Kritiek op George Clinton

Op 26 juni jl. traden George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic op in Stern Grove Park, San Francisco tijdens het daar gehouden Stern Grove Festival. Enkele dagen voorafgaand aan dat concert werd Clinton door een journalist van de San Franscico Examiner geconfronteerd met kritiek van oud-bandleden dat geldzaken in het verleden niet correct door George zouden zijn afgehandeld. Kritiek die doorklinkt in de documentaire ‘Tear the Roof Off: The Untold Story of Parliament Funkadelic’ van acteur/regisseur Bobby J. Brown. De film werd op 19 juni vertoond op het San Francisco Black Film Festival. ‘It includes a history of P-Funk that painted Clinton in less than glowing colors’, schrijft de SF Examiner.

Clinton reageerde onverschillig: “I don’t know anything about it, though I heard talk about it. It ain’t the one with everyone talking like they’re mad, is it? It’s someone trying to stop this momentum we got going.”

Op 27 juni, drie dagen na de dood van Bernie Worrell, verscheen op de Facebookpagina ‘George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic’ deze reactie van George op Bernie’s overlijden:

Statement George Clinton“This is a huge loss. The world of music will never be the same. Bernie’s influence and contribution – not just to Funk but also rock and hip hop – will forever be felt. Bernie was a close and personal friend and this is a time of sadness for me personally. P-Funk stands with his family and fans alike in mourning this loss. The world is a little bit darker and a little less funky without Bernie in it. ? U Baby Elephant”

Baby Elephant was een groep (trio) waar Bernie Worrell deel van uitmaakte, maar waar George niets mee van doen had.

Volgens ingewijden zou Clinton zijn Facebookpagina niet zelf bijhouden maar dit overlaten aan zijn management. Rio KV reactie op GC statementDe meeste fans waarderen het statement van George over Bernie getuige hun commentaar, maar enkelen zijn teleurgesteld dat dr. Funkenstein pas na drie dagen reageert op de dood van Bernie en ook tijdens het concert in Stern Grove Park geen woord sprak over Bernie, zoals bijvoorbeeld Rio KV aangeeft. Rio schrijft: “Saw your show in SF today and was very disappointed that you did not pay respect to him (Bernie Worrell, FB) AT ALL during the show. Sure, when the audience was leaving AFTER THE SHOW the lady making the announcements about the exits and stuff mentioned him for literally a second but nothing from you or the other performers during the show. You should’ve at least done it for your long time fans. All this after he passed just 2 days ago. Bad, bad form.”

De reactie van Rio KV wordt snel van Clinton’s Facebookpagina verwijderd, evenals enkele andere kritische noten. Slecht voor de PR.

George Clinton at Stern Grove Festival

In “WOONIVERSAL TRUTHS” BY BERNIE & JUDIE WORRELL haalden Bernie en Judie Worrell vorige maand al venijnig uit naar Clinton in niet mis te verstane woorden. Op een speciale website geven zij een eigen lezing van de P-Funk geschiedenis – althans van de zakelijke kant ervan – en verklaren zij waarom een crowdfunding is gestart om de kosten van Bernie’s medische behandeling te kunnen betalen.

“When Bernie was diagnosed with the cancers and the fundraising efforts were started, some of you (justifiably) questioned “why should I donate money to him.  He made lots of money from all those P-Funk albums”. Well, he did not. George stole it all and we will show what he did, not only to Bernie but to all members of original Parliament-Funkadelic.

While on tour in Bermuda with Maxine Brown, Bernie received a phone call from George saying he wanted Bernie to join Parliament-Funkadelic. Bernie asked me to go meet with George and negotiate his “deal” – which I did. It was the first of many contracts/agreements that George would go on to break.

Within a month or two of Bernie’s joining, the group was stranded in Detroit where they’d driven from NJ to do a gig — when George told everyone he didn’t have money to get everyone back and, instead, they would gig in the Midwest and go in the studio.  To make this palatable to the group, everyone was a member of Thang, Inc. The deal was that in response to everyone getting little to no money, the understanding was that they were all invested in Thang and royalties, etc. would be forthcoming to all.

This pertained ONLY to original Parliament and Funkadelic members at that time: Parliament: Ray Davis, Calvin Simon, Clarence Haskins, Grady Thomas. Funkadelic were: Bernie Worrell, Billy “Bass” Nelson, Eddie Hazel, Tal Ross and Tiki Fulwood.

Approximately 19??, George told everyone that he’d arranged cars for everyone. This was his idea of a royalty payment as he told the group that he’d gotten a special deal for everyone. While there was some grumbling (“I can buy what I want with my OWN money” – nobody refused. I can’t speak to what was going on in everyone else’s heads but for Bernie, we would buy a car anyway so we accepted and got a Volvo – which was repossessed (along with everyone else’s) a few months later when George neglected to make the payments.

This is one example where payment of royalties under the Thang, Inc. agreement was carried out and the precedent for paying royalties (as agreed) was set.”

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