GEORGE CLINTON '89

This was actually one of the "promoted videos" right there on the front page at youtube.com... literally the first time I've ever watched one of those, and it was a good choice. George isn't always COHERENT (it's because of drugs) but he is hilarious, and pretty damn wise. He not only defines the funk for once and for all (in many different ways), he also gives the most succinct history possible of the rather confusing relationship between Parliament and Funkadelic: "We started out with Parliaments in '56, had a few jive records didn't do nothin', then we had "I Wanna Testify," which was a big record in '66, '67. Got in trouble as most small labels do, we couldn't use the name no more, so we took our little brothers, who was our backup band, we named them Funkadelics... we became their backup singers! And we just stayed together, playin'..."

Embedding is disabled by request, but do check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBNvL6nsEtk

30 MINUTES LATER:
Help, George Clinton threw me into a YouTube Vortex! I've just watched several Whitney Houston clips, including over 35 minutes of her 2003 interview with Diane Sawyer for an hour-long special edition of ABC's Primetime! This is some of the most stunning television I've ever seen! Don't laugh, it's actually highly appropriate for George to have sent me to Whitney, because a) they're both from the Newark, New Jersey metropolitan area and b) Whitney is actually FONKY AS HELL. I had no idea, her image was so tightly controlled during her early superstar years, but check her out when Diane Sawyer reads from a newspaper that the Houstons had spent 730,000 dollars on drugs in one year. "730?? I wish! No, I wish whoever was makin' that money offa me could share it with me [laughter]! No. No way. I wanna see the receipts! From-the-drug-dealer-that-I-bought-730,000-dollars-worth-of-drugs-from, I-wanna-see-the-receipts!" But still, somehow, Whitney seems like a pretty noble lady, a lot more noble than her husband, holy shit: "But I tested... I tested for... I tested for a substance like cocaine. Which can be anything. It can be an aspirin. It can be a valium. Anything. But it was not cocaine in my system. And this is what I know."

I highly recommend setting aside an hour, starting with Part One (embedded below) and watching the whole thing, but if you're in a hurry, and I'm sure you are, don't miss Part 3. It's got all the drug stuff and all the Bobby Brown stuff, including a rather sinister beginning: "At this point someone has slipped into the room, sitting on the sofa, listening. It's Bobby Brown, hearing me ask if he's jealous of her . . ."