Question to Bootsy Collins: Did The J.B.’s Understand James Brown?

A short excerpt of a phone interview I did with Bootsy Collins today:

I may post more clips during the weekend.

May 2017: George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic live in Europe

George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic will invade Europe earlier than usual in 2017: Instead of July, they will visit in May already. The following dates have been confirmed to me by George’s European booking agent Georg Leitner Productions:

2017-04-30 De Roma, Antwerp, Belgium
2017-05-01 Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
2017-05-03 Doornroosje, Nijmegen, NL
2017-05-04 KB, Malmö, Sweden
2017-05-05 DR Koncerhuset, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017-05-06 Rockefeller, Oslo, Norway
2017-05-07 The Circus. Helsinki, Finland
2017-05-08 Göta Lejon, Stockholm, Sweden
2017-05-10 O2 ABC, Glasgow, UK
2017-05-11 O2 Academy, Leeds, UK
2017-05-12 O2 Ritz, Manchester, UK
2017-05-13 O2 Forum Kentish Town, London, UK
2017-05-14 Funk and Soul Weekender, Camber Sands, UK
2017-05-15 O2 Academy, Bristol, UK

My Funky Year in Music: 18,599 tracks, 4,188 artists, 5,533 albums (according to Last.FM)

Because I am very much into statistics, I still like using Last.FM, a music database which keeps track of the songs I enjoy via iTunes, Internet radiostations and iPod/smartphone. According to Last.FM’s summary for 2016, I listened to 18,599 tracks by 4,188 different artists and from 5,533 different albums. That makes 55 songs a day and a total listening time of 45 days, 5 hours. Top music genres: funk, soul, country, pop, and blues.

George Clinton reveals why he keeps his mouth shut about new music that pisses him off [Video]

Yesterday in Singapore, Parliament/Funkadelic’s George Clinton aka Dr. Funkenstein met classic rap group The Sugarhill Gang („Rapper’s Delight“). He had a nice two-part Periscope chat with them about the origins of P.Funk and rap, touring together, his musical backgropund and collaborators (including Skip McDonald/Bernard Alexander and Doug Wimbish, members of Sugarhill’s house band, plus Philippé Wynne, Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins), and the story behind several of P.Funk’s greatest hits:

Funk-A-Hall-Licks Wooing the World (1991 Bernie Worrell interview from the New Funk Times archive)

Bernie Worrell in 2009 – concert with SociaLibrium at the jazz club Porgy & Bess in Vienna (Photo: Manfred Werner/Tsui. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

I was sad to hear that Bernie Worrell, P.Funk’s „Wizard of Woo“, passed away yesterday at the age of 72. I last saw him in person a long time ago – he, his wife Judie, his band and I were holding hands backstage at New Orleans‘ Tipitina’s club, praying for a good show.

On a personal note: My favorite P.Funk has always been about George Clinton, Bernie, Bootsy Collins and Garry Shider – the hustler and the three musical geniuses. (I am sure George won’t mind – he and I talked about this. 😉 )

Here is a phone interview about his album „Funk of Ages“ I did with him in 1991, for the P.Funk newsletter New Funk Times I used to publish from the late ’80s to early ’90s (continuing the great work of Archie Ivy & Co.).

New Funk Times: I was wondering if you cut any of the basic tracks with the whole band present in the studio, or were there a lot of over-dubs going on?

Bernie Worrell: There’s a lot of over-dubs. You won’t believe the size of the studio I had to record it at! It’s pretty small, but the one good thing about it was… a lot of recording studios in New York don’t have windows, you can’t see out to the street. But this one was in what we call the Tribeca area, and it had two windows. So at least we could see outside.

My 200,000th play on Last.FM – or: 50 songs a day keep the doctor away!

Last.FM is not as much fun as it used to be when it was the top music portal, but – as a fan of statistics – I still try to scrobble the music I am listening to. And I was happy to see that I just hit the 200,000th song mark. Since I have been a member since February 23, 2005, this means that – statistically speaking – I listen to at least 50 songs a day.

While writing this, a playlist with my 1,695 favourite Spotify songs is running in shuffle mode. It just reached song #200,000: Marcia Griffiths, „Run Up and Down“ – which brings back nice memories of my Jamaica visits in the ’80s.

Detailed statistics
There is an interesting division: My top artists are funk-dominated, there is a lot of country among my top albums, and Bollywood seems to rule my top tracks,

Top artists (among 17,512 scrobbled)

The Complete New Funk Times Issue #1 from 1989

The New Funk Times used to accompany George Clinton albums on Capitol Records in the ’80s. From 1989 to 1991, I published it as a subscription-only newsletter. I made the P.Funk History Double Issue available before, here is issue #1 from 1989. It features interviews with George Clinton & Bootsy Collins, and a 250-record P.Funk discography.

Funky Shots: George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic 1989-1991

I used to publish ‚round 2‘ of the George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic newsletter New Funk Times from 1989 to 1991. I can’t find the original photos I took back then, but here are black & white scans from the issues. You can view full-size versions on flickr. If you are interested in the NFT: The P.Funk History Double Issue is available here.

For no reason a‘ all: My tribute to London pub rock duo Chas & Dave

I am predominantly into ‚black music‘ (resp., for the more politically correct readers, into funk, soul, hip-hop, blues, and gospel), plus gutsy and/or soulful country.

But there also are other kinds of artists, which – to me – are the musical equivalent of ‚comfort food‘. For many decades, I have been loving Chas & Dave – since „Ain’t No Pleasing You“ (1982) …

The Complete New Funk Times P.Funk History Double Issue 4/5 from 1990

Rolling Stone Magazine has just published the story „Doctor Atomic“ about my favorite funk musician George Clinton (issue #1234, cover date: May 7, 2015). They printed a photo I took during my 1986 home story on George’s Funky Farm and the cover of the P.Funk History Double Issue of the P.Funk newsletter New Funk Times which I used to publish from the late ’80s to early ’90s, with permission of George Clinton.

The NFT website has been hacked quite a while ago and I haven’t had the time yet to bring it back. Therefore I am using my personal blog to post scans of the issue you see in Rolling Stone – with cartoons by Pedro Bell, Overton Loyd and Howard Priestley. Enjoy!