Music News ! (Best Story of the Day !) Some Things Learned From George Clintons Astounding Autobiography ! Youd expect George Clintons autobiography to be funky, meandering, entertaining – and if you read Brothers Be, Yo Like George, Aint That Funkin Kinda Hard on You? (written with Ben Greenman), you wont be disappointed. You might not expect it to be weighed down with epic tales of his legal troubles, like a late-era Lenny Bruce gig, but that turns out to be true as well. Thankfully, before Clinton gets lost in a swamp of lawsuits and cocaine, hes got some great stories about leading Parliament-Funkadelic and becoming one of the funkiest men on the planet. Here are some favorites: Up for the Down Stroke When Clinton was growing up in Newark, New Jersey, in the Fifties, one of his formative influences was mambo. Mambo was like our disco, he remembers. He studied how people dressed up for a night of mambo, and how sufficiently good dancers could cross gang lines. One of his unfulfilled musical ambitions: to cut a version of Tito Puentes Coco Seco. Funky Dollar Bill While Clinton was leading a doo-wop group called the Parliaments (vocal groups were, for the most part, named after birds, cars and cigarettes, he observes) and driving to Detroit to audition for Motown (they liked him, but turned him down), he made his living where he could, assembling hula hoops or working as a hairdresser. He ended up with his own hair salon, which he called the Silk Palace. One day, Clinton says, two nervous kids walked in with a box full of counterfeit money: about $1.2 million in fake 20-dollar bills. Clinton bought it from them for $2,000 and used the money to refurnish the Silk Palace and to pay for recording studio time: I told the musicians it was counterfeit but instead of $200 I would pay them $1,000. They didnt seem to mind. Belief in the federal green is strong, even when its not real. Hit It and Quit It One of the classic Funkadelic guitar solos wasnt cut by the bands Eddie Hazel but by a strung-out white kid who wandered into the Hollywood Sound studio in L.A. and said he would play on a track if Clinton gave him 25 bucks. Clinton liked his attitude, and let him play on Get Off Your Ass and Jam: We set him up, started the track and he just started to play like he was possessed. He did all the rock & roll that hadnt been heard for a few years, and he did it for the entirety of the track. Even when the song ended, he didnt stop. An astonished Clinton paid him $50, but neglected to get his name, so he was never able to use him again or credit him in the liner notes. Super Stupid The most memorable stage crasher in Clintons career? The woman in overalls who jumped up while smoking a joint. She dropped her pants, stuck the joint up her butt and blew three smoke rings. Every time we tried to start the next song, people were laughing so hard that we had to stop. Clinton got her on the phone about 20 years later to ask her about the incident, and her response was, Did I really do that? Clinton dryly notes, It didnt seem like the kind of thing youd forget. You Cant Miss What You Cant Measure Some genuine Clinton wisdom on life as a professional musician: The mere fact of surviving in this industry is a huge victory. But survivors forget that the alternative is annihilation. They think that the choice is between a good career and a great one. They reach for stardom. And those unrealistic expectations are compounded by creative ability, or the lack of ability. People dont have a clear idea of what they can and cant do as artists. I knew my limits. I knew what I couldnt do. I couldnt play an instrument. I couldnt sing as well as some and I couldnt arrange as well as some others. But I could see the whole picture from altitude, and that let me land the planes.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 04:48:27 +0000