Later today I'll be taking a refesher course so that I can maintain my Doctorate of Funkology.
Yep, I'm a serious Funkateer. and this evening Parliament-Funkadelic is headlining a free concert at Waterfront Park's Great Lawn as part of the Waterfront Independence Festival. It's been advertised on Magic 101.3 for a week (yes, we have Black radio stations here in Da Ville), and it's been a major topic of discussion for those of us who remember the heyday of Parliament-Funkadelic and how cutting edge their music was (and still is) back in the day.
My love of P-Funk started when I was in the 8th grade. My Dad came home from work that afternnon, tossed a promo album in my room and said, "You need to be listening to these guys."
The album he tossed in my my room was Parliament's 'Mothership Connection'. I took it into the den, put it on our quadraphonic stereo turntable, slapped on my headphones and the rest is history. From that day forward I eagerly awaited their album releases and didn't miss a Parliament-Funkadelic concert whenever they hit town. One of the first concerts I was allowed in my teen years to go to unsupervised by the parental units was a P-Funk one at The Summit.
I enthusiastically watched a documentary late one night that was done about the P-Funk phenomenon on PBS called Parliament-Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove for Independent Lens. The website for it even has a trivia quiz that tests your P-funk knowledge.
Far from faking the funk, I revel in it. I'm looking forward to seeing one of my favorite bands perform once again on the banks of the Ohio.
