(soft electronic music) You made United Sound your home for about 20 years.

Studio A became the P-Funk Lab.

- Yep, mm-hmm.

- What made United Sound Studios so special that you stayed there so long?

- I don't know.

The sound, I mean, it's just the sound.

In the history of people that recorded prior to us, I mean, it went back to the '40s and stuff.

They did radio commercials.

So they were pretty much the sound of radio throughout the country.

You didn't know it, but that was the studio that did most of the commercials for everything between here and Chicago.

General Motors, Fords, everybody did their commercials there.

So it had a relationship to radio that people didn't even know.

Not only that, Motown recorded there prior to their own studio.

And when they couldn't get into their studio, United was their choice.

And it had the same kind of vibe as Motown had.

It had a little more bottom though, but it had the same vibe.

Especially when we came there and with Bootsy.

Bootsy had a bass that had... (Maurice laughing) Each string on the bass had its own output.

United, we had a special sound that no matter what we did, I mean, you can just walk in there not thinking something was anything.

And when you finish, like "Atomic Dog," that was the track being played backwards.

I just get on it and start talking.

- Yeah.

- And next thing I know, it had that magic on it that no other place could do.

- Piranha, I want to get your take.

What was your intro into United Sound?

- It was around '82, '83.

I was, you know, dinking around on the East Side, you know, learning to play with cats in the neighborhood.

You know, we were staying out of trouble because it was a lot of trouble that you get into on the East Side of Detroit.

Bootsy had this group called Godmoma.

It was a lady named-- - Oh yeah.

- Cynthia Girty.

- Cynthia-- - And Tony.

And she grabbed us.

It's like, I'm gonna take you to see a studio.

She was working for Don Davis at the time.

And we went over there and I think it was Greg Ward or Jim Vitti who said, "George isn't here yet."

So Don was like, "Yeah, just go down there and just check the studio out."

Vitti was showing us around and things like that.

I think you and Shawn came in.

After that, I was just like, wait a minute.

I just met this guy who owns a bank and runs a music business.

And Dr.

Funkenstein.

That's what I want to do.

You realize you can do whatever in a studio.

I mean, like, whatever you want to do.

You know what I mean?

How y'all used to do them claps.

- Oh, yeah.

(Maurice clapping) - Live claps.

- Live claps.

- Live claps.

- They thought it was a machine.

- And we would do it for 10 minutes.

I mean, you didn't, nowadays you can do two, four bars, two bars and loop it digitally.

No, back then you had to do it, "Flashlight," you had to do it for like seven minutes and your hands can't get tired.

- You got to maintain the energy.

- So only certain people could do it.

You can't miss one because it sounds... Had to be constant, and that's what, "Flashlight" was the beginning of it.

- Yeah.

- I want to jump into showing you an album.

You take it and tell me your United Sound memory.

- OK, yeah.

- [Cecilia] I noticed that also the hand clappers did get credit on these albums.

- Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we gave hand claps credit.

- Yeah.

- You know, so I was into R&B DJs at the time.

Mothership Connection.

I was trying to do an album with one storyline all the way through.

We did it on Motor Booty Affair.

Most of the songs relate to the same story.

We got thrown off track on this one because some of the tracks sound so good, we had to put them in there anyway.

Then, well, of course, "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker."

(Cecilia laughing) And what was good about that, we were able to get it on CKLW here.

If we take off, "Tear the Roof Off the Mother Sucker," CKLW said, "We'll put it on if you take the 'Tear the Roof Off the Mother Sucker'."

And once we did that, it was all over.

- Yeah.

- Biggest memory from this album?

- The Clones of Dr.

Funkenstein.

Wow, this is a good one.

I got on a plane in Dallas, Texas.

And when I got off, I had to get on a train.

It was the first day they used the train to go from one terminal to the next.

- [Cecilia] Yeah.

- [Maurice] Yeah.

- When I got on there, there was a book on the seat of the train.

And it said, The Clones.

Faces, two faces, one face in the same person.

I thought the book came with the train.

You know, it was the first day of the train.

It just made sense.

So I opened it up and it was talking about, Steve Swanson and this doctor was cloning salamanders, taking one and making hundreds of them, that you will be able to eventually one day be able to clone people and blah, blah, blah.

Then I realized this sounds like it's serious.

And so when I got to Portland, Oregon, I went to the library, because I'm trying to find different concepts that just sound interesting.

I go to the library and asked them, was there anything on cloning?

The lady told me, she said, due to the Freedom of Information [Act], we're not allowed to give books out, books on those.

It was taboo at the time.

So that, of course, as soon as you say taboo, you really got me going.

- Yeah.

- But, you know... - She said, "You can actually get a book called Chariots of the Gods."

- Wow.

- Or The Island of Doctor Moreau."

- I got Chariots of the Gods.

And the whole album is this.

- Wow.

So the concept was based upon stuff that you read that was science fiction.

- It was science fiction.

- Yeah.

- OK, this... Oh wow, that's deep.

See, now that's the way we dressed in school.

When I was in school, tailor-made suits.

- [Cecilia] OK, the tailor-made suits.

- [George] You know, all of that.

- [Maurice] Just slick.

- A friend of mine, he was trying to show how much he could be deep with us, and he was just getting with us.

So he just wrote on a note, entelechy.

- Aristotle.

- It had a nice ring to it, but what does it mean?

He said, entity reaching its maximum potential as opposed to something.

And I said, as opposed to placebo?

He said, "Sounds good."

(Cecilia laughing) So, that became Funkentelechy Vs.

the Placebo Syndrome.

"Flash Light" is the weird one because that was-- - Oh, man.

- Bernie playing bass on the synthesizer as opposed to Bootsy playing bass.

- That was the first time that happened.

- First time that happened.

- First time that ever happened like that.

- And... (George harmonizing) - Jewish melody, right?

- That was... - Bar Mitzvah.

- My friend's Bar Mitzvah.

I remember this Bar Mitzvah.

(harmonizing) He was like... - And it just came back to you during that moment.

- That's crazy.

- It's just, okay, that fit that.

And we lived right down the street, went to school together.

His mother... "George, Myron, come in for soup and sandwiches."

Your Bar Mitzvah.

(laughing) I didn't know what a Bar Mitzvah was, but that was his thing, I said, okay.

So when I finally said it in a magazine maybe a couple of years ago, it went viral.

- Last one.

- [George] Okay, this is a-- - Last one, yeah.

- This is a good one.

'Cause see, this is 1982 going into '83.

- [Maurice] Wow.

- [George] This was the first one that I did under my own name.

- [Maurice] Oh, man.

- So I did this record under George Clinton.

- The first time you used your name?

- The first time I used my name, period, on a record.

We put out "Loopzilla" first.

- [Maurice] Don't touch that radio.

- People loved it!

- Bad record.

- So immediately, "Atomic Dog" took off without even saying anything.

- Yes.

- That went crazy.

It was all over, to this day, it's still like that.

- It is.

- One of the first people to play that was The Electrifying Mojo.

And when we heard it, you know, it was like, yo, what was that?

That whole thing, I mean, it was such a jam because of the backwards drum thing in there.

(George and Maurice mimicking backwards drumming) - What was going on with that?

- Yeah.

- Tape was on backward, we were putting an effect on it.

And I'm into my own, I was getting high at the time.

I didn't know what I was doing.

I busted in there and started rapping, thinking they were trying to record without me.

- You weren't about to miss your spot.

- Wasn't about to miss my spot.

- And once I got in there, I didn't know what to talk about.

So this is a story of famous dogs.

For the dog that chases its tail, will be busy.

I'm trying to think of something to say.

- Yeah.

- "And why must I feel like that?"

And I did it just like that.

And they left it like that and sang harmony around it.

- Wow.

- But you know what I mean?

It was just like one of these things, man.

Y'all had such a magic.

- All recorded at United Sound Systems.