During 1975, Parliament were already established as one of the eminent groups of the era in African-American music. The group got their guidance from George Clinton, and the funk master, James Brown. the group were surely inspired by the group Sly And The Family Stone.
With the release of Mothership Connection in December 1975, the group got the recognition they deserved and found themselves with a momentous album that changed music, forever.
Listen to the full album below:
“We put black people in situations nobody thought they would be in”
George Clinton revealed their inspiration for the album during an interview with Cleveland Scene:
“We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn’t think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang.”
Clinton as the star of the show was praised with his ability to form a band with some of the best musicians on the planet, which can be heard throughout Mothership Connection
Mothership Connection is a classic and the very definition of funk album, and it still is that defines the genre for four decades since it was released.