from the LP Mothership Connection, Casablanca Records, 1976
Outer space just got a little funkier. Today I woke up to the news of Gary Shider’s passing, the longtime guitarist for P-Funk and George Clinton’s right-hand man---the thing giving me chills right now is that he actually passed away on Wednesday even though it was just announced a few hours ago, which was the same day I posted a Parliament track on this blog… Now, I don’t have any firmly held beliefs on the afterlife (or even if there is one), and I can honestly say that I wasn’t feeling anything ghostly or paranormal guiding my hand that morning, but in retrospect the coincidence makes me smile. All of us who have spent our lives going to P-Funk shows know Shider well, the cat in the diaper who essentially acted as band leader until Clinton managed to get his ass out on stage (we’ve been to shows where it’s taken him an hour & a half, although he’s been much better lately), but Shider’s place in P-Funk history is so much more, having co-written many of the crew’s most memorable songs & also just the fact that he was there for the whole funky ride. Gary spent his entire life pursuing the groove, giving “…people what they want, when they want, & they want shit all the time…”, and now he has perhaps returned to the far-out galaxy from which he came. R.I.P. Starchild.
