Editing P-Funk mythology (section)

== Stage show==
{{main article|P-Funk Earth Tour}}

By the mid-1970s, Clinton had flooded the market with P-Funk and sought to capitalize by mounting a stage show he called "Mothership Connection", also known as the [[P-Funk Earth Tour]].<ref name="Brown"/> The stage show employed the techniques of glam rock productions like [[David Bowie|David Bowie's]] [[Diamond Dogs Tour]].<ref name="Needs">Needs, Kris. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=M1qlAwAAQBAJ&dq=George%20Clinton%20and%20the%20Cosmic%20Odyssey%20of%20the%20P-Funk%20Empire&pg=PT255 George Clinton & The Cosmic Odyssey of the P-Funk Empire]''. [[Omnibus Press]], 2014.</ref> P-Funk even used [[Kiss (band)|KISS']] rehearsal hangar in [[Newburgh, New York|Newburgh, NY]] to prepare for the tour. One of the recurring highlights of the show was the arrival of the [[P-Funk Mothership|Mothership]], a prop designed by [[Jules Fisher]].<ref name="thompson">{{cite book | last=Thompson | first=Dave | title=Funk | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RIEjkWXZdrMC&q=jules+fischer&pg=PA90 | publisher=[[Backbeat Books]] | year=2001 | isbn=0-87930-629-7}} p. 90.</ref> Casablanca Records underwrote the $200,000 budget for the show, which featured intergalactic outfits and space-age imagery. Clinton viewed the show as an antidote to the "placebo syndrome" of anodyne mass market music.<ref name="Brown">Brown, Matthew. "Funk music as genre: Black aesthetics, apocalyptic thinking and urban protest in post-1965 African-American pop", ''[[Cultural Studies (journal)|Cultural Studies]]'', Vol. 8, Iss. 3,1994. p. 491.</ref>

The film of P-Funk's Halloween 1976 concert at the Houston Summit provides an excellent snapshot of what the Earth Tour production was like. The incantation from "Prelude" from ''The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein'' plays in darkness as spotlights illuminate a pyramid with the [[Eye of Providence]] at its summit, echoing the [[Great Seal of the United States#Reverse|official seal of the United States]]:

::Funk upon a time, in the days of the Funkapus, the concept of specially-designed Afronauts capable of funkatizing galaxies was first laid on man-child.
::But was later repossessed, and placed among the secrets of the pyramids until a more positive attitude towards this most sacred phenomenon, Clone Funk, could be acquired...

::...It would wait, along with its co-inhabitants of kings and pharaohs, like sleeping beauties with a kiss that would release them to multiply in the image of the chosen one: Dr Funkenstein...<ref>Clinton, George, and Bernie Worrell. "[https://genius.com/Parliament-prelude-lyrics Prelude]", ''The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein''. Casablanca, 1976.</ref>

The show is loosely structured around preparing the pyramid for the resurrection of the Afronauts, with dim oblations paid by members of the troupe during the first half of the set. Occasionally, an animated film based on Overton Loyd's album art would be shown during the concerts. The film loosely follows the plot of ''Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome'' with Starchild and his Bop Gun facing off against Sir Nose and his Snooze Gun. During the film, band members would encourage the audience to shine their flashlights to help the Mothership return. Concertgoers could purchase customized flashlights as part of the tour's merchandising.<ref name="Bauer" />

A half hour later, the band plays "Children of Production" which expands on the clone imagery of "Prelude". The song is sung by the titular "children" who explain that Dr. Funkenstein "forenotioned the shortcomings of your condition" and cloned the children to "blow the cobwebs out your mind".<ref>Clinton, George, and Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell. "Children of Production", ''The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein''. Casablanca, 1976.</ref> The band launches into "Mothership Connection" which explicitly links back to the concepts of "Prelude" in its introduction, "Citizens of the Universe, Recording Angels, we have returned to claim the pyramids, partying on the Mothership."<ref name="Mothership">Clinton, George, and Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell. "[https://genius.com/Parliament-mothership-connection-lyrics Mothership Connection]", ''Mothership Connection''. Casablanca, 1975.</ref> The band vamps over the closing mantra of the song, "Swing down, sweet chariot. Stop, and let me ride" as guitarist [[Glenn Goins]] exhorts the audience to sing along. Other members of the band warn that the mothership will not come if the audience does not do its part. Goins starts to repeatedly wail, "I see the Mothership coming!" as the spaceship finally comes into view, shrouded in smoke and shooting off a fusillade of magnesium sparks.<ref>''[https://www.shoutfactory.com/music/soul-r-b/the-mothership-connection-live-1976 The Mothership Connection Live 1976]''. [[Shout! Factory]], October 2008. DVD.</ref>

After the Mothership lands, Clinton appears at the top of a staircase as if he has emerged from the spaceship. He is dressed as Dr. Funkenstein, and the band launches into his titular song where he sings, "...call me the big pill, Dr. Funkenstein, the disco fiend with the monster sound, the cool ghoul with the bump transplant". Dr. Funkenstein proclaims that he is "preoccupied and dedicated to the preservation of the motion of hips", to which the Children of Production reply, "We love to funk you, Funkenstein. Your funk is the best!"<ref>Clinton, George, and Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell. "[https://genius.com/Parliament-dr-funkenstein-lyrics Dr. Funkenstein]", ''The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein''. Casablanca, 1976.</ref>

The parody of "[[Swing Down Sweet Chariot]]" is in line with so much of P-Funk's work, which relies heavily on appropriation. That this particular song is reworked to herald the arrival of the Mothership, which offers salvation from an unfunky existence, also aligns with the provenance of the song. Like many spirituals, "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" read superficially about deliverance to Heaven on a chariot like [[Elijah]], but it also contained coded messages about escape to the North.<ref>Elam, Harry. "Making History", ''Theatre Survey''. Volume 45, Issue 2 November 2004, p. 220.</ref> By appropriating the song to score the arrival of the Mothership, it becomes a modern-day chariot sent to deliver the audience not back home to Africa, but to Outer Space. Clinton's stage show created a narrative link from the Egyptian pyramids, which often were used to symbolize black pride in a past achievements, to a Utopian vision of existence off-world.<ref>[[Paul Gilroy|Gilroy, Paul]]. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=sTWMAQAAQBAJ&dq=there%20ain't%20no%20black%20in%20the%20union%20jack&pg=PT225 There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack]. [[Routledge]], 2013.''</ref> P-Funk was telling a tale of once and future greatness to a marginalized audience in a time of intense social upheaval. Their music afforded the black community an alternative to their oppressive environment with tales of the potential for black wealth and power.<ref name="Wright">Wright, Amy Nathan. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=qV4YDAAAQBAJ&dq=The%20Funk%20Era%20and%20Beyond%3A%20New%20Perspectives%20on%20Black%20popular%20Culture&pg=PA43 A Philosophy of Funk]", The Funk Era and Beyond: New Perspectives on Black Popular Culture. Edited by Tony Bolden. Springer, 2016.</ref><ref>McLeod, Ken. "Space Oddities: Aliens, Futurism and Meaning in Popular Music", ''Popular Music'', Vol. 22, No. 3 (Oct., 2003), p. 344.</ref>