Story #9 "If You Don’t Like The Effects, Don’t Produce The Cause”-- Funkadelic

"You picket this and protest that, and eat yourself fat. Ain't you deep, in your semi-first class seat."

Funkadelic (and by extension, Parliament and George Clinton) do not get enough credit for their politics which is a shame because the best kind of message is the one that subverts. And I say this as someone in advertising. If you can persuade someone to buy something by appealing to a whole other level (emotional, for instance) then you have a better chance of that person being receptive to the message.

Or as George Clinton would say it: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow.

Clinton, like SUn Ra (which I'll save for a later story) grew up as African Americans at a time when oppression was the norm until the civil rights movement really gained steam. Despite the sentiments some people might feel today, I suspect the feeling of gaining ground was a powerful one in the late sixties and early seventies. Far from perfect obviously, but gaining basic rights other groups take for granted had to have been empowering. But before I get into politics or race (the story I wrote is not about either topic) I want to talk about George Clinton for a minute.

His memoir, "Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?" is fantastic not only because it is an amazing portrait of one of America's greatest artists of the twentieth century but also a testament to the man's brain cells for being able to set the record straight after living in a haze of psychedelics and crack cocaine. But even then it's only scratching the surface. Being an African American in Clinton's time meant you were marginalized. Reading his memoir one got the feeling that he was further marginalized within a marginalized group for being "out there." At the time, the best if not only place to "make it," was in Motown. But what do you do when Motown rejects you? Set out on your own, like Sun Ra.

While I'm on the subject of P-Funk, back in 2006, I had the absolute pleasure of flying to Bootsy Collins' house to record him for some radio spots for a telecom company. We did a dozen in all. Bootsy was one of the nicest human beings I had ever met. And this is a guy who played with George Clinton, James Brown and basically was the guy who took funk and turned it into silly putty that he could change at his will. Both he and Clinton seem to share a love of UFO's and Sci-Fi.

"If you don't like the effects, don't produce the cause," the story sort of taps into that in a Twilight Zone kind of way. I remember when the seed was planted. I was flying home from back east and had a long layover in Chicago. I was sitting in a lounge listening to the music which for some reason was better than it had a right to be. There were a lot of earworms being played that day. And that's when I got to thinking, what if a bar owner got an Mp3 player jukebox that started messing with people. It seemed right to set it in an airport because of the amount of varied traffic that could, shall we say, be influenced by the jukebox.

I didn't conscientiously start out to create a story that was one half of a telephone conversation. I just started writing and it felt right from the first sentence.

A-Sides and B-Sides is available on iBook as well as Amazon and also Kobo and Nook. You can preview a nice chunk of it, too. Hope you'll consider buying if you like what you see. Here's what the cover looks like.

As much as the message, the background singers really make this song I think because the call and response just points to the power of unification. Brilliant, and as everything P-Funk, the serious message is delivered with a wink.