Funkadelic got down just for the funk of it with the genre bending boogie of this positive political panoply and reached the pinnacle of their popularity. The Parliment-Funkadelic musical collective had been releasing albums concurrently throughout the decade with an ever expanding interchangeable lineup that often splintered into other side projects producing a veritable mountain of mythological mothership merchandise.
'One Nation Under A Groove' was recorded at United Sound in Detroit, Michigan with live material added from the Monroe Civic Center in Monroe, Louisiana. The Funkadelic Main Invasion Force included Throbasonic Funkgeetarists Mike 'Kidd Funkadelic' Hampton and Gary Shider; Banjo'd Muthaplucker Bobby Lewis; Avatarian Mike Hampton; Keybo' Dans & Synthezoidees Bernie 'DaVinci' Worrell and Walter 'Junie' Morrison; Rotofunkie Drum & Percussionatin' Thumpdans Jerome Brailey, W. Bootsy Collins, Larry Fratangelo, and Tyrone Lampkin; Bass Thumpasaurians William 'Bootsy' Collins, Rodney "Skeet" Curtis, and Cordell 'Boogie' Mosson; and Funkadelic Blamgusta Vocaloids (Voices For Da Nation!) George Clinton, Raymond (Stingray) Davis, Ron Ford, Mallia Franklin, Lynn Mabry, W. 'Junie' Morrison, Cordell Mosson, Dawn Silva, Gary "Dowop" Shider, Greg Thomas, Jeanette Washington, and Debbie Wright.
Master of ceremonies George Clinton would expound: "We make it satirical or funny, not point blank aggressive like maybe the punks. You know why? 'Cause we are the direct descendants of the 'You're fucking up'; the end result of the 'You're fucking up' society. This is us. But that's a dangerous one to play with because the fact still remains that you will get popular. And if you get popular you might believe it. And if you believe it then you'll live and you'll die being a pawn for real. So I have to play with it because when I come off stage I wanna tuck it away somewhere. It's too intense otherwise. Look at that cat Sid Vicious. That's serious programming right there. They directed him so once he got into it he could not stop himself from where he was going. It's happening throughout society but it's specially strong if you're in the theatre. Once you believe your part, once you can't step back from being what they want you to be, it's all over...That's the new way of looking at it – because the other way is a trap. The wrong way is to go out and riot and make yourself mad when you ain't really doing nothing but diverting your energy with a little blowing up. The new way of looking at it is 'Screw it, we won't pay it no attention one way or the other.' It's always alright 'cause we ain't gonna deal with 'it's all wrong'. We won't even look at that no more. Yes, there's still the ghettos but we're looking at it different now and we're feeling more positive about what's happening. That way we can do more about it. As for the 'Get up and party' stuff, that's just black America's way of expressing that we got a raise and that we're being more like what white success looks like. you know, violins, big productions, disco, the Teddy Pendergrasses, it all sounds like white pop music of the 50s. A lot of it is cool, but it's still just a rehash of what white America did. Give 'em time, it'll gradually change. James Brown, Jimi, Sly and ourselves took the whole other thing so far anyway that most of 'em ain't nowhere near catching up yet. I mean, Jimi – we'll be chasing him for years. And Sly and ourselves, I think we were doing about the same time. He got the breaks though, whereas we went too far too soon. It took me a while to realise that I wasn't getting played on no white stations because I was black and I didn't get played on black stations' cause to them it sounded like I was white. So then I had to go back and meet 'em halfway with the Parliament situation, the horns and things, and then hand-walk 'em up to where Funkadelic is at. Even from there we had to take Bootsy to get 'em real young to walk 'em to Parliament to walk 'em to Funkadelic. Now they're gonna pledge groovallegiance to the united funk of Funkadelica...Funkadelic is a combination of everything. Funkadelic is anything that will subsequently be thrown in. Funkadelic is an attitude to whatever it takes. You can get away with so much when you haven't got to think about structures or constructions and can leave yourself to your instincts and know that it's cool and all the musicians know it that way. Then the possibilities are unlimited. Even now the music scares us sometimes, like 'Wow! Did you hear that?' So think what we might eventually achieve. At the same time we know it just ain't us; it's something coming through us. No deep thing. What I mean is we've learned how to relax and play and be inspired by one another, and by being crazy all along we don't have to go by no rules...You got to stay on the pocket now. And that's sometimes hard to explain to members of the group. Some of 'em might say, 'Why don't we have the Cadillacs of Lamborghinis?' but you see that sort of trip will fake you out. You get all of that then you spend your first chance. 'Cause you rarely get but one good shot; you're lucky if you get two. By the time your third comes around you're gonna be so fucked up by the record companies you're gonna be mad enough to wanna sue – and if you ain't saved no money you're in trouble. And if you was dumb enough to buy all them cars, you was dumb enough not to take care of business. Nobody encourages you to learn nothing about this business. Record companies would rather you stay dumb, not even think of it as a business, so they can either rip you off or get you out the way in five years to make way for the new groups. Where I figure that I might have done at least one thing that had a little intelligence in it was the fact that we tied all the groups together. One could support the other when necessary; it made us less vulnerable. Also I knew how the system likes to play one artist off against another, so we were able to get round that. Like when Bootsy came along it was obvious that they would eventually shoot for him as the star ... that trip is laid down automatically, from family, friends, record company, everybody runs that one down every time. And sure enough, as he got more popular, people started telling me, 'You're the one that made him and now he's using you', while at the same time they were telling him exactly the same thing about me. But before he'd even started doing his first album we spent a month on a boat in Miami, just fishing and tripping and talking about what was bound to happen and what we could do to plan our way around the system. So when it came time for them to pit him against me I said. 'I ain't gonna rap now' cause anything I say is incriminating now we're both big. Just remember what we talked about two years ago.' And he went away, it took him a month, and he came back and said, 'yeah, just like we planned it.' And that in itself kept us past the point where were supposed to bust up."
'One Nation Under A Groove' brought the United Funk of Funkadelica to number fifty-six in the UK, sixteen in the US, and spent six weeks at number one on the US R&B album chart. It became the first Funkadelic album to be certified platinum. That year Parliament hit number one on the R&B charts with 'Flashlight' and 'Aqua Boogie'.
http://georgeclinton.com/
"One Nation Under a Groove" George Clinton, Walter Morrison, Garry Shider 7:29
went to number twenty-eight on the US pop chart and became a number one R&B hit.
"Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!" Clinton, Morrison, Michael Hampton 6:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNiIfepF4mo
"Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers)" Clinton, Shider, Linda Brown 10:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rMj4U_CFyw
"Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll!)" Clinton, Morrison, Collins 4:27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHROMCX6Jdc
"Lunchmeataphobia (Think! It Ain't Illegal Yet!)" Clinton, Worrell 4:12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6nLIkvR2WU
"Maggot Brain Chant (Think It Ain't Illegal Yet!)" (Live) Clinton, Edward Hazel 8:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTF3XOecfvM
'One Nation Under A Groove: A P-Funk documentary'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjQ5QcM1SfA
'One Nation Under A Groove'
full album:
1.- One Nation Under a Groove 0:00
2.- Groovallegiance 11:41
3.- Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock! 22:32
4.- Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers) 32:53
5.- Into You 48:46
6.- Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll!) 56:39
7.- Lunchmeataphobia (Think! It Ain't Illegal Yet!) 1:03:32
8.- P.E. Squad/Doo Doo Chasers 1:10:21
9.- Maggot Brain 1:16:54
Original LP
Side One
1. "One Nation Under a Groove" George Clinton, Walter Morrison, Garry Shider 7:29
2. "Groovallegiance" Clinton, Morrison, Bernard Worrell 7:00
3. "Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!" Clinton, Morrison, Michael Hampton 6:18
Side Two
1. "Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers)" Clinton, Shider, Linda Brown 10:45
2. "Into You" Clinton, Morrison, William Collins 5:41
3. "Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll!)" Clinton, Morrison, Collins 4:27
Bonus EP side one
1. "Maggot Brain/Chant (Think It Ain't Illegal Yet!)" (Live) Clinton, Edward Hazel 8:28
Bonus EP side two
1. "Lunchmeataphobia (Think! It Ain't Illegal Yet!)" Clinton, Worrell 4:12
2. "P.E. Squad/Doo Doo Chasers" Clinton, Shider, Brown 4:18
live
