For all the myth surrounding Parliament, Funkadelic and George Clinton, the P-Funk mob rise to freaky fame and fortune in the mid-70s was less the result of cosmic slop than a long, hard road of bad deals and slim payoffs made only through relentless persistence. Clinton had been going at it with his doo-wop quartet The Parliaments since 1955, when he formed the vocal group to play school dances and rec center hops. He released his first single in 1958 (it bombed), and auditioned for Berry Gordy's Motown in 1962-- they didn't get signed. Clinton's one lucky break came when Gordy's wife hired him as a staff songwriter, and even then he was sacked when the Gordy pair split up. However, by the time of Clinton's unfortunate release, The Jackson 5 and Diana Ross recorded a couple of his songs, and he was able to produce some sessions for other artists in Detroit.
By the mid-60s, during the day, Clinton was working at a barbershop, and going to Detroit on the weekends to gig with The Parliaments (by that point, adding a rhythm section). In the summer of 1967, the band released the single "(I Wanna) Testify" on Revilot, and it was their first hit: #20 Pop, #3 R&B.; "Testify" allowed them to quit their day jobs, and the group were soon headlining The Apollo Theater, and touring with rock acts like The Amboy Dukes and Mitch Ryder. But during the late 60s, Clinton had a falling out with the Revilot big-wigs, and the result was him dropping out of his recording contract and losing the rights to The Parliaments' name. Thus, the Funkadelic moniker was born, and in 1968, Clinton even flirted with the idea of his own label. At the same time, most of the band was experimenting with LSD, and was fascinated by psychedelic music (in particular, Clinton has heaped major praise on Sgt. Pepper). From that point, marking their 1968 signing to Detroit's Westbound Records, they would never again be seen as a straightforward R&B; band-- and certainly not as the modest doo-wop outfit first begun by Clinton more than a decade earlier.
Fast-forward a few years to 1974: Funkadelic had established a modest fanbase in the R&B; community, and even a small cult of rock listeners. Their 1971 masterpiece Maggot Brain had brought to fruition everything promised by Jimi Hendrix in the 60s, and is still seen as one of the major releases of the decade. That said, Funkadelic was never a pop band, and when Clinton got the rights to The Parliaments' name back, he made a concerted effort to make that band (rechristened Parliament) a better fit for a wider audience. Up for the Down Stroke was the band's first LP after their rebirth (on the newly created Casablanca imprint, also home to Kiss, and later one of the most prominent disco labels), and was the dawn of a new sound for Clinton's band. Gone were guitar solo freakouts and reverb-drenched biological speculation. The new groove called for tighter arrangements and shorter tunes-- though hardly at the expense of the funk. In fact, Parliament's 70s records redefined funk music forever more, from mere party music to "Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication." Brothers and sisters, make way for the bomb.