Between the Covers

Unbound. Large mural on plywood. Approximately 72" x 36". Luminous or florescent paint, probably acrylic-based (similar to DayGlo paint) in many colors on large 1/2" Weyerhaeuser plywood. Signed in the lower right quadrant: "Chet Williams, 12-11-78." Corners a little rounded, some rubbing to a few sections, grain of the plywood shows through a bit, overall very good. A spectacularly colorful and accomplished representation of the band, staged in front of the giant Mothership, and with a cerise ray gun blast bisecting the painting horizontally. Parliament and The Funkadelics were two separate bands that played concurrently, both under the direction of George Clinton, and both with roughly the same complement of musicians. By the late 1970s, the term Parliament-Funkadelic became the catchall phrase for the creative and increasingly uncatagorizable music project. The wildly creative members of Parliament-Funkadelic, who played a mixture of funk, soul, psychedelic rock, and jazz improvisations, were an important influence on post-disco and post-punk music, as well as a seminal influence on hip hop music, and in some sense have become a genre unto themselves. In the years following their commercial decline, brought about by a number of reasons, hip hop DJs began to extensively sample P-Funk beats, which helped to reinvigorate the band, with the subsequent re-issue of their catalog and the reconstitution of the band. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. This spectacular vernacular mural pretty perfectly captures the P-Funk lineup at their most creative, as well as during their most commercially successful iteration, when they evolved the entire P-Funk mythos, complete with references to science-fiction, and featuring their prop "Mothership" that was central to their touring show. A unique artifactual evocation of the P-Funk phenomenon. We can find out nothing conclusive about the artist, but apparently this was found in southern Connecticut.

Item #394116