Ear Fuzz

Bootsy’s Rubber Band – Party on Plastic (Creative Nuisance Remix)

INCorporated Band Thang – Still Tight (Remix)

Funkadelic – Too Tight for Light

I hope you caught the first post I did on a discrete musical genre I dub “Rare P-Funk Boogie Funk”. Here’s the long explanation of the genre – please read it, and you’ll get the idea – basically boogie funk, made by members of P-Funk, from about 1980 – 89. And we are picking ‘rare-ish’ records here that didn’t necessarily make the mainstream of the funk releases during this time.

One of the best places to look for these rarities are the 12 inches put out by all the P-Funk side projects. Dance mixes galore!

Here I’ve got for you a special mix of Bootsy Collins’ 1988 song “Party on Plastic”. It appeared on the 12″, and I had this on a CD single back in the day, when CD singles were the way to get your music out there. Likely this is one of the first CD’s that went on my uber expensive CD player.

The “Creative Nusiance” Remix of “Party on Plastic” takes a totally different path than the original (see below for the original video). I’m not sure who did the remix here, but maybe Malcolm McLaren had something to do with it. At the time, Bootsy had just finished a funk-techno album with McLaren called “Waltz Darling”, and it features the “Bootzilla Orchestra“.

So the “Nuisance” remix pops off with a synth bass, and a nice funk chank, plus some samples of McLaren from the “Darling” record. You also get a verse from the female rap duo Pretty Fatt. From there, 90 seconds into the remix, it goes into this crazy timbale workout with opera singers singing over the top of it – I mean super spazz out! Later in the remix we go from Bootsy’s space + fuzz bass workouts that appear in the original “Party on Plastic”, on to angular guitar + synth work which sounds like it could be right out of current remix from Aeroplane (listen close about 3:30 in the remix). Then in at about 4:00 into the remix, I noticed xylophone plinkles over this space bass! I don’t know who did this remix, discogs.com is no use, but this is nuts I say!! nuts!!! The executive producer of the 12″ is Dollar Bill Waller, who is known more to be a manager than a producer. I guess I can holler at Bootsy about this “rare P-Funk Boogie funk” mystery! I will let you know what I find out.

I’m also offering up here a 12″ remix from the INCorporated Band Thang, a cut called “Still Tight”, from their album “Lifestyles of the Roach and Famous” – here’s a little info about the group + the record. I mean this is a P-Funk record not labeled as a P-Funk record – no other way to split it, it’s George Clinton + Bootsy Collins, plus the rest of the mob. Tracy TreLewd Lewis, George Clinton’s son, is taking the lead vocals here on the song, and you can hear P-Funk lead vocalist Garry Shider, Andre Foxxe getting it in here too.

What can I say about this “Still Tight” 12″ remix?? It’s much more stripped down than the original, and you can really get to the vocals because of that. I notice on this 12″ for “Still Tight” there is also a remix dubbed “Unecessary Hype Remix” – I never heard that one, and I wonder how it differs from the remix I offered up here. This regular remix of “Still Tight” focuses on those vocals, the snappy DX7 like keys, and a persistent snare shuffle with the congas.

Really this song “Still Tight” seems to me to be a re-work of an unreleased Funkadelic song called “Too Tight for Light” (at top of post). That song was led by George and Junie Morrison and was recorded I think around ‘79 or ‘80 and is some “rare P-Funk boogie funk” in its own right.

Ok, I’ll be back with as many more “rare P-Funk boogie funk” tracks as I think are worth sharing here on Earfuzz.com. Don’t forget to hit the Facebook fan page for Earfuzz to get the latest updates or of course your RSS reader.

Oh yeah, and here is the music video for Bootsy Collins’ “Party on Plastic”! I first watched it with my dad on a Vermont ski trip on TBS’s ‘Night Tracks’ music videos program. I was blown away by the video and my first brush with Bootsy, so I ran out and got the CD single! I think my dad was blown away too! Little did I know at the time, Bootsy Collins is connected to George Clinton, and that George Clinton is connected to Parliament / Funkadelic. These were all disparate acts I checked out as kid, just because they all seemed cool. Had no idea it was a P-Funk “mob” thing.