P-Funk Forever

One of the things that I enjoyed about my dad's radio job in addition to the comp concert tickets was getting those promo albums. Thanks to those promo albums I was musically two months ahead of my peer group by the time they finally released it for sale to the general public.

I remember the day I got introduced to Parliament-Funkadelic and the whole P-Funk universe. I was in eighth grade at the time. Dad came home from work, tossed Parliament's Mothership Connection album in my room and said, "You need to listen to these guys."

I did and I've been a Funkateer ever since. A documentary was done that I gleefully watched on PBS late one night called Parliament-Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove. I even tested out to Doctor of Funkology level on the P-Funk quiz. If you want to take it, it's on the PBS Independent Lens website.

Besides learning about the various players in the P-Funk universe such as Starchild, Sir Nose D'voidoffunk and Dr. Funkenstein, I got to spend my high school years grooving to Bootsy's Rubber Band and the other components of the Funk Mob. The first concert I was allowed to attend without parental supervision was a Funkadelic one. I even learned how to spell psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop correctly. My high school class jokingly calls 'Flash Light' our unofficial class song.

There are some fond memories of attending a Funkadelic concert that had a skull prop that smoked a giant joint. The lavish P-Funk Earth Tours that rivaled the ones that rock bands were doing. Pedro Bell's provocative cover art and the cartoons inside the liner notes and covers detailing the battles between Sir Nose and Starchild.

And the music. Funky, sometimes political and in many cases ahead of its time.
Flash Light is the most sampled song by rap artists. Dr. Dre used the music from 'Mothership Connection' for his song 'Let Me Ride'.

I couldn't even begin to list some of my favorite Parliament-Funkadelic songs...aaah why not? Flash Light, Knee Deep, Aqua Boogie, Tear the Roof of the Sucker, Up For the Down Stroke, One Nation Under A Groove, (not just) Knee Deep, Atomic Dog, Bullet Proof, Do Fries Go With That Shake...(and the list goes on)

The P-Funk Empire may be gone, and you have a few pretenders out there faking the funk, but George Clinton's legendary status as a music innovator and his music will be around forever.

To take the P-Funk quiz

Say It Ain't So, Patti!

For many Black GLBT people, Patti Labelle is The Diva. She's the face that has launched a thousand female illusionist careers with her larger than life stage presence and antics, unique wigs and designer costumes. She's the sistahgirl that everybody can relate to. She had a long friendship with Sylvester and other gay men. She's had her share of tragedy and bumps in the road too.

Through it all her loyal Black GLBT fan base has been there to scoop up her records, buy her books, watch her TV appearances such as 'A Different World' and lend a sympathetic ear to their favorite singer. Walk into any Black gay club in the country. I can guarantee that if they're doing a drag show, somebody will come out dressed as Patti, will perform with her music playing in the background or the entire club will be dancing to a remix of it.

So it was a shock to hear that Patti sang at a recent Easter Sunday service in the Georgia Dome sponsored by Atlanta's New Birth Baptist Church. It's the home church of gay-hating Bishop Eddie Long and his associate pastor Rev. Bernice King. (the baby daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King) Two years ago they led an odious anti-gay march in the ATL that started at the foot of Dr. King's grave to protest marriage equality.

In addition to hating on gays, Bishop Long belives that women were put on earth to procreate.

"Woman is the soul of man. She is his flesh consciousness. In
essence, God made Eve to help Adam replenish the earth. Woman has the
canal…everything else is an exit. God had to separate Adam and Eve
where they connected so he could tell them to reconnect in covenant
to duplicate Him. In Christ, God puts his seed in us. Any other way
is a spiritual abortion. Cloning, Homosexuality and Lesbianism are
spiritual abortions. Homosexuality is a manifestation of the fallen
man." ---Bishop Eddie Long

Patti's also alleged to have made comments during an NBC television interview that seem to suggest that she supports Bigot Long. I'm still looking for the transcript of that interview to verify that.

If it's true, Black gays would be justifiably outraged and within their rights to call for boycotts of everythang Patti. If she won't stand with and stand up for a community that has loyally supported her career from jump street, then we don't need to be giving her our hard earned dollars.

We can start sending the message with the new flick she's in called 'Preaching to the Choir.' It also has a slammin' movie soundtrack that I won't be adding to my massive CD collection. That's too bad. Patti's vocals were slammin' on the house-flavored 'I Believe' track.

But we're standing on principle here. Patti LaBelle is either a friend to our African-American GLBT community or not and we need to know where she stands. If she's choosing to stand with Bishop Evil, Mini-She and all his faith-based bigot friends, then I'll be bypassing her CD's for a while.

You know, I've put off buying the Alicia Keys 'Unplugged', Kem and John Legend ones for way too long anyway.