TALES OF DR FUNKENSTEIN
ON HALLOWEEN 1976, a spaceship descended on the stage of a Houston sports arena in front of 15,000 people. When the smoke and sparks cleared, a figure calling himself Dr Funkenstein – dressed all in fur with a pair of shades – stepped out to the sound of P-Funk: a psychedelic mix of rock and soul played by incredible musicians in ridiculous costumes.
Dr Funkenstein and the Mothership (a stage prop constructed from a blockbuster budget) sprang from the otherworldly imagination of bandleader, songwriter and producer George Clinton. P-Funk was conceived as “pirate radio from outer space” but its blend of all-out partying and social empowerment evolved into a way of life. Through elaborate artwork, sci-fi mythology and slang that sounded like a cosmic Dr Seuss, Clinton’s Afrofuturist universe offered young black audiences an uplifting escape from everyday struggle.
But that vision had a practical strategy behind it too. Rather than just start a band, Clinton formed a collective whose various projects could be released through different labels at a prolific pace. That made for maximum impact in the short-term (mainly through the success of Parliament and Funkadelic) but by the 1980s, after a
