Where do you begin with the history of Parliament / Funkadelic? The history of both bands sprawls through over five decades of interchanging band members, copious drugs, swaps in musical styles, spin-off bands, recurring characters, and many, many costume changes. It's an overwhelming introduction to the world of funk. Just the mentioning the career path of one of the band's many musicians can lead you down a funk version of six degrees of Kevin Bacon, with George Clinton or James Brown as the gravitational centre.
I'm going to avoid the full-on lecture (although there are links below for the discerning funk historian masochist) and give a brief synopsis of the early years to put My New Favourite Song in context.
The history begins with Parliament / Funkadelic's creator, George Clinton, starting a doo-wop group called The Parliaments with three school friends in 1950's Nebraska. By the 1960's, the three friends were replaced by four new members, who practiced in the barbershop where George was working, and scored a few minor soul and R&B hits until traditional doo-wop fell out of fashion in the late 60's.
The essential Parliament / Funkadelic elements of tight vocal and instrumental harmonies, an almost nursery-rhyme approach to songwriting, and a gritty sense of what sounds good are present and correct in The Parliaments' recordings. Parliament and Funkadelic later covered a number of songs from this period, including drastically different versions of 'All Your Goodies Are Gone' and 'The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg', among others.
'A New Day Begins' isn't a major entry in the band's history, but it's a good example of Clinton's emerging talents, as he manages to take what could be a perfectly anodyne love song and crams in yearning, dramatic, hopeful lyrics (with delivery to match), accompanied by a fuzzy, bouncy bassline and testifyin' backing harmonies. All in just over 3 minutes.
That's why it's My New Favourite Song - at least for now.
****
Buy Testify! - The Best of the Early Years for an extortionate used & new price off Amazon
A concise history of Parliament / Funkadelic
The official George Clinton website
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