All
of the funkateers came out for this special event to celebrate the birthday of
Dr. Funkenstein himself, George Clinton!! I heard from an inside source that
George Clinton may actually show up......I was hoping that it was true! But
before I get into the birthday bash, let me tell you about something that went
on around 1:00pm at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem:
At the Apollo Theatre, they were having a George
Clinton look-a-like contest. However, since no one came looking like George,
the contest became a George Cinton prize giveaway contest. The staff was giving
away tickets to the P-Funk show on Saturday, July 25th! Also, they were giving
away tickets to Amateur Night at theApollo. I was waiting from 12:20pm until
1:00pm, when the contest finally started. I was the first contestant......I
participated in the first part of the contest, NAME THAT P-FUNK TUNE! Because I
knew that the song was "Cholly (Funk Gettin' Ready To Roll)", I won a
free ticket to Amateur Night at the Apollo on Wednesday, August 21st!! (That
contest was too fuckin' easy......they were playing it continuously before the
contest and there was a sheet with all of the songs they PLANNED to play at the
event!! Besides, something more obscure could have been chosen, like
"Friday Night, August the 14th", "Qualify & Satisfy" or
"Trash-A-Go-Go"!) The next part of the contest was the dance
contest.....five contestants participated, including a white man who did some
goofy-looking dance.....a little, black girl won the contest, but I forgot what
she win. The last part of the contest involved lip-syncing or singing to a
P-Funk tune, but no one wanted to lip-sync or SING, so two adults were allowed
to DANCE to a P-Funk tune.....they won tickets for the P-Funk concert at the
Apollo on July 25th! The event ended at 1:30pm.
BACK
TO THE BIRTHDAY BASH: All P-Funk tunes were played from the time the Lion's
Den's doors were opened until:
Nappyhead took to the stage at 9:30pm. Nappyhead is a REALLY funky group that played mostly P-Funk tunes and one Prince song!! The group featured a beautiful female vocalist with three rappers. The rap to the Funkadelic original, Cosmic Slop, was very good! I was surprised to hear a funk group playing an original Prince tune. Their rendition of "Maggot Brain" was amazing!!!! The guitarist could have kicked Mike Hampton's ass with his fierceness!!! Nappyhead's set ended at 10:15pm.
The Nappyhead song set listing:
Clones of Funk began their set at 10:50pm. Clones of Funk is a funkatized-as-hell group from Annapolis, Maryland. They were nice enough to come to the Big Apple to spread their version of funk, with such goodies as "Good To Your Earhole" and "Comin' Round The Mountain". DAMN!!! Clones of Funk was so full of energy that the walls were on the verge of crumbing down!! Does anyone have some funk insurance??!Their version of "Red Hot Momma" actually melted two ladies in the front, till they were nothin' but pillars of salt! "Super Stupid" was hot enough to set off a bunch of fire sprinklers in the joint! "Good To Your Earhole" blew out a few eardrums! The bassline of "Cosmic Slop" caused a motorist to uncontrollably swerve into a traffic light!! And you don't want to know what "Comin' Round The Mountain" did!!Anyway, their set ended at 12:10am.
The Clones of Funk song set listing:
THIS
IS THE MOMENT!!!! At 12:20am, George Clinton entered the Lion's Den and ALL
eyes were on him! Some people crowded around the Minister of P-Funk, just to
say "Happy Birthday!" or just to say "We love you, Dr.
Funkenstein!! Your funk is best!!"Two birthday cakes were prepared for
George.
At
12:35am, we said "Happy birthday" to George and George put out the
candles of both cakes by fanning a folded newspaper close to the candles!!
George grabbed a handful of cake (like a one-year old) and began devouring it!
Cameras were flashing by the second, as people quickly gathered close to
witness a historical event!!! I wasn't fortunate enough to get a piece of cake
because I was too busy, snapping photos and getting my groove on the rest of
the night....actually, I saw some cake left, but it looked some folks played
over it, so I said it "FUNK IT!"
George
Clinton took it to the stage at 12:45am to entertain the funkateers with some
of his funky shit! He and the crowd sang the Jerome Brailey signature hit,
"Tear The Roof Off The Sucka", "Up For The Down Stroke",
and my favorite, "Cookie Jar". Afterwards, he told the members of
Funk-Kin to "get this shit started!"
The last group, Funk-Kin, began their set at 12:55am and ended at 2:20am. Funk-Kin rocked the house with renditions of "The Goose", "Cosmic Slop" and "Mothership Connection (Starchild)". One interesting thing about this show was that Kevin Goins was in the house, singing Glenn Goins's part of "Swing Down, Sweet Chariot".....DAMN! A BLAST FROM THE PAST!! Kevin, who was the lead vocalist of defunct funk-group Quazar, was funkatizing the funkateers with his sweet, smokey voice! Also, George Clinton was tickling Donald Banks's keyboards on "Undisco Kidd".
The Funk-Kin song set listing INCUDED:
Submit suggestions or comments to david.brooks@brookenstein.com