Parliament Funkadelic – The Mothership Connection Live
1976 (Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: D Concert: B-
With the jump from pure
R&B/Soul to Disco to Rap/Hip Hop, the major role the Funk Movement and its
effect on that road of what was termed Black Music is still too often lost in
the musical and historical shuffle. Rick
James and Prince were part of the real line of Funk and the first of the major
acts in this genre was Parliament Funkadelic.
Before their rediscovery, they were ignored and too often treated as if
they were disposable with the same deference a one-hit-wonder disco act would
be, which speaks to a combination of racism and music illiteracy. Parliament Funkadelic – The
Mothership Connection Live 1976 is a classic performance on DVD and is so good when it is
good, it defines Funk at its first peak.
There is
much theatricality (only Earth, Wind & Fire dared to try and pull this kind
of thing off) and the Glam Rock movement figured highly in their appearance much
like LaBelle when they first sang Lady
Marmalade. The usually consistent 85
minutes include the songs:
1)
Cosmic
Stop
2)
Do
That Stuff
3)
Gamin’
At Ya!
4)
Standing
On The Verge Of Getting It On
5)
Undisco
Kidd
6)
Children
Of Production
7)
Mothership
Connection (Star Child)
8)
Swing
Down Sweet Chariot
9)
Dr. Funkenstein
10) Comin’ Round The Mountain
11) P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)
12) Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The
Sucker)
13) Night of The Thumpasorus Peoples
14) Funkin’ For Fun
When this does not work, it is not
for lack of energy, but for the risks they keep taking over and over throughout
the concert. This is a real band, the
show becomes a party, everyone is having fun and there are always risks with
the surprises, but they work more often than not and what they did here turned
out to be more important and influential here to the point that they are still ahead of most of their
contemporaries in the industry. Even if
you don’t like Funk or Soul, you should consider this a must see for yourself
at least once, because it is that interesting.
The 1.33 X 1 image is soft, even
for an analog NTSC 1976 taping, but this was live and new territory for live
videotaping as much as it was for this music and the performances, so issues
with detail, Video Black, Video White turning yellow and the like can be
expected, but it is still colorful, historic and watchable. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes do their
best to reproduce the old sound, but it shows its age, yet is better than the
video is overall. The combination is as
good as I have seen of these clips over the years. There are sadly no extras, save a paper
pullout in the DVD case with an essay and technical text, but the band deserves
more. Maybe if this disc is a success,
we’ll get that too.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
