Parliament

Parliament started in the mid-1950s as the Parliaments, a doo-wop group from Plainfield, New Jersey. George Clinton joined them in the early 1960s, first as a bassist and singer, and eventually took over as the main creative force. By the 1970s, what had begun as a straightforward vocal group had grown into something much larger and stranger, a loose collective of musicians that Clinton called Parliament-Funkadelic, or P-Funk for short.

That collective included keyboardist Bernie Worrell, bassist Bootsy Collins, guitarist Garry Shider, and saxophonist Maceo Parker, among many others. They weren't a fixed band so much as a rotating cast that Clinton pulled together for recordings and tours. Their sound mixed funk with heavy doses of psychedelic rock, soul, and jazz, and their live shows became legendary for their theatricality, elaborate costumes, and sheer volume.

In 1975 they released Mothership Connection, an album built around a sci-fi mythology of funk arriving from outer space. Songs like "Flash Light" and "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)" became funk anthems, driven by Worrell's synthesizer bass lines and Clinton's chanted, half-sung vocals. The following year's The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein continued the interstellar theme, and "Do That Stuff" kept the party going. Even their earlier single "(I Wanna) Testify," recorded in 1967 before the full P-Funk sound had cohered, pointed toward the rhythmic and vocal experimentation that would define them later.

Parliament's recordings in the mid-to-late '70s are where their sound fully crystallized: thick, interlocking grooves, spacey synthesizers, and lyrics that were by turns playful, political, and utterly bizarre. They didn't so much write songs as build funk ecosystems, and for a few years there, they essentially defined what funk could be.