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George Clinton

Historical Figure

George Clinton

b. 1941

American musician (born 1941)

Interwar & WWII

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Biography

George Edward Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and bandleader. His Parliament-Funkadelic collective developed an influential and eclectic form of funk music during the 1970s that drew on Afrofuturism, outlandish fashion, psychedelia, and surreal humor. He launched his solo career with the 1982 album Computer Games and would go on to influence 1990s hip-hop and G-funk.

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Timeline

The story of George Clinton, told in moments.

1970 Event

Launched Funkadelic alongside Parliament. Two bands, same musicians, different labels. Parliament did slick funk. Funkadelic did psychedelic rock. Nobody else was doing either one that way.

1975 Event

Mothership Connection released. Parliament toured with a giant spaceship stage prop that actually landed during concerts. The Mothership weighed several tons.

1997 Event

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Parliament-Funkadelic. By then, hip-hop producers had sampled his records so many times he couldn't keep count.

2019 Legacy

Played his farewell "One Nation Under a Groove" tour at 77. He'd been performing for over 60 years. The Mothership came out one last time.

In Their Own Words (1)

Artifacts (15)

Letter from George Washington to New York Governor George Clinton

George Washington|Tench Tilghman

1780 · Ink, paper
The Met View

George Clinton

James Sharples, Jr., c. 1788 - 1839

c. 1806 · Pastel on paper
Smithsonian View

Governor George Clinton

John Ramage

ca. 1785 · Watercolor on ivory
The Met View

Mrs. George Clinton (Cornelia Tappen)

Thomas Bluget De Valdenuit|Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

ca. 1797 · Conté crayone, charcoal (?), and white-chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache
The Met View

Governor George Clinton

Thomas Bluget De Valdenuit|Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

ca. 1797 · Conté crayon, charcoal (?), and white-chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache
The Met View

George Clinton

Alexander Anderson

c. 1801 · Engraving on paper
Smithsonian View

Andrews' Diseases of the Skin: Clinical Dermatology

Previous ed.: Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier, 2006.

2011

Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir

Traces the funk music legend's rise from a 1950s barbershop quartet to an influential multigenre artist, discussing his pivotal artistic and business achievements with "Parliament-Funkadelic.".

2014

Brothas Be, Yo?' Like George: Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You?

Legendary leader of Parliament and Funkadelic, George Clinton is unique in pop music - and his story is like nothing you've ever heard before. Growing up in 50s New Jersey, Clinton was obsessed with...

2014

Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of The One

Funk: It's the only musical genre ever to have transformed the nation into a throbbing army of bell-bottomed, hoop-earringed, rainbow-Afro'd warriors on the dance floor. Its rhythms and lyrics turned...

2014

Shakspere's Julius Caesar

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains...

2018

turned the architecture world upside down

m was relatively unknown and had no experience with museums or other major structures. The New York Times declared that their design "turned the architecture world upside down". More literally, it...

Works Talk

inside are heavy with wood, fabrics, and typical Piano elegance.

adillo-like steel shells," which looked forbidding in photographs but in person were "lovely"; and noted that the theaters "inside are heavy with wood, fabrics, and typical Piano elegance." He...

Works Talk

was a joyous urban machine, a creature which might have come out of a Jules Vern...

dubbed the style of the building as "high-tech", but this was later disputed by Piano: "Beaubourg," he said, "was a joyous urban machine, a creature which might have come out of a Jules Verne novel, a...

Works Talk

Paradoxically, the Menil Collection, with its serenity, its calm, its discretion...

nique de Menil. Her primary requirements was to maximize the use of natural light in the interiors. Piano wrote, "Paradoxically, the Menil Collection, with its serenity, its calm, its discretion, is...

Works Talk

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