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Taken from WBUR News (Nov 30, 2023)
Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist maps the universe of George Clinton's recorded legacy
by Noah Schaffer
George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic performing at Riot Fest 2023 in Chicago on September 15, 2023. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images) |
When music writers describe the eight-decade (and counting) career of George Clinton, there's one word that inevitably comes up: chaos. That term is often used to describe Clinton's marathon live shows, or his army of musicians and singers and their ever-creative Afro-futuristic visuals. But it especially applies to Parliament-Funkadelic's recorded output.
In the 1970s, Clinton's two best-known groups - Parliament and Funkadelic - each had their own rotating (and often overlapping) personnel and recorded for different record labels. But his musical universe also included the Horny Horns, the Brides of Funkenstein and solo records from Bernie Worrell, Fuzzy Haskins, Bootsy Collins, and Eddie Hazel, among others.
(Courtesy Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) |
Trying to bring some order to this discography may seem like an insurmountable task, but it's one that Boston native and longtime P-Funk keyboardist Daniel Bedrosian has completed with the publication of "The Authorized P-Funk Song Reference: Official Canon of Parliament-Funkadelic, 1956-2023."
"Losing this history would be a travesty because it's the longest-running popular music group of all time and the largest discography of any one music collective," explains Bedrosian. He said his history degree from the University of New Hampshire came in handy when working on the book, which utilizes primary source interviews with over 60 musicians. At 500 pages, it features over 10,000 songs credited to some 200 members of the extended P-Funk family.
When Bedrosian started the book, he intended to limit it to Parliament and Funkadelic - "and even that felt like too much." But then he couldn't imagine not including Bootsy Collins' Rubber Band, or the female-centered and often neglected groups Parlet and the Brides of Funkenstein. When COVID-19 stopped P-Funk from touring, Bedrosian took the time to do more interviews with musician sources. He ended up including "every recording made by all the core groups, all the spinoff groups, all the solo projects, and then I got into a really deep dive: albums that feature members of the group. So it includes 'Shakey Ground' by the Temptations, because it features Eddie Hazel and Billy 'Bass' Nelson on it and Kendrick Lamar's first album, which included George."
Clinton sat down for 30 hours of formal interviews for the book. And there were plenty of times when - on the road or driving to the studio - Clinton would suddenly remember an ultra-obscure single he'd been involved with, "and then I'd have to add it to the book," laughs Bedrosian.
Bedrosian's love affair with funk started as a young child when his parents took him to see James Brown at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. By 11, he was telling people his goal was to be the keyboardist in P-Funk. Bedrosian first met Clinton by winning a contest to design one of the bedsheets that Clinton often wore as stage attire in the late '90s. The prize included a backstage visit with Clinton at a P-Funk show at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence. Clinton said the keyboardist could start by working as a tech, but insisted that any full-time road jobs would have to wait until after Bedrosian finished college. Twenty years ago, Bedrosian began his tenure touring and recording with Clinton, which continues on the current vaguely titled "Just For The Funk Of It! Final Tour?!?" (The 82-year-old Clinton has announced his retirement several times, although more recently he's shown a willingness to keep the party going.) No other Massachusetts musician has had such an association with P-Funk, although Bedrosian notes that 1970s drummer Tyrone Lampkin hailed from Connecticut.
Daniel Bedrosian playing the keyboard during a performance. (Courtesy Mike Chiodo) |
Among the many P-Funk spinoff groups is Bedrosian's own Secret Army. The band started as a way for Bedrosian to play with both his old New England bandmates and his P-Funk colleagues. It's currently a power trio rounded out by longtime P-Funk bassist Lige Curry and drummer Benjamin "Benzel Baltimore" Cowan, a second-generation P-Funk musician. The band, which appeared with Clinton at a UNH lecture and concert on Nov. 28, is on a book release tour that plays The Porch in Medford on Dec. 1 and Feathered Friend Brewing in Concord, New Hampshire on Dec. 2.
"Even besides P-Funk, the majority of the bands I've played in over my life have been 12 to 20 pieces on average, so the opportunity to do something with a trio where I can really stretch out musically, and have that bedrock super funky rhythm section is really liberating," says Bedrosian. "You'll hear us play some real rare P-Funk stuff, and I inject a lot of my Armenian music into it." While this is Bedrosian's first history book, he's also written and released a series of comic books based on Armenian mythology called "Sons of the Sun."
Response to the P-Funk book has been strong, and a second printing is likely. Bedrosian admits that even after 30 years of research he's since discovered three additional albums that met his criteria for inclusion in the canon. "With two of them, every musician appeared under a pseudonym, and the third was very obscure, so those will be in the second edition."
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