic Slop
- 11:13 Let’s Take It to the Stage Medley
- 14:58 Up For the Down Stroke
- 23:14 Night of the Thumposaurus People
- 27:42 One Nation Under a Groove
- 30:29 Not Just Knee Deep (Freak of the Week)
- 34:28 Rubber Duckie (Come Fly With Me)
- 36:03 Free Your Ass and Your Mind Will Follow
- 37:25 Maggot Brain
- 46:05 Standing on the Verge
- 1:00:38 Atomic Dog
- 1:09:40 Flashlight
- 1:19:12 Encore: Cosmic Slop Reprise Jam-Session with Killing Joke, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Untouchables
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