George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic - The Mothership Connection 1978, Live in Houston

George Clinton was always known to say that his and his group's favorite place to play was in Houston, Texas.  There used to be a pretty vibrant and diversified funk and blues and soul scene up until the 80's, and even through the 90's if you, like me, are inclined to include DJ Screw and the plethora of R&B artists that sprouted from here in that decade.  I was lucky enough to see P-Funk in Houston at an outdoor venue on a beautiful day, and they performed for over 3 hours!

Clinton started the doo-wop group The Parliaments in the early 60's out of Plainview, New Jersey, and the group enjoyed some commercial success, but mainly at this time Clinton's bread and butter was as a staff writer for Motown Records out of Detroit.  He worked on ridiculous amount of records through them and probably honed his writing and arranging skills to a high degree.  Obviously, writing for Motown at that time was no joke. Hitsville, USA was producing some of the most widely listened to music and George Clinton was partly the reason why.  The Parliaments had a sister group called Funkadelic (you can download one of their albums off of this blog from a previous post) and they had interchangeable musicians for both groups that eventually joined together in the 1970's to make a super group that well now know as George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic.

So it's important to note that these guys make serious concept albums.  There is live footage of this concert, which was held at the Astrodome (where the Houston Astros used to play), which at that time was one of the biggest stadiums in the United States.  Along with George Clinton, the group hosts Bootsy Rubber Band Collins on bass who you may know played for James Brown all those years, and Eddie Hazel on guitar who was also one of the main arrangers for the group.  I could go on about them forever, but I'm just going to let you listen.

01 - Cosmic Slop

02 - Do that Stuff (Intro)

03 - Do that Stuff

04 - Gammin On Ya

05 - Standing on the Verge 

06 - Children of Production

07 - Mothership Connection

08 - Swing Down Sweet Chariot 

09 - Dr. Funkenstein

10 - P. Funk

11 - Tear the Roof Off the Sucker

12 - Funkin' for Fun

http://www.mediafire.com/?ioqtcmtqoji

DJ Screw Chapter 16 - Late Night Fucking Yo Bitch

What can I say about DJ Screw that already hasn't been said, other than the fact he's from my hometown.  All you Houstonians know what he did to our city, but the rest of you might not.  In the 90's, especially later on in the decade when his work was gaining in popularity all over Screwston, you couldn't walk a block down the street without hearing the rumbling sound of Screw coming your way down the street.  He changed the whole sound of hip hop without ever signing on to major label, while also denying offers from labels all over the country.  He was independently producing these DJ mixtapes from his house in Sunny Side, overworking himself to the point of being an agoraphobic codeine addict, and sadly the combination of these two things were most likely what killed him.  I mean his discography is 248 fucking tapes, front and back.

This album is especially beautiful.  Essentially what he does is take vinyl records, slows them down on both sides and transfers and mixes all sorts of tracks.  On this record for example, he's all the way from Teddy Pendergrass to R. Kelly to Michael Jackson.  What Screw does, though, is he mixes it a lot like old school King Tubby era dub, where he brings up the bass, brings up the highs, and drops the mids and adds a shit ton of flange and a little reverb.  It gives it that syrupy sludge that just feels like H-Town.

This record is for.... well, you know.  And like DJ Screw said, "Im gonna let my hands do the talking."

R.I.P. Screw

1. Your Body's Calling - R Kelly
2. Goodbye
3.  Wanna Be Down - Brandy
4. Between the Sheets
5.  Never be a better love - Switch
6.  Piece of My Love - Guy
7.  Love TKO - Teddy Pendergrass
8.  How deep is your love - Keith Sweat
9.  Feinding - Jodeci
10. Girl don't make me wait
11.  Seems like you're ready
12. Silly
13. Gigolos get lonely too
14. Sex me R. Kelly
15. If you think you're lonely
16. All day and all night
17. Bump and Grind - R Kelly

http://www.mediafire.com/?qmztbmyndux