Entertainment

Godfather of Funk George Clinton decides to let the music keep playing

THE PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE — We know him and love him as the Godfather of Funk. But George Clinton is so much more. After singing doo-wop on street corners in his hometown of Plainfield, New Jersey, as a teenager, Clinton was just a young musician when he opened a barbershop and began to style hair.

Published

5 years ago

May 27, 2019

Staff Writer

By Rita Charleston

We know him and love him as the Godfather of Funk. But George Clinton is so much more.

After singing doo-wop on street corners in his hometown of Plainfield, New Jersey, as a teenager, Clinton was just a young musician when he opened a barbershop and began to style hair.

“We did the great finger waves of the ‘50s. To be a singer during that era, you had to have your hair done,” Clinton recalls. “And so the barbershop became the R&B star of the neighborhood. It also gave me a place to rehearse my own kind of music.”

And rehearse he did, for when he was not styling hair, Clinton was making music and forming Parliament-Funkadelic — or P-Funk — a collection of rotating musicians made up of two individual bands, Parliament and Funkadelic. Their distinctive funk style drew on psychedelic culture, outlandish fashion, science fiction, and surreal humor.

Influenced by the likes of late 1960s artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone and Frank Zappa, Clinton later moved to Detroit and developed a relationship with Motown where he became a songwriter and producer.

“To me, being there was like being with one big, happy family,” says Clinton, who will be appearing June 6 at Franklin Music Hall. “There was Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, and production teams like Ashford and Simpson, and so many more. And they all left a lasting impression on me.”

Eventually leaving Motown, Clinton settled in with different record labels for a time. And the P-Funk music ruled Black music during the 1970s thanks to Clinton’s magical managerial style, with 1978-79 being their most successful year.

But the 1980s saw Clinton becoming more and more embroiled in legal matters resulting from a myriad of royalty issues, and eventually deciding to strike out on his own. But his musical roots were never far behind.

The early 1990s saw the rise of funk-inspired rap, thanks to folks like Dr. Dre, and funk rock, thanks to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. All that helped reestablish this music man as one of the most important forces in the recent history of Black music.

But Clinton never had any doubts that he and funk were in it for the long haul.

“I always felt like we were gonna kill with our music. Everybody wants to have fun and that’s what funk is all about,” he says.

And the business has recognized what Clinton is all about many, many times. Over the years he’s received a Grammy, a Dove (gospel), and an MTV music award. He’s also been recognized by BMI, the NAACP Image award, and Motown Alumni Association for Lifetime Achievement. Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

And although this tour was to be Clinton’s last, he seems to have changed his mind. He says with all the legal problems continuing, he’s decided to keep going for at least another year.

“So as of now I have no immediate plans to retire. Maybe next year I’ll be ready to take it easy. But I still enjoy what I do,” he says.

This article originally appeared in The Philadelphia Tribune.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

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6 hours ago

April 19, 2024

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Entertainment

O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo

By Post Staff

Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.

At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.

Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).

He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.

It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.

He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.

He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.

Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.

Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.

In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.

When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.

Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.

“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.

“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”

“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.

“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”

Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.

He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.

Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.