Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?

A Memoir

George Clinton, Ben Greenman

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN:
  9781476751092
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

**ONE OF THE BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ROLLING STONE**

The captivating memoir from “the emperor of intergalactic funk” (NPR) and most influential pop artists of our time—known for over forty R&B hit singles—George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic.

George Clinton began his musical career in New Jersey, where his obsession with doo-wop and R&B led to a barbershop quartet—literally, as Clinton and his friends also styled hair in the local shop—the way kids often got their musical start in the ’50s. But how many kids like that ended up playing to tens of thousands of rabid fans alongside a diaper-clad guitarist? How many of them commissioned a spaceship and landed it onstage during concerts? How many put their stamp on four decades of pop music, from the mind-expanding sixties to the hip-hop-dominated nineties and beyond? One of them. That’s how many.

How George Clinton got from barbershop quartet to funk music megastar is a story for the ages. As a high school student, George traveled to New York City, where he absorbed all the trends in pop music, from traditional rhythm and blues to Motown, the Beatles, the Stones, and psychedelic rock, not to mention the formative funk of James Brown and Sly Stone. By the dawn of the seventies, he had emerged as the leader of a wildly creative musical movement composed mainly of two bands—Parliament and Funkadelic. And by the bicentennial, Clinton and his P-Funk empire were dominating the soul charts as well as the pop charts. He was an artistic visionary, visual icon, merry prankster, absurdist philosopher, and savvy businessmen, all rolled into one. He was like no one else in pop music, before or since.

Written with wit, humor, and candor, this memoir provides tremendous insight into America’s music industry as forever changed by Clinton’s massive talent. This is a story of a beloved global icon who dedicated himself to spreading the gospel of funk music.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Introduction: Let’s Take It to the Stage (1978)
• The Bomb
• If You Hear Any Noise, It’s Just Me and the Boys
• I’m into Something and I Can’t Shake It Loose
• Friends, Inquisitive Friends, Are Asking What’s Come Over Me
• Sound a Little Something Like Raw Funk to Me
• Open Up Your Funky Mind and You Can Fly
• Would You Like to Dance with Me? We’re Doing the Cosmic Slop
• Everybody Get Up for the Down Stroke
• There’s a Whole Lot of Rhythm Goin’ Round
• Put a Glide in Your Stride and a Dip in Your Hip and Come on Up to the Mothership
• When the Syndrome Is Around, Don’t Let Your Guard Down
• So High You Can’t Get Over It
• Never Missin’ a Beat
• You Can Walk a Mile in My Shoes, but You Can’t Dance a Step in My Feet
• The Dog That Chases Its Tail Will Be Dizzy
• Rhythm and Rhyme, Rhythm and Rhyme, Rhythm and Motherfucking Rhyme
• If Anybody Gets Funked Up, It’s Gonna Be You
• You Gonna Get Ate
• Epilogue: Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?
• Photographs
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Selected Discography
• Appendix B: Selected Sampleography
• Appendix C: Statement of Jane Peterer Thompson
• Photo Credits
• About George Clinton and Ben Greenman
• Index
• Copyright