Parliament-Funkadelic — Capital Centre, Landover, 1979

Full live concert by George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic collective, filmed at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, on 1 February 1979, during the Motor Booty Affair tour. Nearly three hours of P-Funk at its commercial and theatrical peak: this is the era of the Mothership descending onstage, outlandish costumes and a funk big band that could field around twenty musicians and singers. The footage captures the energy of a total show at the crossroads of funk, psychedelic soul and science-fiction musical theater, one that redefined African-American live performance in the late 1970s and fed entire generations of hip-hop through sampling. The period capture, with its grain and technical limits, adds to the authenticity of this filmed live concert. For anyone wanting to grasp the P-Funk shockwave — from “One Nation Under a Groove” to “Flash Light” — and George Clinton’s influence on funk, rap and electro-funk, this Landover 1979 show is a first-rate archive document.