I pulled this off of myspace.I figured it applies here considering the numerous times Pfunk has been loyal to Detroiters.
Ray Davis, founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic TRENTON, N.J. -- Ray Davis, a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic, a flamboyant 1970s funk band whose music is considered a precursor to rap and hip-hop, died Tuesday from respiratory complications at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. He was 65. Mr. Davis provided bass vocals on songs such as ''Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucka)," ''One Nation Under A Groove," and ''Flashlight." The latter two songs reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. Under leader George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic fused R&B, jazz, gospel, and rock styles combined with garish costumes and elaborate stage displays to form one of the most original bands of the 1970s. ''It started out as a doo-wop group," Clinton said in a 2003 interview at a Rhythm & Blues Foundation ceremony honoring the band. ''Once we decided to change from that, we went as far as we could . . . from diapers to any kind of costume that anyone might have on." Born March 29, 1940, in Sumter, S.C., Mr. Davis was a member of the original Parliaments, a vocal group formed in the 1950s by Clinton while a junior high school student in Plainfield, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum website. Other members of the group included Clarence ''Fuzzy" Haskins and Grady Thomas. The group scored a top-20 pop hit in 1967 with the single ''(I Wanna) Testify." In the early 1970s, Clinton changed the vocal group's name from plural to singular and also created Funkadelic, a funk band with a sound more influenced by the electric guitar. The two overlapping groups and other affiliated acts became known as ''P-Funk." Parliament-Funkadelic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Mr. Davis, who lived in Franklin Park, remained active musically in recent years, according to his son, Derrick, filling in on bass vocals with the Temptations after the death of Melvin Franklin in the mid-1990s and touring since 1998 with original P-Funk members Haskins and Thomas. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
