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| RAY DAVIS |
| Born: 3-29-1940 Died: 7-5-2005 ...respiratory complications. |
| Raymond Davis was born in Sumter, South Carolina, but was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey. While growing up in New Jersey he, along with thousands of others, was heavily influenced by the soulful doo-wop groups of the 1950's. At 16 he joined fellow high schoolers George Clinton, Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas to form the Parliaments. As the seeds of talent were in place, the group was far from an overnight success. Following the path of many budding artists of the 1950's and 1960's the group played mainly school dances and neighborhood parties. Ray's dominant bass vocals can be heard on the groups earliest singles dating as far back as 1956. For eleven years the guys recorded a handful of singles for a variety small independent labels. Their style evolved from doo-wop to a slicker R&B sound thanks to the influences of Motown and Stax during the 1960's. Those changes resulted in the group scoring their first chart success in 1967 with "(I Wanna) Testify" which went to #-3 on the R&B charts and #-20 on the pop lists. In that "summer of love" Sly & the Family Stone and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were breaking new ground musically and group leader Clinton was captivated by their psychedelic rock sounds. By 1970 the group had dropped the "S" from their moniker and moved into cutting-edge soul and rock territory. Clinton and his co-horts had so much energy and ideas that one group wasn't enough to channel their talents and thus Funkadelic was born. Each group had a distinct identity and alternated releases into the late 1970's on a variety of labels—Invictus, Westbound, Warner Bros.—with Clinton dividing his time between them. Parliament was essentially a horn-based soul group and Funkadelic a guitar-based rock group, but both were built on a foundation of funk. Parliament and Funkadelic were flip sides of the same coin, and these overlapping entities' respective outputs were referred to in stylistic shorthand as "P-Funk." In Parliament's self-referential theme song, "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)," Clinton and entourage referred to themselves as "dealers of funky music, P-Funk, uncut funk, The Bomb." Parliament and Funkadelic dominated and revolutionized the music scene in the latter half of the 1970's. In 1978 and 1979 they racked up four #1 R&B hits: "Flash Light," "One Nation Under A Groove," Aqua Boogie" and "(Not Just) Knee Deep." Several of those hits carried over to the pop charts and (thanks to 12" singles) even the disco playlists. Clinton's main collaborators during Parliament-Funkadelic's heyday included keyboardists Bernie Worrell and Walter "Junie" Morrison and bassist William "Bootsy" Collins. Known for his star-shaped sunglasses, glittery "space bass" and cartoonish demeanor, Collins became a funk icon and solo star in his own right. Melding soul, funk, jazz and psychedelia, a succession of P-Funk guitarists—including the late Eddie Hazel, Mike Hampton and DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight—have carried forward the legacy of Jimi Hendrix with their adventurous, exploratory soloing. When Clinton dissolved Parliament in 1980, Davis largely dropped from view, rarely participating in subsequent P-Funk reunion projects. Ray replaced the original bass singer of the Temptations', Melvin Franklin on their album "For Lovers Only" and in the group after Franklin's death in 1995. In 1998 Ray began touring with original Parliaments Haskins and Thomas as The Original P. Davis left the group after being diagnosed with throat cancer, but it was respiratory problems that eventually claimed his life. We honor him for his deep bass vocals and his timeless influences on a generation of performers. |
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