With a recording history dating back to the poodle-skirt era, The Original P Funk has earned their masterful status.
Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins and Grady “Shady” Thomas — the two founding members still on board — have gone through many musical transformations and have recorded under numerous names.
And half a century later, they continue to bring the funk.
Today they’ve got nothing left to prove, except that they can still tour, perform and record with determination — and an almost unbelievable energy.
But back in the day, things were different. “People would come to our shows and say, ‘What’s wrong with these fools?’” recalled Thomas in an interview with Bret Lueder (http://www.synthesis.net). “We stepped into an era where people looked at us and thought we were crazy, especially for a black group coming from the doowop era to all of a sudden start wearing Afros, all sorts of strange clothes and stuff and looking all wild and different.
“But,” Thomas continued, “before they left, our psychedelic, funkadelic sound would have them hypnotized.”
And hypnotized they remained. Throughout the years, The Original P Funk has produced more than a dozen hit songs, including “(I Wanna) Testify” (their first single to hit the charts), “One Nation Under a Groove” (recorded under the name Funkadelic with former bandleader George Clinton) and “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucka).”
Recently adding more members for a current army of 15, the band has once again reinvented itself. Their latest recordings move to a hip-hop beat, although the funkadelic groove that made their name is never buried too deep in the mix.
And anyway, focusing on their records is almost beside the point. According to a press statement given by Haskins, the group aims to “bring the fun back to funk” — a feat that’s best accomplished live.
“Funk,” intoned Thomas in his interview with Lueder, “is the natural feel of a group of people truly vibing with each other.”
The Original P Funk play the Rock n’ Kiss Stage at Coxe Ave. 8-11 p.m. on Saturday.
