The Funk Opera That Changed Music: Parliament’s Mothership Connection
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In 1975 Parliament released the album “Mothership Connection” an album that would cement the group in the history books, inspiring generations of musicians for decades. It’s somehow simultaneously timeless, but also VERY of it’s time. Today we’re diving into this album: the story, the sounds, the influence, and also the time it came out of, and seeing how Parliament went on to be one of the most important bands in music history. So put a glide in your stride, and a dip in your hip, and come on up to the mothership!
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THANK YOU TO THE MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TIER ON PATREON
Sam Deka
Josh Nelson
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SOURCES
https://www.vibe.com/music/music-news/george-clinton-audible-words-music-exclusive-1234839032/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PyNxjKfR-w&t=930s
https://splice.com/blog/george-clinton-q-and-a/
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:24 Motown?
05:55 Funkadelic
09:06 Mothership
10:40 Song Breakdown
13:22 The Musicians
14:31 Give Up The Funk
15:08 Lasting Impact
16:24 Camper Stories
#parliament #funk #musichistory
@ivysatana
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
I got this on vinyl back when I was 13, got it from the garbage when people were just getting rid of their records in the late 90s. 26 years later it’s still in my collection and I still spin it at gigs here and there
@thebiggestofoofs3176
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
This is the only channel I watch on regular speed
@robertjones6396
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
I'm 60 years old and let me tell you, you have no idea of how great this band's, concepts and talent will never be duplicated.
They better than everyone else then and now!
@13lodger
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
you really should go over America Eats It's Young, it is a very underrated concept album that relates to the times but is so relatable now.
@UNDFTDGordon
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
While I love George musically, I’ve never agreed with much of his opinions especially about sampling. Maybe all the drugs fried his brain.
@UNDFTDGordon
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Where’d you get the stems?
@celinepope
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Knowing Andre 3k was inspired by Parliament, not just musically but with fashion.. so cool
@MrPocket1960
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
There should be soooo much Merch for this legendary Band
@GregMuscovalley
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Funky grooves had been around with the Godfather of Soul James Brown but Bernie Worrell's colors on top were different along with Bootsy and Eddie churchy vocals and Black phycadelic rock. Bernie was the warp drive.
@djoyugen3356
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
3:56👆🏽Smell my finger! 😠 WHY?! Only Black people. Tell the racist America story of segregated music/radio and…Bad oversight..
@joebell1728
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
For Mothership Connection George on his sponge mind would always say Black people were the first Aliens beings on Earth. He went to see TOMMY starring Roger Daultry , Oliver Reed, Tina Turner. Elton John. It knocked him on his ass.
About the Deaf , Dumb and Blind kid who gains a Cult following.
@Cypeadelic1
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
I got two names for you. Michael Hampton. Eddie Hazel.
@soaribb32
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
This song is such a vibe.
@alonso.with.s
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
thank you so much for your videos! just gems, love from NZ
@derekhmartin
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Talking afro-futurism, you gotta cover Sun Ra. I think he had a big influence on Mothership Connection, even though George Clinton has not credited him.
@brturner
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
I think it’s the inclusion of Sweet Chariot that really makes me love P-Funks interpretation of Afro-futurism the most. See you got people like Octavia E. Butler, looking either exclusively to the past like in Kindred, or a very structured future like in Parable of The Sower. You’ve got people like Sun Ra, who had very strong ideas about the future that don’t have a lot of structure, but Sonny never felt like he was part of Earth, so there’s this feeling of isolation, it’s the central problem in the Marvel Black Panther, and you see it in Space is The Place when Sun Ra’s outfit is made fun of by the actual Black Panthers. Musically, Sonny started by writing Fletcher Henderson style jazz arrangements, but by the time Sun Ra was really a thing, he had long departed those ideas, his use of synth was intentional as he wanted to get away from Earth, he wanted nothing to do with it.
With P-Funk, you’ve got Afro-futurism at its best to me, when it contends with the past without repeating it, and when it looks to the future with big ideas. You’ve got Sweet Chariot, by all accounts a slave hymn, Motown horns, and you’ve got modulation effects, synths, elaborate costumes that are loud and brash for the sake of being loud and brash. And throughout all of it, they are only concerned with getting away from the white man and feeling the funk, they don’t really care where exactly where they are going. To me, when I imagine this album, I imagine it as a never ending voyage, the Mothership doesn’t set down on another planet, it just goes and goes and goes. Yeah this album is peak
@kennethrobinson8011
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
This was the I’m black and I’m proud albums of the 70s Can you prove that we were a more advanced race of people ask what the mothership connection is all about Aqua boogie for the souls of lost slaves lost in the slave trade… when the mothership landed the whole Black community on earth, was aware of it We were there
@twuando
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
shock g sampled “flashlight” on doowhatchyalike, the part where it says “ooh” in the beginning of the flashlight song at 14 seconds
@DJ_Shayn
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Bro, how are you getting all the stems for these tracks??? ~ Love your breakdowns btw, really great channel, and the albums for this entire Summer Camp Digs have all been Fuego!!!
@IsaacTCI
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
m/
@WaynePryce
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
What stem separation are you using
@t.glenn.marshall
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
the musical foundation of Mothership Connection is Jerome / drums, Bernie / keys and Bootsy / bass……the chemistry between these three is cosmic…….all of the songs start with these three incredible musicians
@t.glenn.marshall
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Bernie sang lead on Hit It And Quit It!
@reginaldedwards8791
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Saw the ship land in DFW area as a teenager 😊
@SiD-rs3ph
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Awesome, lovin' your shows, pal. Much love from Dublin
@Niclas004
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Can you please make a video about white dress by Kanye west it is such a great song but sadly overlooked
@clarencewilliams4815
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
As a tween and teen, I listened to 1580 KDAY and KUTE 102 out of Los Angeles. That's when Parliament-Funkadelic showed up on my radar. I remember seeing a commercial for Get Up For The Downstroke but I regress. The song, Tear The Roof Off The Sucker did well and on the faith of that one song, I drove (15 year old with a driver's permit) to Music + with my first real job money to buy the album. I never saw the album cover but after seeing it I grabbed a copy and walked to the counter to pay. There was a black guy dancing to something behind the counter. I handed him my purchase and he looked at me, held up the album and shouted, "What are you doing buying this white boy?!" I grinned awkwardly. That was the first and last time anyone racialized me over my musical tastes. After taking the album home and playing it on my sister's GE portable record player, I was hooked! I later purchased The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein, Funkadelic's One Nation Under A Groove with the bonus 45 along with Uncle Jam Wants You. I purchased George Clinton's Atomic Dog on an import 12" singles. I also got into the P-Funk family's spin off, solo albums by Bootsy Collins along with Zapp who's debut album was co-produced by Bootsy Collins. I still have every album I bought in the '70's including all the ones I mentioned but it was Mothership Connection that really expanded my mind and my musical tastes. A few years ago my brother went to the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA and he got to meet my heroes, George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. I was really bummed because he offered me a ticket but I had to work but my brother surprised me with personalized, autographed photos from both! I still have them and have them proudly displayed in my record room.
@DrCoyoteBanjo
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
This is a great breakdown–thanks so much for posting this material.
@thecontextualist
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
5:00 Had nothing to do with scaring white people. We carried ourselves with dignity and class before white people flooded our communities with drugs around the same time. Motown dressed their artists that way because they could never sell dirty looking, unpolished entertainers to the black middle class. And put some respect on Bernie Worrell’s name.
@djuntouchablesbestkepsecre7720
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
One of the happiest times in my life was when the P-FUNK EARTH TOUR STARTED IN HOUSTON TEXAS IN AROUND OCTOBER OF 1976. NOW I LIVE IN INDIANAPOLIS IND AND BYE THE TIME THE P-FUNK EARTH TOUR GOT AROUND TO INDIANAPOLIS IN THE SPRING OF 1977 THE TICKETS WERNT NOTHING BUT $ 5.00 TO GET IN THE CONCERT AND IT WAS AT THE INDIANAPOLIS CONVENTION CENTER. THAT WAS THE BEST CONCERT I'VE EVER BEEN TO AND IM 65 NOW AND I WAS 17 AT THE DATE AND TIME OF THE CONCERT. NOW I CAME UP WITH THE $5.00 BY USING A BIT OF ILLEGAL MEANS AND I STOPPED AFTER I GOT THE $ 5.00 BUCKS. BUT NOW TODAY WHEN I THINK OF IT MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE TRIED FOR $15.00 MORE TO BUY A DIME OR $ 10.00 BAG OF WEED AND MAYBE A PINT OF WILD IRISH ROSE WHICH WAS AROUND A $1.20 CENTS AT THE TIME.
@djuntouchablesbestkepsecre7720
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Thank you keep telling the story on your end and I will continue to tell the story on my end
@Takhs_
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
How can you not have a big l video?
@aarotoivari8940
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Love this series, man! I bet it's been a lot of work but personally I hope to see more of this type of content!
@davidpistek6241
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
In the 90s a coworker brought this to me, anything important enough to get all that sample play is great ,I began to love parliament
@lynntabon7100
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
I was a freshman in college. George, Funkadelic and Parliment played for our homecoming. They turned it out. It was one of my best homecoming in college. Thank you George, Funkadelic, Parliament and Bootsy Collins
@da_funkknight
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
In college ( late 90s) a friend asked me I liked to go dancing. I said “no. Well I dance to pfunk” she responded “ that doesn’t count, you HAVE to dance to pfunk. It’s universal fact”.
@ianmiddleton100
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Great. The fact that William feels the resonance with Haitian Kompa/ Compas testifies to the point about the African diaspora reaching for the stars through funk and other musics around that time. Space is the place!
@drfunkestein
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
🤘🤘🤘🤘 KEEP THE FUNK ALIVE!!!!!!!!🤘🤘🤘🤘
@garyjackson910
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
I saw the Woo Bernie Worrell in Dayton Ohio years ago. Total Master Talked with him afterwards played with him on the 1983 Atomic Dog Tour I was with Steve Arrington Hall of Fame. Bernie Worrell is Truly the "Insurance Man for the Funk🎹😎🎹🗣️🌏🎶🎵💯💯💯💓🙏🏿💓
@andretraylor7418
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
Hey, dude, you don't have to say the "race" when it's glaringly obvious? However, it's a good overview of a funk masterpiece.
@marvinwhittaker
August 8, 2025 at 8:34 am
I have this album on CD
Comments are closed.