Parliament was the funk-and-R&B half of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective, with roots in Plainfield, New Jersey and a classic lineup featuring Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell. Mothership Connection (1975) is the Afrofuturist landmark the whole P-Funk universe orbits. Dig into Parliament vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Parliament traces its origins to the doo-wop group The Parliaments, which George Clinton (born July 22, 1941, Kannapolis, North Carolina) founded in 1958 in Plainfield, New Jersey. After legal issues with The Parliaments' label Revilot Records, Clinton renamed the project Funkadelic (1969, rock-oriented) and subsequently relaunched Parliament (1970, more funk/R&B-oriented) as a parallel project. Both bands share the same membership across the 1970s, with the collective widely cited as Parliament-Funkadelic (P-Funk). The classic lineup featured Clinton alongside Bootsy Collins (formerly of James Brown's band, bass), Bernie Worrell (keyboards), Eddie Hazel (guitar), Garry Shider (guitar), Maceo Parker (saxophone, formerly with James Brown), and dozens of other contributors. Their 1975 album Mothership Connection - featuring the iconic Mothership stage prop and the singles P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up) and Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker) - established their foundational template for the Afrofuturist P-Funk aesthetic. The collective dissolved in the early 1980s amid legal and business disputes between Clinton and Casablanca/Polygram. Clinton has continued releasing material under multiple banners across multiple decades. Both Bernie Worrell (died 2016) and Bootsy Collins's brother Phelps Catfish Collins (died 2010) and several other members have died. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 as Parliament-Funkadelic. Their foundational influence on funk, R&B, hip hop (sampling source), and broader popular music is widely cited.
Parliament's sound is foundational to P-Funk as a recognized genre - combining funk, P-Funk, R&B, soul, dance-funk, psychedelic funk, and disco with Clinton's distinctive vocal delivery (use of theatrical multi-character vocal arrangements), use of synthesizer (Worrell's foundational Moog work), virtuosic bass (Bootsy Collins), and arrangements drawing on classic James Brown funk alongside Afrofuturist conceptual approaches.
Original Casablanca Records pressings of the 1970s Parliament catalog are foundational items in funk collecting, with collector premiums on rare pressings. Multiple anniversary editions, audiophile reissues, and the comprehensive Mercury/Universal reissue programs have been released.
Listeners new to Parliament typically start with Mothership Connection (1975) or Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977).
