Parliament (band)
The bands Parliament and Funkadelic are intrinsically linked and can not be easily separated. This article focuses on Parliament; see Parliament-Funkadelic for a more comprehensive history of the groups.Parliament was originally
The Parliaments, a
doo-wop group based out of
George Clinton's
Plainfield, New Jersey barber shop. The name was soon abandoned due to legal issues with
Revilot and
Atlantic Records, and most of the same people recorded under the name
Funkadelic, which consisted of The Parliaments' backing musicians, most importantly
Billy Bass Nelson. Soon, Parliament was created in addition to Funkadelic and the two bands consisted of essentially the same people (see
List of P Funk members), though both released albums under their respective names.
The legal problems with the name "The Parliaments" were resolved in
1970, and Clinton signed all of Funkadelic to
Invictus Records under the name Parliament, releasing
Osmium ("
The Breakdown" reached #30 on the R&B charts in
1971) but the name Parliament was then abandoned for some time, as Funkadelic was much more successful.
In the early 1970s,
Bernie Worrell,
Bootsy Collins and
Catfish Collins joined Funkadelic, which released five
albums by
1974. With only moderate success, Funkadelic signed with
Casablanca Records as Parliament, releasing "
Up for the Down Stroke" (off the album of the same name) which reached #10 on the R&B charts but peaked at #63 Pop. The song was the biggest hit of
P Funk's career.
1975 saw the release of
Chocolate City, which also enjoyed moderate success; the titular track reached #24.
With the ensuing albums, Parliament became one of the most respected bands on the 1970s, and are now recognized as one of the forefathers of funk music. Of particular interest are the spacy themes of
Starchild,
Sir Nose and other recurring characters from multiple albums. See
P Funk mythology.
*
History of Parliament/Funkadelic (at the P-Funk portal NewFunkTimes.com)
