george clinton

back in the day, it seemed a revelation that george clinton (via the multi-headed hydra that was his p-funk empire) was synthesizing pert near the entahrity of his era of black music -- doo-wop, motown, the innovations of j.b., sly, and jimi -- a feat of ellingtonian proportions, and one mirrored (in an idiosyncratic way) on the rawk side only by frank zappa. course, the biz wound up putting the kibosh on said empire (was surprised to read in details in the mid-'90s that the final funkadelic alb electric spanking of war babies was 'riginally s'posed to be a _double_) in the same way as they did earth wind & fire's (cbs/sony's failure to promote all 'n' all).

nevertheless, george reassembled the funk mob and by '82 (when i was stationed in korea), "atomic dog" was the national anthem for all the brothaz (along with "the message"). since then, there have been big gaps in his recording career (last heard from a decade ago with the sprawling dope dogs), but now he's back with a new alb, how late do u have 2bb4ur absent?, a useful web presence, and a touring band that includes usual suspects like bernie worrell, mike hampton, and blackbyrd mcknight. hooray!