Billy Bass Nelson

Infobox musical artist
Name = Billy Bass Nelson


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Background = vocalist; instrumentalist
Birth_name = William Nelson
Alias = Billy Bass
Born = birth date|1951|1|28|mf=y Plainfield, New Jersey,
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Instrument = Bass guitar; rhythm guitar
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Genre = Funk, soul, psychedelic rock, psychedelic soul
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Years_active = 1968 to the present
Label = Warner Bros., Polystar Records, Casablanca Records, Westbound Records, CBS Records, Rykodisc Records
Associated_acts = Funkadelic, Parliament,
The Temptations, George Clinton, Axiom Funk
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William "Billy Bass" Nelson (born 1951) is a U.S. musician, who was the original bassist for Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

Billy was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and as a teenager worked at George Clinton's barbershop, sweeping the floor and singing and dancing for the customers. Clinton was a member of the doo wop vocal group The Parliaments, who scored a nationwide hit in 1967 with the song "(I Wanna) Testify". Clinton put together a backing band as musical support for a tour and recruited Nelson, originally as guitarist. Nelson later switched to bass when his good friend Eddie Hazel joined as lead guitarist. The backing band was originally unnamed, but Nelson later coined the name "Funkadelic" to reflect the style (funk) and connect it with the then burgeoning psychedelic music scene.

By 1970, Funkadelic was a full band consisting of Nelson, Hazel, drummer Tiki Fulwood, guitarist Tawl Ross, and keyboardist Mickey Atkins (later replaced by Bernie Worrell). Since 1967 the band had been billed as the musical backing for The Parliaments. Due to legal problems, in the early 1970s Clinton had temporarily lost the rights to the name "The Parliaments" and instead signed the entire ensemble to Westbound Records under the name Funkadelic. Nelson was a prominent contributor to the first three Funkadelic albums, "Funkadelic" (1970), "Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow" (1970), and "Maggot Brain" (1971).

Nelson left the group in late 1971 after a financial dispute with George Clinton (making Nelson the first Parliament-Funkadelic member to defect over such concerns, foreshadowing a major problem that would haunt Clinton in the late 1970s). Nelson and Hazel next performed with The Temptations. Nelson rejoined Funkadelic briefly in the studio in 1975, playing on the track "Better By the Pound" on the Funkadelic album "Let's Take It To The Stage". Nelson later played with The Commodores, Chairmen of the Board, Fishbone, Jermaine Jackson, Parlet, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, and Lenny Williams.

By the early 1990s, Nelson had enjoyed a surge of name-checking by such legendary bassists as John Norwood Fisher (of Fishbone) and Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), while his early Funkadelic work was being sampled often by hip hop artists. Joining with some other P-Funk alumni, in 1994 Nelson released the album "Out of the Dark" under the name O.G. Funk.

In 1996, Billy Bass Nelson contributed to the CD of cHUCk dA fONk fISHMAN writing and recording the debut from Fishman dubbed The Squishy Declaration. He still contributes with Fishman today, and will appear on the upcoming CD from Fishman's new band fONKSQUISh

References

Liner notes to "Live: Meadowbrook, Rochester, Michigan – 12th September 1971" by Rob Bowman, 1996.

Liner notes to "Music For Your Mother" by Rob Bowman, 1992.