George Clinton and P-Funk: An Oral History (For the Record)

Booming out from the depths of disco in the 1970s was an unmistakable new sound: a danceable beat and bass riff, laid under an exquisitely tight and inventive horn ensemble, all coaxed out by an ultra-hip narrator whose spoken revelations believably proclaimed they came from another planet. The speaker--actually, the rapper--was musical mastermind George Clinton. Under his inspired direction, the groups Parliament and Funkadelic established what he called "P-Funk" as the modern outgrowth of soul, its irresistible funky genius paving the way for everything from rap and hip-hop to techno and alternative.

The authors take you aboard the P-Funk mothership for candid reflections from Clinton himself, and from bandmates Bootsy Collins, Fuzzy Haskins, Bernie Worrell, Fred Wesley, Garry Shider, album cover wizard Pedro Bell, and many others. In their own words, they tell you how it feels to lay down "uncut funk" with one of pop music's greatest innovators, and get booties shaking from coast to coast.

Dave Marsh was a founding editor of Creem and an editor at Rolling Stone, where he created The Rolling Stone Record Guide. He is a music critic at Playboy, publisher of Rock & Rap Confidential, and a prolific author of books about music and pop culture. His Before I Get Old is the definitive biography of The Who, and Glory Days and Born to Run, both about Bruce Springsteen, were bestsellers. He lives in New York and Connecticut.