Cahiers du Musique

HALLELUJAH! Parliament-Funkadelic is one of those groups that's earned a legendary reputation but also feels strangely underappreciated. Immeasurably influential and respected, yet not given the same serious consideration as other luminaries in popular music. The reasons for this oversight are complex and veiled. In our view, Parliament-Funkadelic's contributions to the musical canon through their originality, audacity, and prolificacy, are virtually unrivaled. Before digging in, any conversation about Parliament-Funkadelic must begin by untangling what to a funk neophyte must seem like a convoluted web of names and personalities. Definition of P-Funk In 1956, George Clinton founded the doo-wop group, The Parliaments, in Plainfield, New Jersey. They had little to moderate success through the '50s and early '60s, and it wasn't until Jimi Hendrix burst on the scene in the US during the Summer of Love, 1967, that George Clinton truly began to find his voic...

As I mention in the inaugural post of this site, of all the arguments, debates, comparisons, and ripostes in Deadheadland, the most fundamental of these always comes down to what is the Dead's best year. Of the thirty years to choose from, the most serious candidates usually come down to every year within their golden period ('68-'74) and 1977. Sometimes 1978 might creep up in there as well. But really, rarely if ever will you find a Deadhead whose favourite year comes from the Reagan or Clinton decades. In my younger and slightly more foolish years, I limited my Grateful Dead experience to the '60s and '70s. I had myself convinced through no real watchfulness or evidence that by the '80s and '90s the Dead had become a drugged-out caricature of themselves, and I didn't want to endure the ignominy of Jerry forgetting entire verses of lyrics or having his guitar turned down because he couldn't keep up. The cumulative effect of my prejudice is ...