GEORGE CLINTON & PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC Grand Master of psychedelic soul George Clinton did not invent funk, but he turned it into an art form. Though both Parliament and Funkadelic sprang from Clinton’s divinely inspired “Maggot Brain,” they once were separate entities. While Funkadelic expanded on the intricate acid rock of Hendrix and Zappa, Parliament’s polymorphously perverse dance party mined the deep funk of Sly Stone and James Brown. Such distinctions had blurred by the 1978 release of Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove, merging into Clinton’s whirlpool of fatback funk and addictive “Cosmic Slop.” Key players Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins have long since departed and, now in his 70s, Papa George has exchanged his candy-colored dreds for a snappy suit and porkpie hat, but onstage he’s still ringmaster of a Fellini-esque carnival of costumed characters and family members spanning generations. True, the bewildering array of performers leads to musical schizophrenia that includes metal guitar shredding and mediocre rapping, but Clinton’s eclecticism has been earned. Having influenced dance music, alt-rock, hip-hop and more, Clinton’s DNA is in practically everything we listen to. That makes us all children of the mothership.

Pat Moran

Price: $35-40