GEORGE CLINTON COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD

Two years ago, George Clinton's funk train was stalled on the tracks. Parliament had become a non-factor, Funkadelic could not get it up to funk and Bootsy's Rubber Band had been given the boot. Various other clones had never even become serious contenders and such unlikely spinoffs as The Brides Of Funkenstein, Parlet and a Bernie Worrell solo project had been quietly put to rest. To make it worse, the only thing making any noise was Zapp, a band discovered by Clinton and produced by Bootsy that became the center of an incredible legal hassle that put Clinton up against some of the biggest entertainment corporations in the world: Warner Brothers and CBS.

Fast forward to 1983. The dust has settled, the legal hassles have been settled (at least for the time being), and even if the funk train is not exactly steaming ahead at full speed, as in the glory days of '78 and '79, at the very least the engine hasn't derailed. And it may be possible for Clinton to hitch Parliament, Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band along for the ride around the next bend. His own "solo" album has turned out to be a biggie, helped along by an unlikely single called "Atomic Dog," which was in turn goosed along in the latter stages of its life by an eye-popping video that—even if it never got on my MTV (can't really blame them on this one)—showed that Clinton as a master of the bizarre is still in top form, in spite of everything he's endured.

The video is a condensation of 13 years of bent visions. When Funkadelic started in 1969, as an outgrowth of the vocal group the Parliaments ("I Wanna Testify"), acid had just found its way to the ghetto. It never became the drug of choice among ghetto denizens, even though it can make you forget who you are, where you are and whaf you are (so I've been told). But it became one drug of choice for Funkadelic, and their music reflected it. It was an unholy attempt to mix funk and psychedelia, and its moment of glory was "Maggot Brain"—still a showstopper at any Parliament, Funkadelic or George Clinton concert. "Maggot Brain" is basically a 10-minute extrapolation of the Hendrix legacy. When it's well played, it can be nearly transcendent. When it isn't, it can be bullshit. There was always a lot of bullshit mixed up in the Clinton-ParliamentFunkadelic legacy—Clinton himself will be the first to admit it. It was all intended to be good dirty fun, you didn't always have to be stoned to enjoy it, but like enjoying many other pleasures, being stoned helped.

By 1974, after years of being on the brink of brokedom trying to push Funkadelic's acid brew down the throats of usually unwilling black audiences (white audiences had Pink Floyd and their ilk for those still interested in mind games), Clinton regained control of the name Parliament and opted for the funk.

While Funkadelic continued to spew out their wacko concoctions, Parliament chose to record when they were a little more coherent.

For those who missed it, Parliament's greatest hits were "Up For The Downstroke," "Chocolate City," "Tear The Roof Off The Sucker" (the jam that sent them through the roof), "Dr. Funkenstein" and "Flash Light." By the time the single "Aqua Boogie" came out in '78, Parliament was almost, big enough to survive what was essentially a weak single. The elaborate joke was wearing a bit thin, and the singles and albums that followed were basically chronicles of descent. Amazingly enough, that very year Clinton decided to rescue Funkadelic from the doldrums and came up with their biggest hit—"One Nation Under A Groove." Within a year, he had given them another substantial hit in "(not just) Knee Deep," but the chinks were beginning to show in Clinton's armor.

Parliament stopped selling, as the records got sillier and sillier (one album was called Gloryhallastoopid and had Clinton in drag as an ass). A single from the same album was called "Pin The Tale On The Funky." Some of the other spinoffs had been failures, but Clinton still got a label deal from CBS— and used the money to cut product for other labels just as he always had. When Funkadelic followed Parliament down the tubes, and Bootsy took the same dive, Clinton's juggling act finally collapsed, as irate multi-national corporations looked for a way to get their money back.

Amazingly, in the midst of all this, Clinton was able to make a "solo" deal. The album almost never came out, as his creditors seemed determined to bury him. When the album was released it was only saved by the second single, "Atomic Dog," which was one of the least likely candidates for hit singledom in this or any year. What it proved was that, over the years, Clinton had cultivated a cadre of like-minded fans who are every bit as weird as he is. Who else but a fanatic would buy a single that features, among other things, a barking dog, and is delivered in George Clinton's vocal style—which is not that far removed from the atomic dogs' cousins of the forests?

It will be a miracle if Clinton can bring Parliament and Funkadelic back. The recent George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars tour consisted basically of the same looneys who trouped behind Clinton all through the '70s. This year they are cavorting under another name—but the sellouts show that, even if his audience has shrunk somewhat, the same hardcore (many of whom go back to the early days of Funkadelic) are still out there waiting for his next freakish dropping.

I think the '70s were just a warm up.