George Clinton Plotting New ‘One Nation Under Sedation’ Album
After 38 years of studio silence, George Clinton's Parliament released the double album Medicaid Fraud Dogg back in May. Less than four years earlier, he re-activated the other half of his funk empire from a similar three-decade slumber with Funkadelic's triple-album First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate.
And while Clinton is retiring from the road at the close of Parliament-Funkadelic's current tour, which is set to conclude in May 2019, he says his studio hot streak is continuing. In fact, he's got yet another record entitled One Nation Under Sedation (a clear reference to Funkadelic's 1978 album One Nation Under a Groove) on the way.
"This has been coming a long time. Anyone who has been to the shows over the past couple of years has noticed that I’ve been out front less and less,” he said at the time.
Luckily, Clinton says making the Medicaid album rejuvenated his love of the studio. "That’s been the project that’s got me enthused about the whole business and making records again," he told the SF Chronicle. "I’ve got this album and another one coming. Being able to complete both of those projects got my adrenaline back up to keep going on with what’s going on out here and do it my way."
There's no word yet on the subject of the next record, or which incarnation of his bands will play on it. If his latest work is any indication, he's not shying away from politics. "After getting off drugs myself, I can see how clearly the industry and the government work. They’ve taken over all the patients that were on the street and made the whole public into willing participants of drugs," he said of his inspiration for the record.
"Part 2 is called One Nation Under Sedation, because I couldn’t fit it all on one album. That’s what they’ve gotten with all the different drug things in the politics. Insurance companies got a scam going on with victims and addictions and shit. They’ve got it hidden under the title of 'meds,' but it’s the same thing drug dealers (have). When they say 'controlled substance,' they really mean control. It’s a big racket. When you clean up and you’re 70-something years old, you think, 'Damn, everybody looks the way I was when I was doing it.' But they’re getting meds."