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Friday Funk #30 – ‘Pumpin’ It Up’ by P-Funk All Stars
Friday Funk #30 – ‘Pumpin’ It Up’ by P-Funk All Stars
Friday Funk #30 – ‘Pumpin’ It Up’ by P-Funk All Stars
Today we pay tribute to two of the most important figures in funk, George Clinton (who celebrated his 83rd birthday this week, 22 July) and Garry Shider (who would have turned 71 on 24 July). Let’s dig a less-discussed P-Funk gem to explore two musicians who did more for our collective funksmanship than just about anyone else.
If you’re blessed with the gift of movement and at least one working limb, can you not move to ‘Pumpin’ It Up’? Is it physically possible?
The track has one of the greatest basslines in the vast and funkful P-Funk discography, a handful of earworm works, life-affirming lyrics as well as the simple (and great) “I feel like pumpin’ it up / Feel like pumpin’ it up” chorus, and a wild guitar solo. All in one song.
By 1984, George Clinton had started his solo career after Parliament and Funkadelic had dissolved (partly due to lack of label support). He was making records both under his own name and P-Funk All Stars. Clinton wrote in his memoir, Brothas Be Yo, Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?, that P-Funk All Stars “was just Funkadelic by a different name.”
He was working primarily with Junie Morrison, and separately (but simultaneously) David Spradley and longtime collaborator Garry Shider – partly responsible for songs like ‘Can You Get To That’, ‘Getten’ To Know You’, ‘Cosmic Slop’, ‘One Nation Under a Groove’, and ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’.
Shider was commonly known as Diaper Man, for his fondness of wearing only a diaper on stage. (His son Garrett Shider, who now plays with P-Funk, pays homage by following suit.)
Clinton described Shider and Spradley as “a team” whose “work had more of a social component” than his work with Junie, who would often work in the studio at different times to Clinton.
‘Pumpin’ It Up’ was written by Clinton, Shider, Barbarella Bishop (who has credits on multiple albums of this period), and Ron Ford.
Clinton wrote that the song “sounds almost like electronic music until Eddie Hazel uncorks a solo.” Hazel was back in the P-fold after being in and out of the Parliafunkadelicment Thang numerous times by the mid-’80s. His solo here is full of Hendrix-inspired soulful cries and big string bends.
According to the CD credits, which seemed to have been more comprehensive than the LP’s, there’s both synth bass (in the vein of Parliament’s ‘Flash Light’) and bass, although it’s hard to hear any notes from more traditional bass.
Unusually, Hazel had bass credits (as well as guitar). David Spradley (AKA David Lee Chong), played the synth bass. Spradley had co-written Clinton’s ‘Atomic Dog’, out two years before.
What a bassline. It takes 42 seconds to come in after the intro, but from there, you could hear it all day. It’s not all that complicated. It’s just so good. It’s a two-bar line and ‘answers’ it’s own melody’s ‘question’ with a second pitch bend, and it drives the whole song. The bass hits the One in its first phrase, and gives bite to the many repetitions of “Pumpin’ it up”.
Shider sings the intro and first chorus, and then he and Clinton alternate. Clinton’s voice has a bite in some lines (“Me and her...”) and in others a smoothness that recalls his doo-woop days with The Parliaments (before they dropped the ‘s’). The “koo koo kachoo” and dreamy synth make the chorus feel like a song you could float away on, until that gnarly verse bassline comes back in.
Spradley also plays that floaty synth part, with some phrases echoing the “koo koo kachoo” melody. It’s hard to guess whether the vocal or the instrumentation came first. George and co worked both ways.
It’s one of the many P-Funk songs with lyrics you don’t immediately catch. What’s that in the first verse? “Me and her chose”? The narrator’s on the road with his girlfriend, maybe, and does she reach up to a Subaru? What?
Anyway, a tire’s flat, and inspires the “Pumpin’ it up” chorus. And no matter about the flat tire because...
“I got one more stomp in my feet / I got one more thump in my kick / I got one more hump in my back / I got one more clap in my hand”.
No matter how tough times might get, you’ve got one more stomp, one more thump, one more hump, one more clap.
A few years earlier, there would likely have been actual claps to go with the lyric – songs like ‘One Nation’ had best handclaps in the world. Here, though, the computerised snare takes care of the two and four. The snare sounds great – just the right amount of reverb, loud, irresistible.
The mix of computerisation and human eccentricities is what makes ’80s P-Funk such an intriguing experience. They combined those elements as well as anybody else. Surrounded by a sea of ’80s beats that ended up ageing disastrously, P-Funk made music that still sounds exciting.
The album had other highlights including the similarly restless ‘Generator Pop’, the clever ‘Acupuncture’ which compares romantic love with the relief of needles, the deliciously catchy ‘Catch a Keeper’, and the beautiful ‘One of Those Summers’.
Clinton expressed some regret it couldn’t come out as a Funkadelic album, writing that it “would have been a perfect comeback”.
Today we pay tribute to two of the most important figures in funk, George Clinton (who celebrated his 83rd birthday this week, 22 July) and Garry Shider (who would have turned 71 on 24 July). Let’s dig a less-discussed P-Funk gem to explore two musicians who did more for our collective funksmanship than just about anyone else.
If you’re blessed with the gift of movement and at least one working limb, can you not move to ‘Pumpin’ It Up’? Is it physically possible?
The track has one of the greatest basslines in the vast and funkful P-Funk discography, a handful of earworm works, life-affirming lyrics as well as the simple (and great) “I feel like pumpin’ it up / Feel like pumpin’ it up” chorus, and a wild guitar solo. All in one song.
By 1984, George Clinton had started his solo career after Parliament and Funkadelic had dissolved (partly due to lack of label support). He was making records both under his own name and P-Funk All Stars. Clinton wrote in his memoir, Brothas Be Yo, Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?, that P-Funk All Stars “was just Funkadelic by a different name.”
He was working primarily with Junie Morrison, and separately (but simultaneously) David Spradley and longtime collaborator Garry Shider – partly responsible for songs like ‘Can You Get To That’, ‘Getten’ To Know You’, ‘Cosmic Slop’, ‘One Nation Under a Groove’, and ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’.
Shider was commonly known as Diaper Man, for his fondness of wearing only a diaper on stage. (His son Garrett Shider, who now plays with P-Funk, pays homage by following suit.)
Clinton described Shider and Spradley as “a team” whose “work had more of a social component” than his work with Junie, who would often work in the studio at different times to Clinton.
‘Pumpin’ It Up’ was written by Clinton, Shider, Barbarella Bishop (who has credits on multiple albums of this period), and Ron Ford.
Clinton wrote that the song “sounds almost like electronic music until Eddie Hazel uncorks a solo.” Hazel was back in the P-fold after being in and out of the Parliafunkadelicment Thang numerous times by the mid-’80s. His solo here is full of Hendrix-inspired soulful cries and big string bends.
According to the CD credits, which seemed to have been more comprehensive than the LP’s, there’s both synth bass (in the vein of Parliament’s ‘Flash Light’) and bass, although it’s hard to hear any notes from more traditional bass.
Unusually, Hazel had bass credits (as well as guitar). David Spradley (AKA David Lee Chong), played the synth bass. Spradley had co-written Clinton’s ‘Atomic Dog’, out two years before.
What a bassline. It takes 42 seconds to come in after the intro, but from there, you could hear it all day. It’s not all that complicated. It’s just so good. It’s a two-bar line and ‘answers’ it’s own melody’s ‘question’ with a second pitch bend, and it drives the whole song. The bass hits the One in its first phrase, and gives bite to the many repetitions of “Pumpin’ it up”.
Shider sings the intro and first chorus, and then he and Clinton alternate. Clinton’s voice has a bite in some lines (“Me and her...”) and in others a smoothness that recalls his doo-woop days with The Parliaments (before they dropped the ‘s’). The “koo koo kachoo” and dreamy synth make the chorus feel like a song you could float away on, until that gnarly verse bassline comes back in.
Spradley also plays that floaty synth part, with some phrases echoing the “koo koo kachoo” melody. It’s hard to guess whether the vocal or the instrumentation came first. George and co worked both ways.
It’s one of the many P-Funk songs with lyrics you don’t immediately catch. What’s that in the first verse? “Me and her chose”? The narrator’s on the road with his girlfriend, maybe, and does she reach up to a Subaru? What?
Anyway, a tire’s flat, and inspires the “Pumpin’ it up” chorus. And no matter about the flat tire because...
“I got one more stomp in my feet / I got one more thump in my kick / I got one more hump in my back / I got one more clap in my hand”.
No matter how tough times might get, you’ve got one more stomp, one more thump, one more hump, one more clap.
A few years earlier, there would likely have been actual claps to go with the lyric – songs like ‘One Nation’ had best handclaps in the world. Here, though, the computerised snare takes care of the two and four. The snare sounds great – just the right amount of reverb, loud, irresistible.
The mix of computerisation and human eccentricities is what makes ’80s P-Funk such an intriguing experience. They combined those elements as well as anybody else. Surrounded by a sea of ’80s beats that ended up ageing disastrously, P-Funk made music that still sounds exciting.
The album had other highlights including the similarly restless ‘Generator Pop’, the clever ‘Acupuncture’ which compares romantic love with the relief of needles, the deliciously catchy ‘Catch a Keeper’, and the beautiful ‘One of Those Summers’.
Clinton expressed some regret it couldn’t come out as a Funkadelic album, writing that it “would have been a perfect comeback”.
Today we pay tribute to two of the most important figures in funk, George Clinton (who celebrated his 83rd birthday this week, 22 July) and Garry Shider (who would have turned 71 on 24 July). Let’s dig a less-discussed P-Funk gem to explore two musicians who did more for our collective funksmanship than just about anyone else.
If you’re blessed with the gift of movement and at least one working limb, can you not move to ‘Pumpin’ It Up’? Is it physically possible?
The track has one of the greatest basslines in the vast and funkful P-Funk discography, a handful of earworm works, life-affirming lyrics as well as the simple (and great) “I feel like pumpin’ it up / Feel like pumpin’ it up” chorus, and a wild guitar solo. All in one song.
By 1984, George Clinton had started his solo career after Parliament and Funkadelic had dissolved (partly due to lack of label support). He was making records both under his own name and P-Funk All Stars. Clinton wrote in his memoir, Brothas Be Yo, Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?, that P-Funk All Stars “was just Funkadelic by a different name.”
He was working primarily with Junie Morrison, and separately (but simultaneously) David Spradley and longtime collaborator Garry Shider – partly responsible for songs like ‘Can You Get To That’, ‘Getten’ To Know You’, ‘Cosmic Slop’, ‘One Nation Under a Groove’, and ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’.
Shider was commonly known as Diaper Man, for his fondness of wearing only a diaper on stage. (His son Garrett Shider, who now plays with P-Funk, pays homage by following suit.)
Clinton described Shider and Spradley as “a team” whose “work had more of a social component” than his work with Junie, who would often work in the studio at different times to Clinton.
‘Pumpin’ It Up’ was written by Clinton, Shider, Barbarella Bishop (who has credits on multiple albums of this period), and Ron Ford.
Clinton wrote that the song “sounds almost like electronic music until Eddie Hazel uncorks a solo.” Hazel was back in the P-fold after being in and out of the Parliafunkadelicment Thang numerous times by the mid-’80s. His solo here is full of Hendrix-inspired soulful cries and big string bends.
According to the CD credits, which seemed to have been more comprehensive than the LP’s, there’s both synth bass (in the vein of Parliament’s ‘Flash Light’) and bass, although it’s hard to hear any notes from more traditional bass.
Unusually, Hazel had bass credits (as well as guitar). David Spradley (AKA David Lee Chong), played the synth bass. Spradley had co-written Clinton’s ‘Atomic Dog’, out two years before.
What a bassline. It takes 42 seconds to come in after the intro, but from there, you could hear it all day. It’s not all that complicated. It’s just so good. It’s a two-bar line and ‘answers’ it’s own melody’s ‘question’ with a second pitch bend, and it drives the whole song. The bass hits the One in its first phrase, and gives bite to the many repetitions of “Pumpin’ it up”.
Shider sings the intro and first chorus, and then he and Clinton alternate. Clinton’s voice has a bite in some lines (“Me and her...”) and in others a smoothness that recalls his doo-woop days with The Parliaments (before they dropped the ‘s’). The “koo koo kachoo” and dreamy synth make the chorus feel like a song you could float away on, until that gnarly verse bassline comes back in.
Spradley also plays that floaty synth part, with some phrases echoing the “koo koo kachoo” melody. It’s hard to guess whether the vocal or the instrumentation came first. George and co worked both ways.
It’s one of the many P-Funk songs with lyrics you don’t immediately catch. What’s that in the first verse? “Me and her chose”? The narrator’s on the road with his girlfriend, maybe, and does she reach up to a Subaru? What?
Anyway, a tire’s flat, and inspires the “Pumpin’ it up” chorus. And no matter about the flat tire because...
“I got one more stomp in my feet / I got one more thump in my kick / I got one more hump in my back / I got one more clap in my hand”.
No matter how tough times might get, you’ve got one more stomp, one more thump, one more hump, one more clap.
A few years earlier, there would likely have been actual claps to go with the lyric – songs like ‘One Nation’ had best handclaps in the world. Here, though, the computerised snare takes care of the two and four. The snare sounds great – just the right amount of reverb, loud, irresistible.
The mix of computerisation and human eccentricities is what makes ’80s P-Funk such an intriguing experience. They combined those elements as well as anybody else. Surrounded by a sea of ’80s beats that ended up ageing disastrously, P-Funk made music that still sounds exciting.
The album had other highlights including the similarly restless ‘Generator Pop’, the clever ‘Acupuncture’ which compares romantic love with the relief of needles, the deliciously catchy ‘Catch a Keeper’, and the beautiful ‘One of Those Summers’.
Clinton expressed some regret it couldn’t come out as a Funkadelic album, writing that it “would have been a perfect comeback”.