The Missing Mothership

I've been a fan since I was 10 years old, maybe younger. It seems like yesterday the first time I laid my eyes on the Maggot Brain album cover which was terrifying on one level but fascinating on another. Parliament Funkadelic is one of only a handful of bands that fundamentally changed the course of music.

From WaPo...

This is a story about a UFO.

Not just any UFO. The Mothership.

It might be the most awe-inspiring stage prop in the history of American music and it belonged to funk legends Parliament-Funkadelic. Since the Mothership vanished in 1982, rumors of its whereabouts have mutated into local lore.

This is a story about trying to find it...

...Parliament released "Mothership Connection" in 1975, an album with a title track about hitchhiking to cosmic transcendence: "Swing down, sweet chariot. Stop and let me ride." Clinton started dreaming up a tour to match. After watching the Who's 1969 rock opera "Tommy," he asked himself: "How do you do a funk opera? What about [black people] in space?"

He called upon David Bowie's tour producer, Jules Fisher, to help bring the Mothership to life. "This was theater. This was drama," says Fisher, a renowned Broadway lighting designer." The Mothership was assembled in Manhattan and made its first descent in New Orleans from the rafters of Municipal Auditorium on Oct. 27, 1976.

I was at a Parliament show at the Capital Center when the Mothership landed. It may have been the April '81 show but if so I blocked out George's infamous strut.

If you haven't seen a Mothership landing or just want to reminisce it begins around the 4 minute mark.