Billy Bass, bassist and co-founder of Parliament–Funkadelic, has died. He was 75 years old. The death occurred on Saturday. George Clinton announced the news without adding further details, but greeting him thus: «Rest in eternal peace and funk».
Born William Nelson Jr. on January 28, 1951, he was a teenager when he joined Clinton's vocal group, the Parliaments. Their best-known single is (I Wanna) Testify of 1967, number 20 on the pop chart and number three on the R&B chart. According to what Dave Thompson writes in the book Funksit was Nelson who suggested integrating a rhythm section into the group, so as not to have to depend on the house band during tours. Nelson, who initially played the guitar, also recommended hiring guitarist Eddie Hazel, the one with the famous solo in Maggot Brain. Nelson then switched to bass, encouraged by James Jamerson. Apparently, he learned to play it on tour.
He also helped build the band's bizarre, superfunk look and, so he said, came up with the name Funkadelic when the band broke away from the Revilot label which claimed ownership of the name Parliaments (from which the band later removed the final S). He sang on at least one piece of all the Parliaments' records, he can be found on bass on the first three historic Funkadelic albums, the homonymous one from 1970, Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow also from 1970 and Maggot Brain of 1971, is present in the works of Parliament as Osmium (1970) e Up for the Down Stroke (1974).
Nelson left the group due to disagreements with Clinton over economic management. He then played with the Temptations and returned to play with the old group. His name appears on various Parliament and Funkadelic albums until the late 1970s. After leaving the band again, he played with the Commodores, Fishbone, Jermaine Jackson, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson and many others.
When in 2016 he was asked on the radio for a selection of songs to broadcast, he chose three, all recorded with his friend Eddie Hazel, who died in 1992: Hit It and Quit It And Super Stupid by Funkadelic e Shakey Ground of the Temptations. When the interviewer said that this last song belonged to the Temptations' psychedelic soul era, Nelson corrected him with some pride: “Well, at Motown they called it the funkadelic era.”
From Rolling Stone US.
