WHEREAS, Born in Kannapolis, North Carolina on July 22, 1941, George Clinton became interested in doo wop music in his teenage years while living in Plainfield, New Jersey during the early 50’s; and
WHEREAS, Out of the back room of a barbershop where he straightened hair and inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, he formed the vocal group, the Parliaments, in 1955 and they had their first hit “(I Wanna) Testify” in 1967; and
WHEREAS, During the late 60’s, George Clinton began listening to the new wave of psychedelic rock by bands such as Cream, Vanilla Fudge, and Sly and the Family Stone and fused this new wave of rock with cutting-edge soul to form a new band called Funkadelic; and
WHEREAS, In 1970, he dropped the “s” from his original band and soon after began dividing time between Parliament, his horn-based soul group, and Funkadelic, his guitar-based rock group, and the music called “P-Funk” was born; and
WHEREAS, During the latter half of the 70’s, Parliament and Funkadelic dominated and revolutionized the music scene with such songs as “Flash Light,” “One Nation Under A Groove,” “Aqua Boogie,” “(Not Just) Knee Deep,” and “Give Up The Funk,” and classic albums entitled “Funkadelic” and “Mothership Connection”; and
WHEREAS, Through P-Funk, a number of groups and artists including Parliament, Funkadelic, P-Funk All-Stars, Parlet, Brides of Funkenstein, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell were developed due to George Clinton’s vision and Mothership Connection; and
WHEREAS, In the 80’s, George Clinton recorded as a solo artist and had various hits including but not limited to “Atomic Dog,” “Loopzilla,” “Last Dance,” and “Do Fries Go with that Shake”; and
WHEREAS, A new generation of young listeners discovered P-Funk via rap and hip-hop records that heavily sampled George Clinton’s vast body of work, and today, he is widely recognized as a soul music patriarch and pioneer whose contributions were recognized by his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on May 6, 1997; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby declare April 15, 2006 as George Clinton Day in the City of Philadelphia and that an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to him as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
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