Funkadelic for space rock/ heavy prog?

This may be a long shot but it seams to me that they have at least some chance of qualifying. After listening to them for a long time I have decided that many of the aspects of a progressive rock band can be found in their albums. Fantastic musicianship, "epic" tracks drenched in atmospheric soundscapes, conceptual albums/ reacuring musical concepts and great history behind the bands evolution.

It is true that they eventually became more of a dance group later on with Parliament but their origins are truly progressive.

If you are unfamiliar with the group check out the album "Maggot brain" to hear probably their most progressive work.

What do you say?

I would say yes. love P-Funk, and there are definitely some Prog influences in their music, their thematic elements, and their theatrics. The first 4 Funkadelic albums including Maggot Brain and Free Your Mind... were incredible. George Clinton himself is knowledgable when it comes to Prog. I recall him answering a King Crimson question on Rock & Roll Jeopardy (or is question an answer?), and in the History of Rock & Roll documentary he cited Prog as an influence in the use of synth as the bass.

Time for a new genre then - progressive r&b ;-)

Logan wrote: P-Funk is more than funk.  If only that documentary was still up on youtube, it gives a very good overview (of course r&b is a strong component).  They had what I would call a progressive funk-rock mixed with psyche phase.  I think there are  a lot of great progressive funk bands -- especially jazz-funk rock  (wish prog funk was, if not a category here, funk was a tag here). Check out this live performance from '79.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAn0DU3qcuo&feature=related (sure it's bluesy)

1. Free your Mind and your Ass will Follow
2. Funkadelic
3. Maggot Brain
4. America Eats it's Young
5. Lat's Take it to the Stage
6. Uncle Jam Wants You
7. Who's a Funkafelic

No traces of Prog, it's Funk with Psyche reminiscences, but nothing more, it's pure R&B. We are not Funk Archives, We are not Jazxz Archives, We are not Pop Archives, we are Prog Archives for God's sake, and each day we're abandoning everything Prog means.

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - September 05 2008 at 16:06

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - September 05 2008 at 16:19

Most of them have received awards for Rock, some for POP (Some of this bands are milsleabeled or Billboard used the generic term PÖP) but the fact that Funkadelic is R&B is undeniable, the problem os the R&B not the POP because this guys call POP to everything.

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - September 05 2008 at 17:21

As I told you, the POP moniker is silly, my objection towards Funkadelic is not based in being POP because as I said before, they apply this term to almost anything and as I also said before I don't believe Funkaedic is POP. .

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - September 05 2008 at 17:39

jimidom wrote: Wow! Well done, Ivan! OK, maybe P-Funk does not belong in the Archives because there is no sub-genre yet that exists for which they would classify. However,  if you insist on pigeonholing them strictly within the Funk/R&B genre, then you must admit that there was no band nor has there ever been a band like P-Funk. They funked harder than all the others, and they funked more progressively than all the others, no pun intended, including KC and EWF. Besides, no one said anything about adding the latter two to the Archives. P-Funk's music was every bit as explorational as it was danceable. Don't fault them for being heavy on the one because they got jazzy and improvisational when it counted. Also, their thematic elements, characters, and science fiction/ space mythology would make Zeuhl Heads and Space Rockers proud. Some examples are the Children of Production, Starchild, Dr. Funkenstein, the Bop Gun, the Flashlight, the Thumpasaurus People, Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk, and of course the Mothership. That's a lot of conceptualism for a strictly Funk/ R&B band.   The musicians who have played with P-Funk have been top notch, especially Eddie Hazel, Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins, Dennis Chambers, Michael Hampton, Maceo Parker, and Fred Wesley.  Also, have you ever seen P-Funk live?  They would outlast a lot of jam bands. I saw P-Funk in 1996 in Austin, and they played an almost 4 hour set!

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - September 05 2008 at 17:52

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: As I told you, the POP moniker is silly, my objection towards Funkadelic is not based in being POP because as I said before, they apply this term to almost anything and as I also said before I don't believe Funkaedic is POP. Ivan: Just to clarify, you didn't say that in your post where you used the billboard charts, and that's what I was referring to.  You just said "'nuff said."  It wasn't for me becuase I didn't know the significance of labels there or how good a guide it is for judging the prog or prog-related worthiness of a band for PA.  I put the EDIT to indicate that I was preparing the post before you responded with the clarifications (took me more than five minutes to do that post, so I didn't see the appropriate post until after I posted).  You also had to edit yours in relation to my edit.  Though I know we've discussed the charts before, and how useful they are for evaluation here, I don't find their labelling very much help.  Others, seeing pop, would have assumed that it's pop music, and that was part of your argument.  Clearly the band was innolved in the greater rock music scene . But R&B they are, FUNK they are that's undeniable (BTW: IMO Supertramp is mainly POP). It is funk, and more, and not just a case of funk, funk, funk and mo' funk.   And about Black albums, all the R&B, Soul, Gospel, etc albums were called Black Albums from 1969 to 1978 (If I'm not wrong about the year), stupid term but that was how it was used.   Iván   Yep I was right about the year:   Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999. The chart debuted in the magazine as Hot R&B LPs in 1965 and were also called Top Black Albums; from 1969-1978 they were identified as Soul charts. The Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums tracks the albums of quiet storm, urban contemporary, soul music R&B, new jack swing, hip hop, and sometimes house music artists.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_R&B/Hip-Hop_Albums

I'll quote my  EDIT when I saw your post:
"Edit: You got in as I was preparing my post. Not every P-Funk album at the charts is listed as R&B, and I'm not sure that prog-related (or even progressive rock) rock can not be strongly R&B under this site's purview."

Certianly many progressive bands in the archives have a funk element, and R&B.  It is primarily Funk of course, but I'm not convinced that a funk band can not be sufficiently on the progressive rock side, or Prog Related.  I think they're sufficiently funk-rock, and progressive, to be considerable.

If Prog is about pushing the boundaries, what's wrong with discussing whether such a band as Funkadelic might be prog.
Ivan, one thing about the music charts is that generally speaking, if a band's main audience was black, it was listed in the R n B / Black charts (sometimes referred to as "Urban" now). And unless it really sold enough to get into the mainstream charts, that's where it stayed.
I'd like to hear from others ( not to be mean, just to see if there are more than two strongly held and knowledgeable views among PA denizens).
I do recall reading reviews about the early albums that mentioned Hendrix, Sun Ra, Psychedelia, rock / proto-metal influences and hues in the mix that Clinton put together. Maybe it's just that as "white" folk, we are too quick to dismiss anything rhythmic ( I mean in the shake your booty, dance your ass off sense, not the 11/8, or 7/4) as somehow simplistic and not deserving of recognition for the pushing out of boundaries that some of the best of them did accomplish. Heck, If Miles Davis can be here, I'd like to see an analysis of James Brown's 60s output and compare the rhythmic, melodic, contrapuntal and simple and complex interplay displayed by his music as opposed to many of our more "basic" proggers. (now if I can remember where I dug that nuclear bunker)