science

P-Funk Mothership

P-Funk Mothership is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand P-Funk Mothership rather than just read about it. In short: The P Funk Mothership, also known as The Mothership or The Holy Mothership, is a space vehicle model belonging to Dr. Funkenstein, an alter ego of funk musician George Clinton.

Key takeaways

P-Funk Mothership belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect P-Funk Mothership to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of P-Funk Mothership from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The P Funk Mothership, also known as The Mothership or The Holy Mothership, is a space vehicle model belonging to Dr. Funkenstein, an alter ego of funk musician George Clinton. An integral part of the P-Funk mythology, the Mothership existed conceptually as a fictional vehicle of funk deliverance and as a physical prop central to Parliament-Funkadelic concerts during the 1970s and 1990s.

Origins During their heyday in the mid to late 1970s, following the success of their platinum-selling album, 1975's Mothership Connection, George Clinton and his band Parliament Funkadelic - the Funk Mob - engaged in a series of high profile, no-expenses-spared stadium tours around the United States, culminating in the famous P Funk Earth Tour. At these gigs, and starting in October 1976, the much referenced Mothership was seen to land on stage amongst the band and before a baying and expectant crowd. It was designed by Jules Fisher. The Mothership was summoned down by the vocal tones of P Funk singer/guitarists Glenn Goins and later Garry Shider, and was represented in the form of a full-scale model complete with light and sound effects as well as pyrotechnics. At this point in the show George Clinton would emerge from the Mothership in the form of Dr. Funkenstein, the "cool ghoul with the bump transplant," in order to better "administer funk" to the audience.

Later years and retirement For many years, the landing of the Mothership was only alluded to at live concerts, due to the prohibitive cost of maintaining the elaborate stage-show. After the band had to deal with mounting debt, the Mothership was discarded and sold for cash in 1982 or 1983. Sources say the Washington, D.C. management company sold it to a scrap metal yard in Prince George's County in Maryland. In 1996, following the release of T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership), George Clinton launched the "Mothership Reconnection Tour" with Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, and the latest incarnation of P Funk, the "P Funk All Stars". The Mothership Reconnection Tour, which began in New York's Central Park, required a reconstruction of the Mothership, and the concerts included the landing of the Mothership, albeit on a smaller scale. Clinton claims the mid-1990s re-build of the 1,200 pound aluminum spacecraft is an indistinguishable replica. For a few years after the Mothership Reconnection Tour, the Mothership would land periodically at the P Funk All Stars concerts, particularly those at larger venues. One of the last appearances of the Mothership was at Woodstock 1999. The Mothership made a few other appearances during this time, such as Eugene Oregon, before being retired. The replica Mothership found a new home in 2011 when the Smithsonian Institution acquired it by moving it from Clinton's recording studio in Tallahassee, Florida, after the original could not be located. The concert prop started as a symbol of "what could be" and is now located in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Replicas In 2021, the Oakland Museum of California constructed a replica of the spacecraft as part of its exhibition, Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism. In its announcement of the exhibit, running from August 7, 2021 to February 27, 2022, the museum said, "Experience a replica of the Mothership itself— musician George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic’s Afrofuturistic vessel—to relax in an otherworldly video installation, a curated playlist by DJ Spooky, and more."

See also Parliament-Funkadelic P-Funk mythology

References

Further reading Fawcett, Kirstin (June 10, 2014). "Watch George Clinton's P-Funk Mothership Get Reassembled For Its Museum Debut". Smithsonian.com. Richards, Chris (April 12, 2010). "In Maryland, George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic and a Missing Mothership". The Washington Post. Richards, Chris (April 12, 2010). "George Clinton, Bernie Worrell, Garry Shider and Others on the Search for the Mothership". The Washington Post.

External links George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic (Band Website) George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic (Myspace) The Motherpage (Monumental P Funk Resource Site) The P Funk Mothership Crew Children Of Production (Myspace) Children Of Production (Band Website) Divadelic (Kendra Foster & Sativa Diva)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with P-Funk Mothership

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what P-Funk Mothership claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to P-Funk Mothership before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about P-Funk Mothership ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of P-Funk Mothership

In research: P-Funk Mothership appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses P-Funk Mothership in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: P-Funk Mothership is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fictional spacecraft, P-Funk, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for P-Funk Mothership outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study P-Funk Mothership in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what P-Funk Mothership means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain P-Funk Mothership out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is P-Funk Mothership in simple terms?

The P Funk Mothership, also known as The Mothership or The Holy Mothership, is a space vehicle model belonging to Dr. Funkenstein, an alter ego of funk musician George Clinton.

Why does P-Funk Mothership matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study P-Funk Mothership?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on P-Funk Mothership.