Connecting with the Mothership
From Crossed Channels with Tony Fletcher and Dan Epstein by A monthly podcast on which a Yank and a Brit clash and connect over music from both sides of "the pond".
April 9, 2026 · 14 min
About this episode
The episode discusses George Clinton's album Mothership Connection and its impact on his career and the music scene.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.com Welcome to the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Limey) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. This episode (our 27th!) focuses on an album from an artist we’ve wanted to discuss for ages: the legendary funk maestro George Clinton. The main reason we haven’t covered the good Dr. Funkenstein on the podcast before now is that the sheer breadth and brilliance of his six-decade discography made it difficult to decide how to approach it. Ultimately, we decided to hitch a ride on Mothership Connection , Parliament’s 1975 commercial breakthrough. The record not only gave Clinton his first million-selling LP — and his first million-selling single with “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)” — but also introduced the first characters and storylines of the interplanetary Afrofuturist sagas that would dominate P-Funk’s albums and live shows over the rest of the decade. In this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS, Dan and Tony discuss why Mothership Connection was the album that finally…
People in this episode
Hosts: Dan Epstein, Tony Fletcher
Topics covered
- George Clinton
- Mothership Connection
- P-Funk
- Afrofuturism
- music history
Keywords
- George Clinton
- Mothership Connection
- P-Funk
- funk music
- music journalism
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Parliament
Books & works: Mothership Connection, Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)
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