Bootsy Collins

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Image:Bootsyinlouisville1978.jpg

William "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a pioneering funk bassist, singer, and songwriter.

1 Early career
2 P-funk and Rubber Band
3 Latter times
4 External links

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Early career

With his brother, Catfish Collins, and Kash Waddy and Philippe Wynne, Collins formed a group called The Pacesetters in 1968. Until 1971, the Pacesetters were the backing band for James Brown, and were known in that context as The JB's.

A possibly apocryphal story states than Brown fired Collins after the latter suffered LSD hallucinations on-stage. What is known is that the young Bootsy clashed several times with the rigid fine system Brown used to discipline the young band whenever he felt they stepped out of line. Regardless of his reasons for leaving Brown's band, Collins then moved to Detroit, following the advice of singer and future Parliament member Mallia Franklin.

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P-funk and Rubber Band

Franklin introduced both Collins brothers to George Clinton, and 1972 saw both of the Collins brothers, along with Waddy and Wynne, join Funkadelic. Bootsy played on most of their early albums, garnering several songwriting credits as well. His bass playing was hard, driving and rhythmic, and has been very influential in the development of Funk, Heavy Metal and Soul music. Bootsy's characteristic watery sound, produced by envelope filters, is particularly one of the things that identifies him as a bass player.

Like Clinton, Bootsy took on several aliases, from "Casper the Funky Ghost" to "Bootzilla, the world's only rhinestone rockstar monster of a doll" as part of an ever-evolving character, an alien rock star who grew gradually more alien, bizarre and flashy as time went on (see P Funk mythology). He also adopted his trademark space bass around this time. Bootsy, Catfish, Waddy, Joel Johnson, Gary 'Mudbone' Cooper, Robert Johnson and The Horny Horns formed Bootsy's Rubber Band in 1976, the character of Bootsy evolved into a rhinestone-bedecked, flashy rock god.

Bootsy's Rubber Band is a part of the P Funk umbrella of bands. Most of Bootsy's albums in the post-Parliament and Funkadelic days were released under the name Bootsy's Rubber Band, though he also released an album in 1980 under the name Sweat Band. The first three albums of Rubber Band released in years 1976, 1977 and 1978 are often considered to be among the essential funk recordings.

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Latter times

In 1984, Bootsy collaborated with Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads to produce "Five Minutes", a dance record sampled and edited from Ronald Reagan's infamous "Five Minutes" speech. The record was credited to "Bonzo goes to Washington".

In 1990 Bootsy collaborated with Deee-Lite on their massive hit "Groove Is In The Heart" where he contributed bass and additional vocals. He also appeared in the music video, while Bootsy's Rubber Band became the defacto backing musicians for Deee-Lite during a world tour.

Bootsy has collaborated extensively with Bill Laswell and made bright appearances on two Fatboy Slim records. Bootsy provided "vocal spice" on the TobyMac album Welcome to Diverse City. He also appears on Nicole C. Mullens' latest album, "Everyday People". He has also worked with Praxis, and with Buckethead on several occations, for example on Buckethead's first album, "Bucketheadland". Bootsy was featured in the 2002 film Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

In 2005, Bootsy Collins added vocals to fellow bassist Victor Wooten's album Soul Circus. He also served as "Heineken's Amsterjam 2005" curator and master of ceremonies on Randall's Island, New York and appeared with Madonna, Iggy Pop, Little Richard, and The Roots' ?uestlove, in an American TV commercial for the Motorola ROKR phone.

Collins' signature instrument is a custom-built star-shaped bass guitar he calls the "Space Bass". Currently built for him by Washburn Guitars, they are also available to the public through the company. However, there will be a limited run of just 100 instruments. The cost of each instrument is $4,495.90.

Image:Bootsy 3.jpg In October, 2005, Collins co-wrote a song celebrating the resurgence of his hometown team, the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League called "Fear Da Tiger" which features "raps" written and performed by several Bengals players, including defensive end Duane Clemons, offensive tackle Stacy Andrews, and center Ben Wilkerson. An edited version of the song was made into a music video which features cameos by many other Bengals players. It has garnered tremendous local airplay and is viewable on Bengals.com Additionally, Cincinnati Bell is offering "Fear Da Tiger" as a free ringtone for its wireless customers in both polyphonic and MP3 formats.