Introduction
Parliament had cautiously tasted success with the penultimate album Chocolate City. With Mothership Connection and the introduction of aliens and spaceships, the music world was (finally) conquered.
Parliament
After the release of Chocolate City on April 8, 1975, the time had come to build the P-Funk mythology. Frontman George Clinton was impressed by The Who’s Tommy and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, describing them as “the classiest two pieces of music I had ever seen where everything related to each other. So I wanted to do one of those kinds of things.” Clinton put his own unique spin on it and developed an extraterrestrial concept. Not only was it unique (the Star Wars saga did not yet exist), but the combination of black people and space(ships) was irresistible. Clinton: “Put niggas in places that you don’t usually see ’em. And nobody had seen ’em on no spaceships! Once you seen ’em sittin’ on spaceships like it was Cadillac then it was funny, cool.”
And so it came to pass: the next album would revolve around extraterrestrial beings and funky music: Mothership Connection.
Parliament – Mothership Connection
Mothership Connection
On December 15, 1975, Parliament released its fifth album, Mothership Connection, the first part of what would become a trilogy, with The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein (1976) and Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome (1977) as the second and third incarnations. Mothership Connection introduced the term P-Funk, a designation for the combined Clinton vehicles Parliament and Funkadelic, also known as A Parliafunkadelicment Thang, shortened to “P-Funk.” In addition, Mothership Connection introduced the character Starchild, one of the leading figures in the P-Funk universe.
The album also proved to be a commercial smash. The single Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) became a hit. The album became Parliament’s first gold-certified album (eventually even going platinum). Many more would follow.
Story
Just like the opener of the previous album Chocolate City, Mothership Connection opens with the words of a DJ, broadcasting from an (extraterrestrial) radio station:
Welcome to station W-E-F-U-N-K, better known as We-Funk
Or deeper still, the Mothership Connection
Home of the extraterrestrial brothers
Dealers of funky music
P.Funk, uncut funk, the bombComing to you directly from the Mothership
Top of the Chocolate Milky Way, 500,000 kilowatts of P. Funk-power
So kick back, dig, while we do it to you in your eardrums
And me? I’m known as Lollipop Man, alias the Long-Haired Sucker© 1975 Parliament – P-Funk (wants To Get Funked Up)
Which is followed by the chorus.
Make my funk the P. Funk
I want my funk uncut
Make my funk the P. Funk
I wants to get funked up© 1975 Parliament – P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)
The music isn’t just funky, representing the ‘good’ in the world, it also possesses healing powers.
Now this is what I want you all to do:
If you got faults, defects or shortcomings
You know, like arthritis, rheumatism or migraines
Whatever part of your body it is
I want you to lay it on your radio, let the vibes flow through
Funk not only moves, it can re-move, dig?
The desired effect is what you get© 1975 Parliament – P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)
Furthermore, the concept of “cool” is explained, a theme that Prince would later also use on the debut album of The Time.
Let me put my sunglasses on
That’s the law around here, you got to wear your sunglasses
So you can feel cool© 1975 Parliament – P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)
Parliament – Mothership Connection – Ads
On Mothership Connection (Star Child), the character Starchild is introduced. A smooth talker who exudes coolness, but who also has a story to tell.
Well, all right, Starchild
Citizens of the universe, recording angels
We have returned to claim the pyramids
Partying on the mothership
I am the mothership connection…
Put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip
And come on up to the Mothership
Loose booty, doin’ the bump
Hustle on over here…
Face it even your memory banks
Have forgotten this funk
Mothership connection
Home of the p. funk, the bomb© 1975 Parliament – Mothership Connection (Star Child)
Halfway through the song, the spiritual Swing Low Sweet Chariot is sung, which, in the dark times of slavery and forced labor, was used as a coded means of communication, allowing people to escape. Is the “Mothership” the new/current way to escape?
Unfunky UFO tells the story of a spaceship filled with unfortunates from a planet where there is a severe shortage of funk, who can do nothing but observe that “We’re unfunky and we’re obsolete”. The solution? “Gonna take your funk and make it mine”. For now, it doesn’t work out, not even in the track Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication. The narrative’s focal point lies in Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker), in which the aliens hear the funk on Earth and want to claim it for themselves.
You’ve got a real type of thing going down, gettin’ down
There’s a whole lot of rhythm going roundOw, we want the funk
Give up the funk© 1975 Parliament – Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)
They even utter threats: “Tear the roof off, we’re gonna tear the roof off the mothersucker / Tear the roof off the sucker”.
The album ends with the (return? of) the Thumpasorus people (more on them later). They chant the funky “Gaga googa ga ga googa / Ga ga goo ga ga”.
Music
The album is funk to the max and ultra-danceable. It introduces ex-James Brown horn players Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, who were overjoyed. After working with the dictatorial Brown, who tried to keep his musicians in line with fines and aloofness, Clinton offered ultimate musical freedom. Keyboardist Bernie Worrell and bassist Bootsy Collins also play leading roles on Mothership Connection, a classic funk album.
The Day The Earth Stood Still – 1951 – Poster
Album cover
During the recordings for the album, Clinton quickly realized he wanted a spaceship for the album cover. Parliament’s manager went searching and ended up at a prop storage facility somewhere in Los Angeles, where he found a complete spaceship that had been used in the 1951 science fiction film The Day The Earth Stood Still. That spaceship appears on the album cover.
Review
I am completely taken with the P-Funk universe. I also find all the albums by Funkadelic (including the fantastic One Nation Under A Groove) beautiful and varied albums. Other P-Funk bands like Parlet, The Brides Of Funkenstein, and of course Bootsy’s Rubber Band, who all released albums simultaneously with musicians frequently playing on multiple records, are equally good.
Aside from the misstep Handcuffs, an extremely sexist track that surely had to have raised eyebrows at the time, this album is pure celebration. The funk reigns supreme, attacking the listener from all sides with funky bass, guitar, horns, vocals, choirs, and drums. It’s impossible to sit still while listening to this funk classic.
Parliament – Mothership Connection – Singles
Singles
- P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)
(released in February 1976) - Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)
(released in April 1976) - Mothership Connection (Star Child)
(released in August 1976)
Parliament – Mothership Connection – Back cover
Songs
All songs written by George Clinton with multiple writers, named between brackets.
- P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) (Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell)
- Mothership Connection (Star Child) (Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell)
- Unfunky UFO (Bootsy Collins, Garry Shider)
- Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication (Bootsy Collins, Garry Shider, Bernie Worrell)
- Handcuffs (Glenn Goins, Janet McLaughlin)
- Give Up the Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) (Bootsy Collins, Jerome Brailey)
- Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples (Bootsy Collins, Garry Shider)
In 2003 the album was re-released. Next to extra music, the release also contained an essay in the liner notes. Read that essay in the sub article Parliament – Mothership Connection – Reissue liner notes.
Musicians
- George Clinton, Calvin Simon, Fuzzy Haskins, Ray Davis, Grady Thomas, Garry Shider, Glenn Goins, Bootsy Collins – vocals
- Bootsy Collins, Cordell Mosson – bass
- Garry Shider, Michael Hampton, Glenn Goins, Bootsy Collins – guitar
- Tiki Fulwood, Jerome Brailey, Bootsy Collins, Gary Cooper – drums, percussion
- Bernie Worrell – keyboards, synthesizers
- Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Boom, Joe Farrell – horns
- Gary Cooper, Debbie Edwards, Taka Kahn, Archie Ivy, Bryna Chimenti, Rasputin Boutte, Pam Vincent, Debra Wright, Sidney Barnes – background vocals, handclaps
Parliament – The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein (1976) & Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome (1977)
After Mothership Connection
As mentioned, Mothership Connection was just the beginning. In 1976 and 1977, parts 2 (The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein) and 3 (Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome) followed. In 1976, the spectacular P-Funk Earth Tour was organized, during which a real Mothership landed on stage every night, with Clinton emerging as Dr. Funkenstein. More on the Mothership and what came after, will be adressed at a later time.
In closing
What do you think of Parliament, the trilogy, and Mothership Connection in particular? Share your thoughts!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Parliament’s funk masterpiece Mothership Connection. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
