By acooolcat (61.58.181.126) on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 10:49 pm:

I read that this recording by The Parliaments was cut at the Magic City studio. Does anyone know for sure?
It was released on the Revilot and Atco labels in '69.
Graham

By Rich (162.33.234.234) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 09:37 am:

Graham ... typical for me, I don't have an answer just a question - where did you read this and where was the Magic City Studio located?

Roughly speaking, a DJ Demo was released on Revilot in August/September of 1968 - then came the alleged injunction. When the injunction was lifted, Taylor/Revilot leased the song to Atco in April of 1969.

I say alleged because, some folks close to Clinton (Fuzzy Haskins) have speculated that Motown forced no such injunction, implying that Clinton was upset with LeBaron Taylor over Revilot's inability to promote & distriute nationally songs that were regional hits. The Parliaments "Look At What I Almost Missed" (March '68) & Good Old Music (June '68) were both extremely popular in Detroit but failed to make a dent in the national charts.

Other folks close to Clinton (Billy Nelson) believe that the injunction was indeed related to a suit brought by Motown, related to either the '66 or '68 buyout of Golden World, to which the Parliaments were once signed.

Anybody got the details?

By acooolcat (61.58.181.126) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 10:23 am:

Rich - I read it in the Michigan Chronicle - the article was printed on the 19th of April, 1969.
Magic City was a recording studio (and record label) situated at 8912 Grand River, Detroit. It used to be Correc-tone. You may remember a Magic City 45 by Mad Dog & The Pups called "Hep Squeeze."
In this short article the company's owner (Ernest Burt) said that the following songs were recorded there;
A New Day Begins - The Parliament (Revilot + Atco)
We shall Overcome - The Magic Tones (MAH'S)
I Love You Madly - Fantastic 4 (Ric-Tic + Soul)
Talking About My Baby - Gloria Walker (Flaming Arrow)
I think that some of these tracks were cut there, but perhaps the vocals were recorded at United, or elsewhere. I'd love some feedback/comments.
Rich - I've seen a regular pink colored issue of this Revilot 45 by The Parliaments, so it was actually released - not just as a DJ demo. And I don't see why Motown would issue an injunction as Golden World was years ago by then and the group had already cut several 45s for Revilot. Poor promotion was due to LeBaron simply running out of cash - that's a fact. Some of those other latter Revilot releases are also hard to find. This Parliaments' song was the last release on Revilot label, and it was released c. March of '69. I don't know where you've got Aug/Sept '68 from - but that's incorrect.
Cheers, Graham

By LG Nilsson (213.89.29.129) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 12:34 pm:

� this is just to confirm that the record was released on Revilot. It entered the Billboard R&B chart May 24, 1969 on Atco 45-6675.



Lars

By Rich (162.33.235.15) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 12:58 pm:

Alright Graham, thanks again for the info & insight.... I could be thinking of Good Old Music which first came out of the Blue & Red, then on the pink.

Its widely believed (but somewhat undocumented) that Clinton lost the use of the name Parliaments from mid-68 thru the spring of '69, which is how he came to be as heavily involved in his backup musicians band (Funkadelic).

One theory is that it was Motown's contention that The Parliaments recording artist contract with Golden World had not expired when they purchased Golden World Studios & several recording contracts in Sept 1966 and that it should have been part of the deal. It didn't become an issue until "Testify" became a hit in August of 1967, and that it took a year to run through the court system before the injunction. All unsubstantiated.

Its my recollection that, Clinton has stated on numerous occassions that the lawsuits with Motown & the related injunction was tied to his having worked briefly for Raynoma and Jobete New York in 1964, and Gordy's desire to ruin the careers of anyone associated with Miss Ray.

Another theory is that The Parliaments had signed a recording contract with Motown New York in 1964, and it was Motown's legal contention, after "Testify" that they were still under contract with Motown.

The third theory was that GC & LeBaron had a falling out (much as Don Davis & Lebaron had a year earlier) and was doing what he felt was necessary to get The Parliaments out of their contract with Revilot. Which in the end is exactly what happened when they signed a four year deal with HDH in 1970.

I'm not stating either as fact and agree that it does seem more than a bit strange as I'm unsure how The use of a name under a recording contract would prohibit personal appearances under that name unless the name itself was registered as the property of either Golden World or Motown. However, part of the reason it doesn't make sense may relate to why the injunction (if there actually was one) was lifted by the court.

Peace

By Rich (162.33.235.15) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 01:02 pm:

Dagnabbit Lars - you are the BOMB

By LTLFTC (12.210.76.205) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 03:34 pm:

Lars;
My Atco copy of "New Day...." lists the time as 3:04 - do you know if the Revilot release is , in fact , shorter or is it just the old " fake like its shorter and you may get more airplay " thing?

SteveK

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 03:44 pm:

Rich, I think you can dismiss the theory that
Motown (via Golden World) owned the name "The
Parliaments". The group had already recorded under that name before getting involved with either Jobete publishing or Golden World- unless
there was some particularly sneaky small print
the name should've been owned by George & Co.

By LG Nilsson (213.89.29.129) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 05:02 pm:

SteveK,

I just played the Revilot single. The actual running time is 3.03 fading. So it must be the same recording. I don't know why they couldn't get the right time from the beginning! The most well known fake time is The Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" on Philles Records... 3.05 on label... 3.50 actual time!

Lars

By LTLFTC (12.210.76.205) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 05:37 pm:

Thanks Lars !!

stevek

By acooolcat (61.58.181.126) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 06:17 pm:

Rich
I have a copy of Down Beat magazine article dated May 1979, and the writer (W A Browner) quotes Clinton...
"...the label we was with, that had "I Wanna Testify" out, went out of business. And they had our name and we couldn't use it because the court wouldn't clear it. The problem was immediate. We had to survive. So the only thing we could do was to take the musicians that we had and put them up front and the singers became backup. We just said that the musicians are the Funkadelic AND the singers singing WITH THEM as opposed to THEM playing with singers. They were friends of ours from Jersey; they came with us. The only shift we had to make was one of ego. Could we stand our brothers to be up front? It was just who's singing lead and who's not. That was easy to say because it was basically my group.
So they couldn't stop us from doing that. In the meantime Parliament became free from that record thing. We had records out as Funkadelic by then. So we had two names because the Parliament was known. It made sense to me to get a seperate deal on a seperae label for them, not with any person's name on it, just the name Parliament."

I also have another Michigan Chronicle article from January 1969 and the writer (Marilyn Davis-Mills) says...

"Their latest record has been on the national chart for months - " Good Old Funky Music." ...
There is to be another recording released this month. This one will be the combination of The Parliaments and their band, the Funkadelics. It will be know as "Parlia-Funka-Delicmnt-Thing."

I'm not sure what this "new" release was, but it could be either thier first Invictus or Westbound 45. What do you think?

Funkadelic - Music For My Mother (Westbound 148)

A Parliament Thang - Little Ole Country Boy (Invictus 9077)

Graham

By Rich (162.33.235.41) on Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 09:25 am:

Has to be "Music for My Mother" as it was recorded right around the end of '68 and debuted on the WKNR Top-31 2/27/69, indicating that it was probably released earlier that month. "Pussycat" b/w "Little Ole Country Boy" was first released under a hybrid type name but (A Parla-Funkadelic-Ment Thang) but not until April of 1970, which more than anything lead me to believe that Clinton/HDH were still somewhat timid about using the Parliament(s) name, even at that time. The first HDH use of the name Parliament came in July 1970, with the release of the Osmium album.

By acooolcat (61.58.181.126) on Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 10:44 am:

Rich
The subtitle of the Music-For-My-Mother-Westbound 45 is "A Parliafunkadelicment Thang," so I'm sure you're right.
Graham

By LG Nilsson (213.89.29.129) on Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 06:33 pm:

I don�t know when this record was released, but it sounds like late 60�s. I have not seen any other record on this label. Also notice the �Funkedelic� instead of the later Funkadelic name� and Mike Terry is the producer� B-side is an instrumental version of same song. No writer credits on either side.



This could be the record from the �breakup time�. My guess is that it was released before the Westbound and the Invictus 45�s. Any better bid? I also believe the song was later re-recorded by Parliament as an album track on the Casablanca label in the 70�s.

Lars

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Friday, May 23, 2003 - 08:45 am:

Lars, the Funkadelic label was a one-shot.

I think it's from early '69 - probably as soon as
Revilot folded - George used the record in his court battles as evidence that he was the one who originated the name "Funkadelic"

I think you're right about it being re-recorded
on Casablanca but I can't remember which album
- probably "Up For The Down Stroke"

Davie

By acooolcat (61.58.181.126) on Friday, May 23, 2003 - 09:39 am:

Davie & Lars
Promo copies of that "Whatever ..." 45 only credit Rose Williams.

By LG Nilsson (212.247.9.242) on Friday, May 23, 2003 - 09:54 am:

Thanks Graham,

Interesting... but the sound is pure Parliament/Funkadelic. A typical George Clinton song from that time. Maybe they changed credits because of the court battle Davie mentioned?

Lars

By Rich (162.33.235.86) on Friday, May 23, 2003 - 02:49 pm:

My guess in the past has been that WMMBFG was a Mike Terry/Geo Clinton song, as its published by Mike's company. Another guess is that it was recorded in mid-1968 after the Funkadelics cut "Good Old Music" for The Parliaments. Yes I did word that correctly.

Ed Wingate financed the single for Funkadelic Records. After it went nowhere, Ed refused to invest any more $$ in the label. This was sort of GC's second go-round with Ed Wingate as Clinton produced a couple of tracks for Ed Wingate that came out on Ric-Tic in late '67 & early '68 (Hey Mama - The Flaming Embers & So-Called Friends - JJ Barnes).

Anyhow, The song was indeed re-cut for Parliament's UP FOR THE DOWN STROKE in '74 and creited as having been written by Eddie Hazel & GC. Clinton often changed the song titles slightly, and published the song a second time (with a different company of course) and credited different writers.

Billy Nelson came up with the name Funkadelic and initially it applied strictly to the trio of Billy, Tiki & Eddie. Three of the Parliaments (vocalists) sued Clinton claiming that they were Funkadelics and even used it as their name for an album they put out in 1980 (Connections & Disconnections).

Great scan Lars

By LG Nilsson (213.89.29.129) on Sunday, May 25, 2003 - 05:28 pm:

Thanks Rich,

George Clinton is a mystery in many ways. And many later releases were strange too! Anyone here knows why Steve Mancha, then lead singer in 100 Proof, ended up as singer on �Breakdown� and �Come In Out Of The Rain� by Parliament on Invictus?

Lars