Dispatches from Planet FunK: it’s the Aced Out Podcast. Dedicated to all whom the Man tried to ace out by profiting from soul without stopping to give props to the prophets of Soul. Hosted by Ace Alan, aka Barack Wayne. Brought to you by the letter P, sponsored by P.E.T.E.(People for the Ethical Treatment of Earholes), and Funkanaut fam affiliated. Because FUNK is spelled FUN with a K—that’s why.
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When singer/musician/songwriter LINDA SHIDER met the folks in Parliament-Funkadelic, she was working as a stewardess for Pan Am. A friend of hers had just moved to San Francisco, so she invited Linda to come visit. That friend in turn introduced her to a woman who was dating Bernie Worrell, wizard of the boards, and from there she became acquainted with the rest of the funk family, including GARRY SHIDER, whom she wound up hanging out with at a party in L.A. Linda “Legz” had a boyfriend at the time, but she had already been an admirer of the band. “To me, they were like the black Rolling Stones,” she says. “Their aura… their vibe… They were just so intense, and you know they were real sexy onstage.”
Garry kept making comments about Linda and trying to make moves, but she would always rebuff him. Then one day, when the band was at a hotel, some guy came rushing in with a gun, looking for George Clinton, who may or may not have been with his girl. Garry swooped in to protect Linda from the ensuing gunfire by pushing her into a phone booth. He was her hero, and they decided to be a couple soon after.
She went on the road with him–following the tour bus in her car, or flying in for certain gigs. Then she joined them onstage for the first time–at Madison Square Garden. She even wound up on the cover of Rock & Soul magazine. But she wasn’t just some random hanger-on in the entourage. She was a leader with a deep background in civil rights advocacy who had fronted her own band, Legz, belting out heavy rock tunes like “Back in Black” by AC/DC. They also released the epic single “It Don’t Come Easy,” a impressively intricate and gooey deep cut which exhibits her complex compositional chops.
Indeed, this particular skill led to her becoming one of the very few credited woman songwriters in P-Funk history. It all started with a baby grand which lived in a hallway at United Sound in Detroit, where most of the P-Funk stuff was recorded. A gifted pianist, she just sat down and started playing. Somebody’s ears perked up. “George came by and he said ‘Hm, I like that,’” she recalls. “And he said, ‘Garry… figure out the chords and stuff and let’s go record that bad boy… I think Ima use that for Parlet.’”
Garry and the fellas did just that, and a unique track of music began to take form, a mid-tempo, haunting yet poppy combo of funk and prog rock. “Once I heard the whole musical thing gelling,” she continues, “that’s when I came up with the lyrics.” The tune sounded like it was coming from outer space, but she didn’t have to look far for inspiration. “It was a love song,” she says. “A lot of stuff that Garry and I did [was] that kind of material because we were so in love with each other. You know, we were hot and heavy and we just kinda like shared it with people.” The song was called “Are You Dreaming?” and arrived to the world as part of Parlet’sclassic debut,the Pleasure Principle.
Mrs. Shider was also part of another momentous event in P history: the birth of Garry’s iconic stage outfit, or perhaps we can call it a uniform: the diaper, man. But was it an actual diaper? “It was always a towel,” reveals Linda. “They’d stay at the Holiday Inn a lot, so it has the Holiday Inn logo down the middle.” The story goes that Garry decided to give it a try after seeing George put one on that one time. Garry chose to combine the diaper look with a pacifier and some thigh-high boots. Everyone responded so positively that the simple ensemble stuck thereafter. But did Garry wear underwear under there? “No he did not,’ laughs Linda. “Sometimes the willy would kinda pop out if the diaper was too small… It was kinda scary sometimes as well, you know what was gonna happen… ‘Oh, god. Here we go.’ All the groupies would be like ‘Yes!’”
Like his lovely spouse, Garry Shider was a particularly loyal funk soldier, the only one who stayed with George while all the other members were coming and going–from the day he and Boogie Cordell Mosson left United Soul to join the P, until the unfortunate day that he passed. And as bandleader for (at least) 35 years, Mr. Shider was the herald of the P, the one who would kick off every show, sometimes just playing a little guitar first, then taking the crowd to the highest heights with his golden voice.
Even after saying all of that, it is hard to describe what Garry has fully done for that band and its history. “In the studio, he was the vocal arranger,” says Linda. “He’d produce. Most of the time George was off doing drugs somewhere or sleeping with some chick.” But despite her husband's massive contribution to the history and songbook of Parliament-Funkadelic, he always remained humble. As Linda explains, “One of his favorite sayings was ‘I’m no better than my surroundings.’He said that all the time… He was like ‘I can’t do what I’m doing unless there’s people around me who are keepin up.’’ This philosophy tied in nicely with another one of his trusty sayings: ‘Get in where you fit in.’ To his wife, this meant: “Don’t oversing. Don’t overplay… Just kinda blend, go with the flow. He knew how to get the best out of people.”
Alas, Garry’s humility was perhaps his greatest weakness. Linda was constantly trying to get him to stick up for himself, but always to no avail. “I could make deals for Garry with other people, but he would never let me confront George about maybe a pay increase or something like that,” she laments. “He’d say, ‘You’re gonna turn him off, and it’s gonna probably blow up in your face anyway, so just leave that alone.’” Case in point: Garry was once offered $1 million to replace Lionel Ritchie when he left the Commodores! (George was paying Garry $150 a show at the time). “I said ‘Garry, he just offered you a million dollars,’”she remembers. “‘And you’re gonna turn that down?’ And he would do that every time someone else came up and offered him another option.”
Still, Garry lived his adult life doing exactly what he wanted to do, and not a lot of folks can say that. “He loved being in that group,” says Linda, “and he had a thing for George, like a father kind of relationship – even though it was one-sided… When he first met Garry, Garry was like 16. He wined and dined him… And once he got into the group, he just used him like he used everybody else.” In the end, Linda begged her husband not to go on the road, but he was there to the very end.
Nowadays, since Funk doesn’t really have a retirement fund, Ms. Linda still keeps busy. She paints, makes jewelry and is part of annual the Funkateer’s Ball in Bethesda, MD every September. She also continues to write, going so far as to create the funky comic book, DIAPERMAN, featuring Garry as the far-out titular superhero. “I always remembered when Garry was floating on that thin wire over the stadiums and coliseums and stuff, how scary it was,” she says, explaining how she came up with the concept. “I felt like, since he was the one that volunteered to do it, that he earned some credit for that… And it was his 70th birthday in July, so I figured it was a good time to do it.”
In this wide-ranging and extremely candid interview, Mrs. Shider talks about her days as a preferred extra in Robocop and other Hollywood movies, her work with Stokely Carmichaeland run-ins with the Klan, and how much she loved to sing “Red Hot Mama” onstage. She also reveals details about her husband’s final days, her efforts to preserve his legacy, why ladies have always been important to P-Funk, and how badly George ruined that one song they did.
Produced and Hosted by Ace Alan
Executive Producer Scott Sheppard
w/ Content Produced by Linda Shider
Website, Merch & Graphics by 3chards
Sound Engineered by Grace Coleman @ Different Fur Studios – SF, CA
Filmed by Domenique Scioli w/ Don Scioli for ZAN Media
Sound & Video Editing, MIxing & Graphics by Nick “WAES” Carden for Off Hand Records – Oak, CA
w/ thanks to Christian Low, Shaunna Hall, Dawn Silva, & Chris Lander
Featuring:
“It Don’t Come Easy” by Legz w/ Linda Shider
“Desert Flower” by Children of Production feat. Linda Shider, Garry Shider, & Gary “Mudbone” Cooper
“I Remember” from Tale of Two Funkys feat. Garry Shider & Linda Shider
“Glory of Love” from Tale of Two Funkys feat. Linda Shider
When DAWN SILVA – (Brides of Funkenstein, P-Funk, GAP Band, All My funky Friends] – shopped her autobiography, The FUNK QUEEN to book publishers, they didn’t exactly grasp the entire vision. “Everybody said the same thing,” she says. “‘You can’t do it.’” This is because the OG funkateer had created something you don’t see on shelves every day. “Mine is not only a table book with classic photos,” she explains. “It also has an autobiography, and there‘s about maybe five books within that one book.” Gathering the photos was a tale unto itself, starting with a man by the name of Steve Labelle, an ex-police officer turned photographer who traveled with Parliament Funkadelic from 1976 to 1981. “He was a fanatic,” she recalls. “So he went out on the road with us for all those years and he took all these photos… His health took a turn for the worse and he had been sitting on those photos for about 30 years… So he asked me to make him a promise that, if he sent those photos to me to me, I would put them in my book.”
So she raised the capital and had it manufactured herself—a seven pound (!) hardcover masterpiecein the form ofabeautifully printed, glossy package containing over 500 pages of rich funk history, way more than knee deep with amazing and tragic tales, as well as brushes with funk and soul greatnessthat will inspire ladies young and oldwhile imbuing the fellas with a greater respective for Dawn’s legacy. And just like everything else in her storied career, she had done exactly what the powers that be had said she couldn’t do. “I took a chance because everyone said I couldn’t do it and it wouldn’t work,” she confirms. “And it’s working.”
Taking chances is what made Dawn a professional singer in the first place. As a young lady, her first major singing gig was as a member of a latterday version of . Then she jumped ship— that is—and, along with other funk queens whom Dawn calls “thoroughbreds”—she appeared across all P-Funk platforms, from and, toFunkadelic’s andHer voice can also be heard all over such essential, stanky classics as beloved solo album , and the and albums. Even more importantly, she took center stage to co-lead the , whose funktastic albums and are still much admired today.
As an undergrad at Cal Berkeley in the early 80s, RICKEY VINCENT— (History of Funk show and book/ Party Music/ Phool 4 the Funk)— stumbled into a music history course. It was quite dense with Black culture, but on the very last day of the 2nd semester, the teacher came to class with his scratchy James Brown 45s, including “Superbad.” Young Rickey found this to be exciting yet problematic. “‘If I taught a class like that,’ he thought to himself, ‘I would start with James Brown!”
This proved to be a good call, because there seemed to be a certain point on the timeline where all pontification on Black culture inexplicably stopped. “There’s all this writing about blues and soul and the 60s and civil rights,” explains Rickey. “I got no problems with that.” But the 1970s brought a new priority that had yet to be expounded upon. “It’s about the Bomb!” he declares. “It’s about the funk… Where’s the chapter about putting it on the One? Where’s the chapter on James Brown changing the language and the rhythm and putting it all down? No one had written about that.”
Ultimately, what we got was a lot: the HISTORY OF FUNKradio show — a celebration of all things stanky which is still going strong every Friday on KPFA.org — and FUNK: The Music, The People, and the Rhythm of the ONE — an essential tome which should be required reading in any self-respecting household. Indeed, thanks to Rick’s reflections, interviews, and vinyl archeology, we learn about the Five Dynasties of Funk — beginning with the Period of Unification — the Tendencies of Funk, the “heterogenous sound ideal,” and how James Brown invented , changing our expectations of what a song could do. Overall, the professor found that the Funk is not just a look or a sound, but also a particular approach that nobody had really spoken on yet. “Cuz there’s ways to say it,” explains Rick in regards to describing the music, which is more like a movement, . “You can say it from an ethnomusicological point of view… [or] you can look at it as a Black Power thing… These folks were saying ‘”
Episode 29: Rustee Allen & Levi Seacer Jr. [SLY/ PRINCE/PURPLE ONES]
“I remember I got paid $20 for a gig, man,” says RUSTEE ALLEN, funk bassist extraordinaire, first introduced to the world via the transcendent soul staple FRESH by none other than Sly & the Family Stone. “I thought I made a ton of money!” he laughs. “I didn’t even know you even got paid for playing,” agrees his good friend and fellow Bay Area legend LEVI SEACER JR., a guitarist who went from playing hardcore jazz in local clubs to touring the world with PRINCE and his New Power Generation. “That’s how innocent I was about it… When I got my first check I’m like ‘What’s this?’”
Rustee was first spotted by the Sly camp as a youngster playing in support of local legend Johnny Talbot, much admired by all the top Bay Area funkateers at the time. Along with drummer WILLIE WILD, (who would later be part of the original lineup of Graham Central Station), Rustee was chosen to back up LITTLE SISTER, an offshoot of Sly’s Fam featuring Vet Stone and piloted by Freddie Stone. Next thing Rustee knew, he was “auditioning” to join the Fam as a full-fledged member—in front of 30,000 people in Virginia! Soon after that, Rustee was in the studio for the Fresh sessions, laying down tunes in basically one take each. “The first takes are the best ones anyway,” says Rustee.
As for Levi, he spent his youth gigging at spots like Earl’s Solano Club in the East Bay, playing jazz with ladies such as Rosie Gaines and Sheila Escovedo. “Playing was like taking a glass of water,” says Levi. “Just natural.” His confidence and skill got him noticed by Don Cornelius of fame, who put him to work. Then one day Levi stopped by an audition that Escovedo — now known as — was holding for bass players. Though Levi was a guitar man, she asked him to take the gig once she had heard him play on the four-string. This of course put him in the same orbit as himself— who would eventually bring him into the fold not only as a player, but also as writer and producer. Like Rustee, Levi had found himself thrust into the spotlight, breathing the rarefied air of an internationally acclaimed artist with a new band.
At just age 20, STEVIE PANNELL, then strictly a bassist, wrote a song in his grandmother’s basement. He thought it was kinda special, so he went to Detroit and managed to present the tune to a man by the name of George Clinton. “It was right after ‘Knee Deep’” Stevie recalls.The funk doctor dug what Stevie had come up with, so he told the kid to cut a demo. He fulfilled this request, including Jerome Ali on guitar. When George heard that version, he gave it the green light. “He said, ‘Go ahead and cut it for real,’” says Stevie.
So they did just that— at Superdisc studios. Ron Dunbar was enlisted to produce the track, vocalist Jeanette Washington helped Stevie work out some lyrics, and the Horny Horns — featuring Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Richard “Kush” Griffith, and Rick Gardner – were brought in to enhance the mix with that bona fide P-Funk flavor. “Being almost like a teenager and you got the Horny Horns playing on your stuff,” says Stevie, “I felt pretty good.” The song became “FUNK UNTIL THE EDGE OF TIME,” an ooey gooey stank classic featured on the album Play Me Or Trade Me (1980) by PARLET, (and deemed worthy of inclusion on the Best of Parlet compilation). And that’s how Stevie officially got pulled into the Parliament Funkadelic Thang. He felt like family almost immediately. “It was fun,” he reports. “Too much fun sometimes.”
Throughout these years and beyond, Stevie — who had been playing bass since he got a Sears model at age 15 — started getting more and more into playing the guitar. For him, the transition was natural. “You know, you’re playing with a band and you put your instrument down and everybody kinda switches up at halftime, so to speak,” he explains. “The bass player will go get on the drums; the guitar player will go get on the bass … There was always a guitar just laying around… You just kinda start playin it.” And the man plays it well — just check out the from this very episode for living proof! And keep an eye out for his , simply entitled , which also features his brother, accomplished player .
Ep 27: Patryce “Choc’let” Banks! [GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION]
“Keepin that funk alive, to me, there’s no more of an important mission.” So declares PATRYCE “CHOC’LET” BANKS, cofounder of one of the most important bands in all of funk history: Graham Central Station. “That’s my mission,” she promises. “To keep the funk alive until the wheels fall off.” And she has been doing just that ever since the formation of the band’s classic lineup with her former boo, uber innovative Sly & the Fambassist Larry Graham, along with drummer Willie Wild, keyboardist Hershall Happiness, organist Robert “Butch” Sam, & guitarist David Dynamite. Together they hit the ground running from the jump. Word got out immediately that the band was superbad—folks would even get dressed up just to check out their rehearsals! Their constant practicing and performing at spots like the Orphanage in San Francisco led to the creation of their groundbreaking self-titled debut—(Choc’let’s personal favorite).
Yet even the most diehard funkateers might not realize that, before it was called Graham Central Station, the band was originally called HOT CHOC’LET, formed as a project for her to get down with while Larry was on the road. But after Graham had finally decided to relinquish his Family Stone membership, he joined the group, which then became his namesake. Choc’let wasn’t mad about the new moniker, though. “I was with it because… how could you go wrong with Larry Graham in the group?” she says. “I think it was even my idea maybe a little bit.”
Graham’s breaking away from the Sly camp meant GCS could seriously get to work. “We would rehearse all the time,” remembers Choc’let. “Almost every night… And we were just getting tighter and tighter.” And audiences were easily falling in love with the band’s celebratory intensity. “The music that we played was deeply infused with gospel music,” she confirms. “So that gave it the feeling of a revival… because of the way that it makes you feel and the way it gets you caught up.” In fact, audience members from San Francisco to Philly to D.C. would bring tambourines, whistles, and whatever percussion instrument they could find so they could get in on the action. “They’d be playing along with us,” she says.
“As long as you’re consistent, things can happen.” So says solo artist JAY DOUBLE YOU!—who began his funk career as a pro drummer in the late 70s at Don Davis’ legendary United Sound Studios in Detroit. His golden opportunity came in the form of a session with none other than OG Parliament vocalist Fuzzy Haskins, who had landed his own solo deal at Westbound. “Fuzzy, he gave me my first major session,” says Jay Dub, then known as Jim Wright. “He lived not too far from my mom’s house.” Indeed, for young Jim, Parliament-Funkadelic had been a family affair ever since grade school, when he first got to know Bernie Worrell, George Clinton and the rest of the P-Funk camp through his big sister, vocalist Debbie Wright.
Jay Dub remembers that first official session well. “Fuzzy was gonna play drums,” Dub explains, “cause normally he played drums on his stuff… I happened to be in the studio… I was like ‘Hey Fuzz. Wassup man? Can I give it a go?’ Me knowin’ him, he said ‘Okay Jim.’” Even so, young Wright knew full well that a chance wasn’t a guarantee, as friendship and nepotism didn’t get you very far when it came to laying down the funk. “You had to be quick, ‘cause money is being spent,” he explains. “You didn’t get too many chances.”
So Jay Dub went over to the drums and sat down, with Glenn Goins, Garry Shider, & Cordell “Boogie” Mosson holding their instruments and staring at him like: Why is Debbie’s little brother in here when we’re about to record? But little did they know, the Kid was ready. “They counted off, and I hit it in one take, man,” reports Jay. “Pocket. Timing. Solid. And from there I end up doing two more songs that night with ‘em. I would do a song, they would say ‘Take a break. Let us mix. We’ll call you for the next one.’” Seven hours later and $400 richer, young Mr. Wright had been fully matriculated into .
In the early 1980s, when percussionist extraordinaire JUAN ESCOVEDO was in his early 20s, he was working for his cousin as a landscaper at different homes around the Bay Area, CA. However, he also just so happened to be in heavy rotation on the then-very-popular MTV, appearing as part of his sister Sheila E’s band in the video for her smash hit “Glamorous Life” along with their siblings Zina and Peter Michael. The song got played so much that people started to recognize Juan while he was mowing lawns, though he felt too awkward to admit that it was him. It got to the point where he called his sis, talking bout: “Sheila, everybody’s noticing me now because of the video. You gotta hire me.”
As it turned out, the request wasn’t unwarranted. In fact, Sheila’s mentor and co-producer PRINCE had already been scratching his chin regarding her live show, trying to figure how he could get her to step out from behind the timbales and take the mic center stage. Having another percussionist who could recreate her patterns onstage would be ideal. So Juan got the gig! And like a true Escovedo, he not only knew how to navigate life as a hired gun, but also how to keep getting called back. “You never want to overplay to where they tell you ‘Shut up,’” he explains. “Or ‘Be quiet’ or ‘You’re playing too much.’ I’d rather somebody say ‘Can you give me more?’”
These days, Juan’s musical journey has reached its apotheosis with the release of his first solo album, The J, a crowning achievement that has been a long time coming. Co-written with Michael “Angel” Alverado, the album features Martin Kember of Color Me Badd, Andy Vargas of Santana, Juan’s longtime pal El DeBarge, and of course the “E” Family. In this engaging and heart-filled interview, Juan recounts his early love for the trumpet, explains why he used to be called and describes how they put together those amazing outfits he wore while touring with Prince. Juan also reveals his thoughts on recording with a click track, explains why he has a standing invitation to play with any time he comes to town, and discusses working with kids through , a program intended to bring music back to public schools.
In the late 80s, when wonder woman of funk and rock bass STARR CULLARS was in her senior year in college, Prince—who was then in the midst of working on the Lovesexy album—offered her a spot with his crew. This was after a grueling audition process, in which Starr muscled her way into Paisley Park, bum-rushed the legendary Alan Leeds with her demo, then finally got the chance to jam in B flat with Sheila E., Dr. Fink and the Purple One himself. Starr was young, hungry and had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, so you might not believe what she told Prince when he finally made the offer. “I got more respect by saying ‘No,’” she says. She had seen the writing on the wall, that she would wind up as some kind of concubine like Vanity or Apollonia. Thus, Starr said she’d catch him on the flipside.
Fast forward just a little bit later, and Starr had become “AllStarr”— a P-Funk Allstar that is. Indeed, Cullars had been swooped up by the George Clinton camp. Funny thing was, George was signed to the Paisley Park label at the time! So when Prince saw her with his hero Dr. Funkenstein, he tripped out. Suddenly, the grass had gotten a helluva lot greener. “George and Prince actually started a war over me,” she recalls. “Prince wanted myself, Michael Hampton, and Belita Woods to come over, and George was like ‘Hell no. She’s Funkadelic. She ain’t goin’ nowhere!’” Well, actually Starr went a lot of places—the Lollapalooza tour for starters—with the late Garry Shider as band director, guitarist Blackbyrd McKnight as conductor, and bassist Lige Curry as mentor.
“The funk is the stench that you smell after you work really hard.” So says MURGA BOOKER, drummer, percussionist, shaman & card-carrying funkateer. And he would know. After all, from 1980 to ‘85, Booker was deeply embedded in the P-Funk camp, working with George Clinton and everyone else around Disc Ltd. Studios in Detroit. He was snatched up by Rubber Band drummer Frankie “Cash” Waddy and Bootsy Collins himself after they had heard him play the Moroccan clay drums at his pad. They were also impressed by Booker’s work with Weather Report, bassist Michael Henderson, and Detroit soul group the Fantastic Four. By then, Muruga had figured out how to make himself indispensable to producers and bandleaders alike. “I saw everybody in Detroit at Motown playing congas and bongos and maybe some timbales.” He explains. “So I went to Israeli and Greek doumbek and Moroccan clay drums… By having those instruments, I was not in any direct competition.”
This explains the sounds of albums like theElectric Spanking of War Babies, which you might have noticed has a lot more varied and freaky percussion in the mix than Funkadelic records previous. Muruga’s funky hands are also busy on Clinton solo joints such as Computer Games (1982)and You Shouldn’t Nuf Bit Fish (1983), the P-Funk AllStars’ Urban Dance Floor Guerillas (1983), and the lesser known gem, a Bootsy project called GodMama(1981).
But that’s not all. Being around George during this period also put Murugua in direct proximity to Sly Stone, whom Booker was able to entice to play bass(!) on his project, , a quirky, New Wave-sounding version of the P signed and produced by . But Muruga’s contribution to Parliament-Funkadelic was not only musical but also medicinal. He served as the group’s , teaching , George, Sly, et al breathing techniques in between bites of Booker’s mother’s .
Sly & the Family Stone
mothership
Parliament’s Motor Booty Affair
Funkentelechy vs the Placebo Syndrome
One Nation Under Groove
Uncle Jam Wants You
.
Eddie Hazel’s
Game, Dames & Guitar Thangs
Sweat Band
Horny Horns
BRIDES OF FUNKENSTEIN
Funk or Walk
Never Buy Texas from a Cowboy
Dawn did eventually break away, however, recording and touring with artists such as Ice Cube, Roy Ayers, the GAP Band, and even the Platters. But her best work was not behind her. She decided to put the album out herself on her own independent label. She also expanded her reach by being an early adopter of online forums—where a million plus fans could follow her directly—and entered into indie licensing deals in places like Holland, Germany, France, Japan, China, Thailand, and Sierra Leone. “I ended up selling over a quarter of a million CDs out of my kitchen,” she says, “from a ‘dead’ market, supposedly.” If all that weren’t impressive enough for a woman in funk, her promotional activity overseas led to a headlining gig (!) at the mammoth North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands alongside Chaka Khan, Herbie Hancock, and the Yellowjackets. And by the way: Funky Friends is still selling today. “I proved to the naysayers, to corporate record companies in the states that here was a very viable market for the funk,” Dawn surmises proudly. “Actually, it’s even bigger today than it was then. That’s why I continue on.”
In this thoughtful, revealing, and illuminating interview, Dawn promotes the legacy of other fem funk legends, from Malia Franklin to Gail Muldrow, and how they were instrumental in pushing P-Funk to the top of the heap despite not getting the recognition they are still due. She also reveals how the Sly Stone Fam paid more and was better organized than the Clinton camp, and recalls how the late, great Glenn Goins taught her to sing funky lyrics with character. On top of all that, Dawn discusses why her friend James Baker’s New Birth was one of the most influential self-contained Black bands in funk history, exciting news about her plans to finally put out certain unreleased material, and the importance of her African-Indigenous-European lineage.
Produced & Hosted by Ace Alan
Executive Producer Scott Sheppard
w/ Content Produced by Dawn Silva
Website & Graphics by 3chards
Recorded & Filmed @Different Fur Studios, San Francisco
Engineered by Grace Coleman
Video shot by Cedric Letsch w/ Jarrett Rogers
Video & Sound Editing + Graphics by Nick “WAES” Carden for Off Hand Records, Oakland
Intro song “Inertia” by Ace Alan (feat. Stymie, Mojo Powell, Chris Powell, and Steve Krchniak) from the album A Wiggle In Time
Also featuring “I’d Rather Be With You,” “Break Me Off,” & “All My Funky Friends” by Dawn Silva from the album All My Funky Friends
Xtra special thanx to: ShaunnaHall, Henry Mayers, Chris Campbell, Larry Dominoe, Tracy ‘Alan,’ and New Rising Publishing
organically unifying elements of rock, jazz, blues and gospel
All of this is ours.’
We are honored to have Rickey Vincent grace us with his essence, and can’t wait to hang with him some more in the future. In this wide-ranging, thought-provoking interview, Rickey talks about how funk artists “arranged the rage,” the importance of visual artists such as Pedro Bell and Overton Lloyd, and why Jimi Hendrix was a fully formed, fully realized Black man who changed the sound of the Isley Brothers forever. Rick also discusses the rise and importance of Sly Stone, how funk artists of today are decentralized and resigned to a life of playing off the grid, and why we need a new Don Cornelius. If all that weren’t enough, we also have two performances by the FUNKANAUTS with emcees DUB ESQUIRE, MWNSTR and MEL YEL. Funky New Year to all!
Rustee’s return to Aced Out is a pivotal moment for us, as he was our very first guest for our pilot episode just a little over four years ago. In this inspirational interview, Rustee and Levi describe what made Sly and Prince amazing bandleaders, and what it was really like within those soul circles. As well, Rustee describes why his mother told him he was her most adventurous child, and what it was like onstage and off during Sly’s Lifetime Achievement Award performance at the 2006 Grammys, while Levi breaks down how Prince was like a “cool computer” and why every musician in Minneapolis hated the New Power Generation—at first, that is. If all that weren’t enough, the purple brothas also bring a band in the studio to perform Rustee’s single “You’re the One!”
Produced & Hosted by Ace Alan
Cohosted by Jay Stone
Executive Producer Scott Sheppard
Website and Graphics by 3chards
Engineered by Grace Coleman at Different Fur Studios, San Francisco CA
Video & Sound Editing + Interview Mix & Graphics by Nick “Waes” Carden for Off Hand Records, Oakland CA
And though the man prefers to let the music do the talking, he did rap with us a bit as well. In this down-to-earth and jam-filled episode, Stevie recalls watching Bootsy Collins lay bass tracks for “Getting to Know You” from the Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, explains why his younger brother Chris Bruce is his teacher, and describes being mentored by such heavyweights as Garry Shider, Lige Curry, and Billy “Bass” Nelson. Pannell also talks about his favorite gear, his friendship with Kevin Goins — (Quazar, brother to the late Glenn Goins) — and that time Bernie Worrell’s freaky keyboard lines scared his mom out of the studio during the recording of Tales of Kid Funkadelic.
Choc’let’s latest appearance on Aced Out—her third—is a superfunk extravaganza. In addition to another great interview, she performs not one, but TWO Bay Area funk classics live in the studio with Jay, Ace and other members of the Funkanauts fam. And in case you were wondering, the answer is yes—she brought her Rhythm Kingaka F-U-N-K Box.In this back-to-to school, in-person interview, Choc talks about why she thinks Sly was a better bandleader than Larry, the highs and lows of her reunion tour with GCS in the mid-90s, and why she dislikes the album version of “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” She also reveals how Willie and Hershalloriginally came up with “The Jam” at rehearsal, how she recruited her old friend Butch to join the group, and why the Bay Area brand of funk has never been duplicated.
Word spread to George C about what went down. “Fuzzy gave me that shot, and from there I guess George heard it,” recalls Jay Dub. “And next thing I knew, I was called down to the studio.” Significantly, Dr. Funkenstein wound up pulling Jay Dub into a marathon session with the nimble-fingered bassist Rodney “Skeet” Curtis, recording songs that were turned into funky headwreckers which wound up on such classic records as Parlet’s Pleasure Principleand Bernie Worrell’s All the Woo in the World. All of this established Jay Dub’s reputation as a pocket drummer, and some serious heads within the camp were starting to take notice.
Yet, by the time the 1980s came along, the wind was starting to blow in a different direction. The drum machine, once a novelty, was becoming more significant in the music industry by the day, predicting a cruel fate for live drummers. A still quite young Mr. Wright saw the writing on the studio wall and decided it was time to expand his skills. Enter Don Davis, owner of United Sound and mentor to local talent. “He was great to me,” Dub remembers of Don. “Anyone that had enough confidence, he would give you a shot… He would at least throw you in the studio to do some demos.” And when Jay Dub found out producers got paid double scale, he really got inspired.
So he improved his keyboard skills, grabbed the mic, and began to record his own ideas instead of someone else’s. “It’s a growth thing until the end, basically,” he says of his evolution toward becoming a singer/songwriter. “You’re always learning. You’re always trying to adjust if you choose to move forward.” As it turned out, part of moving forward was getting out of his deal with Davis in order to go independent. From there, Jim, now Jay Double, put out his own singles and LPs. He even started his own clothing line.
We first met and talked to Jay Double You! for Episode 5 of Aced Out back in the fall of 2019, when we were still a struggling little podcast trying find our footing. He gave us a fascinating and fun interview that focused heavily on his P-Funk days but also featured some of his super dope solo work. But the “fun with a K” didn’t stop there, not by a long shot. As it turned out, Dub not only enjoyed his moment in the spotlight, but also connected spiritually with Aced Out’s mission and raison d’etre: to give props where props are due.
“It’s hard for musicians to give each other credit,” laments Jay Dub. “I say, ‘Genius, recognize genius.’” And we here at Aced Out know firsthand that the man practices what he preaches.
Indeed, Dub recognized the opportunity to share the wealth and, with our blessing and gratitude, got on the phone to recruit some old friends for the cause. Consequently, the man has been an integral part of Aced Out’s ever-expanding body of work, garnering us classic interviews with Joe “Pep” Harris of Undisputed Truth and the late Robin Russell of New Birth, as well as his fellow P-Funk alumni Rick Gardner of the Horny Horns, Steve Boyd, Andre Foxxe, and Grady Thomas.
For this second appearance on Aced Out, Jay Dub traveled all the way from Suwanee, GA to join us in the Bay Area. In this intimate, in-person interview, Dub describes his transition from player to producer, explains how his subconscious guides his songwriting process, and reveals the secret to Tiki Fulwood’s high-hat technique. Jay Dub also raps about why Junie Morrison loved singing over his drum tracks, learning rudiments from Tyrone Lampkin, and that time he made George Clinton bacon and eggs for breakfast. If all that weren’t enough, Jay Stone & Ace Alan and a buncha Bay Area heavy hitters (listed below) help Jay Dub perform the title track to his funktasticsolo joint,I’ll See You Soon(2001)!
Produced & Hosted by Ace Alan Cohosted by Jay Stone Executive Producer: Scott Sheppard w/ Content Produced by Jay Double You! Website, Art & Graphics by 3chards w/ major props to Nat Collins
Live Version of “I’ll See You Soon” Featuring: Jay Double You! — clavinet, vocals Femi Andrades — vocals Vanessa Love — vocals Alan Williams — trombone Al Lazard — sax Ocea Savage — synth Kyle “Coyote” Collins — synth percussion Chris McGrew — drums Jay Stone — guitar Ace Alan — bass
Engineered by Chris McGrew for Wally’s Hyde Out @ Hyde Street Studios, San Francisco
Video by RoAn Gibson for X Racer Productions
With thanks to Maryzelle Ungo
Sound Editing, Video Editing & Graphics by Nick “WAES” Carden for Off Hand Records in Oakland
Theme song “I Can Never Be” by the FUNKANAUTS from the album Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
It is also important to remember that becoming an official funkateer is no small feat, as the often underestimated Parliament-Funkadelic songbook is a motha to master. “You’re in the group, so it’s your responsibility to learn this catalog,” she confirms. “You need to know all 50,000 of these songs.” She knew she was being taken to school, so she paid attention, made sure she did her homework, and turned it in right on time. “It is a responsibility that is put upon you to step up to the challenge,” she says. “It’s a university. Straight up.” Her official tenure ended in 2002, but she will always be a member in good standing of the “funk mob.” In fact, she recently attended George’s 80th birthday shindig.
Upon completing this master class, Starr fronted a power trio, opening shows for Bad Brains and her buddy Vernon Reid’s Living Colour. Thanks to her uncle’s AM radio, Cullars has been a hard rocker since her girlhood days in Philly, studying the low-end machinations of cats like Geddy Lee of Rush and Chris Squire of Yes, whom she calls an “underrated, unsung genius.” However, as she tells it, she wasn’t officially accepted into the rock genre until 2011, when she appeared as a cast member in the 2nd season of the VH1 reality show Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp. She auditioned by singing and playing “Tom Sawyer,” then was teamed up with Mark Hudson, Grammy-winning producer of Aerosmith and Ozzy Osbourne. She rocked the gig so hard, at one point Paul Stanley of Kiss had to jump on her mic and join her for a duet.
Starr’s latest solo joint, LIVING GALAXY proves her rock royalty status, with positive power anthems that stretch out like “Let Your Star Shine” and “I’ll Kick Your Motha Funkin Ass.” Her lyrics certainly reflect her superhero stage persona, with advice and affirmations distilled in a cold can of whoop-ass. And this femme fatale of the 5-string has a lot of wisdom to share. To young ladies considering a career in the music biz, she says: “Do not let anyone try to manipulate or convince you to do something that you know is adversely wrong to your being.”
And to musicians in general, she advises: “Stay true to your vison. Stay true to your path… And always remember: the Amazon warrior is there to protect and defend you and your vison of music. And I will kick somebody’s motherfunkin ass if they say different.”
Ms. Starr came up to the Bay from San Diego to grace us with her presence—and she brought her bass! In this entertaining and inspiring interview, Starr talks about what P-Funk drummers she’s worked with, how Rodney “Skeet” Curtis and Lige Curry encouraged her to start playing 5-string, and what it was like to play “Red Hot Mama” onstage with Buddy Miles. She also discussesbeing hated on by “jealous” Duff McKagan of Guns & Roses, working on an upcoming documentary about the women of P-Funk with Malia Franklin’s son Seth, and that time she met Jack Bruce of Cream and he gave her “permission” to play “Sunshine of Your Love.” As if all that weren’t enough, she also performs a couple songs LIVE!
Produced & Hosted by Ace Alan
Cohosted by Jay Stone
Camera by Chris Weldon
Website, Editing, & Art by 3chards
…but we couldn’t have done it without Scott Sheppard
Theme song “I Can Never Be” by The Funkanauts, from the album Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Get it where music is sold. RIP Brotha P.
But Muruga’s musical journey didn’t start with the P — not by a long shot. In fact, as a teenager in 1960, Steve (not yet Muruga) Booker already had a hit. The band was called the Low Rocks and the song was “Blueberry Jam,” a super-sped up reworking of “Blueberry Hill” by Fats Domino. “We were the young garage punks of the era” says Booker, who was recruited directly from the audience when the previous Low Rocks drummer abruptly quit at a house party. The gig wound up lasting only a year, but the band had some exciting opportunities, including backing up Little Stevie Wonder in a battle of the bands.
Soon after that, Steve Booker began to see the drums not just as an instrument but also as a theory of life. He basically moved into Detroit’s legendary blues and folk club the Chess Mate, where he would eventually become bandleader. There he would play hours-longdrum solos every night. But the young Serbian stickman still lacked some key ingredients. One night, after he had finished yet another one of his extended excursions, a Black gentleman approached. “I see what you’re trying to do,” he told Booker. But rather then launching into a lecture, the man handed him a cassette tape of Drums of Passion by Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji.
And just like that, Booker’s life changed. He spent the next two weeks in his mom’s living room, eight hours per day, dancing to Drums and seeing how the music made his body move. Things were starting to make sense. “If you do not love Africa or it’s people, then you cannot love the blues, or jazz, or rock and roll,” he says. The lessons came in handy when he played support for none other than John Lee Hooker, whom he grew to admire deeply. “I realized that Hooker was not just a blues man, but he was a spiritual ju ju man, a healer,” says Booker. “Also he was a storyteller… That comes from griot. The griot is the storyteller of the tribe.” The pairing of the two went so well they were featured as a double bill, “Hooker & Booker.”
Booker also had some of the best jams in his life at The Scene club in New York, where the top musicians of the day would go to let it all hang out musically when they weren’t in the studio or on tour. There the Band of Gypsys’ Buddy Miles served as a musical lightning rod of sorts. “When you go play the top clubs like The Scene,” Booker explains,“it’s top musicians going there, but jamming and intermingling and exchanging with each other… That’s the place where a George Clinton or a Sly Stone or a Mitch Mitchell or a Larry Coryell could go. But Buddy Miles… He was creating an atmosphere that drew all of those musicians like bees to honey.”
By the late 60’s into the 70s, Booker’s deep plunges into musical depths had evolved into an intense curiosity and appreciation for spiritual contemplation—even more so than many peers of the era. This phase of his journey truly began on Day 1 of the iconic Woodstock Festival, where he landed in a helicopter to perform with Tim Hardin. It was there that he found himself in the presence of Swami Satchidananda, with whom Booker would live in ashram for two years as a celibate monk. In fact, it wasSatchidananda who gave Muruga his name.
As a result of such intense studies, Muruga became very adept at tuning in rather than tuning out, and adapting his more avant garde, exploratory tendencies to a centered principle. “A musician has to listen,” he explains. “Then you respond.” But he contends that he reached his highest plateau as a drummer once he mastered the concept of ambience and space, which he defines as: “to play the space as well as the note, and to create ambience with the space within the notes.” This seemingly unlikely marriage of freedom and discipline ultimately leads to Muruga’s theory of employing “law and grace” when serving up the Funk. “1-2-3-4 is a law,” he teaches. “On the one is the law… But grace is ‘I’m being in the oneness’ while I am playing.” In other words, the law guides you until you are ready to transcend it, to exist in the groove. “You must know this,” he insists. “Otherwise you don’t even know funk.”
Today, Muruga lives in Ann Arbor and is as jovial and active as ever, an orthodox priest and patented inventor of the Nada drum with a catalog of music that is deep and wide. In this expansive, inspiring and often hilarious interview, Muruga talks about how he used to add wah-wah’s and phasers to his cymbals in order to “wake people up” by reenacting the then-ongoing Vietnam War onstage—causing half an audience in the South to give him a standing ovation, and the other half to walk out. Muruga also talks about why the rhythmic concept of “the push and drag” is the essence of life, mistakes drummers tend to make when playing the blues, and why he got scared the first time he heard the drum machine. As if that weren’t enough, Muruga also describes being made fun of by Don Rickles for 20 minutes straight, the magic of Sly Stone’s recording techniques, why Richie Havens is an “illuminary,” and that time he jammed one-on-one with JIMI HENDRIX on bass.
Produced & Hosted by Ace Alan Cohosted by Jay Stone w/ Content Produced by Aaron Booker & Andre Foxxe Website & Art by 3chards Engineered by Nick “Waes” Carden at the Blue Room in Oakland, CA But we couldn’t have done it without Mawnstr and especially Scott Sheppard
Intro track “I Can Never Be” from Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth by the Funkanauts. Go get it wherever music is sold. RIP Brotha P.
Rest in Power ROBIN RUSSELL of New Birth (Aug 27, 1952 — Sep 8, 2021)
