TIR 39: P-Funk Engineer’s Red Hot Ride Aboard the Mothership

The seminal Mothership Connection album was one of many P-Funk classics engineer Jim Callon worked on in the 1970s.

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Brought to you by FUNKNSTUFF.NET and hosted by Scott Goldfine — musicologist and author of “Everything Is on THE ONE: The First Guide of Funk” ― “TRUTH IN RHYTHM” is the interview show that gets DEEP into the pocket with contemporary music’s foremost masters of the groove.

Featured in this 2-part series: Musician, producer and engineer Jim Callon, who is also a founder of JDC Records, formerly a record distributor and presently a Southern California-based record store. For the purposes of this program, Callon’s big claim to fame is having served as P-Funk’s chief West Coast recording engineer for many of their best-known albums of the 1970s. That list includes the timeless funk classics Funkadelic albums Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, Let’s Take It to the Stage and Hardcore Jollies, Parliament’s Chocolate City, (my all-time fave) Mothership Connection, the Clones of Dr. Funkenstein and Live: P. Funk Earth Tour, Boosty’s Rubber Band’s Stretchin’ Out and Ahh … the Name Is Bootsy, Baby!, Eddie Hazel’s Games, Dames and Guitar Thangs, and Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns’ A Blow for Me, a Toot for You.

Jim Callon with daughter Amie at his JDC Records warehouse.

Callon worked particularly closely with not only George Clinton but also Bernie Worrell, Eddie Hazel and others. In this in-depth discussion, Callon covers how he got into music, his path to hooking up with the U.S. Funk Mob, what it was like being at the center of the peak of the P-Funk experience, other projects of his and what he is up these days. There are amazing stories here, for starters his first recording session ever yielded Funkadelic jewels “Standing on the Verge of Getting It On” and “Red Hot Mama.” Talk about hitting the ground running!

Recorded January 2018

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Scott Goldfine

As a fervid lifelong music & film enthusiast / student, I grew up in and around the Los Angeles entertainment industry. I have worked and held many positions in various media realms, since 1998 serving as Editor-in-Chief and now Associate Publisher for Security Sales & Integration, a trade publication serving the electronic security industry. I love several genres of music & film. The former includes funk (Parliament-Funkadelic, Prince, Ohio Players, etc.); blues (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Eric Gales, etc.); rock (Jack White, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, etc.); hard rock (AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc.); jazz (Herbie Hancock, Bob James, Crusaders, etc.); R&B (Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Gil Scott-Heron, etc.); and more. I was a club disc jockey and ran a mobile DJ company (Musical Moods) for more than 15 years, which is where the name Dr. GX originates (Doctor Good Times). Fave film genres include horror (Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.); science fiction (Aliens, Terminator, 2001, etc.); action (Warriors, Road Warrior, Die Hard); westerns (Outlaw Josey Wales, Showdown at OK Corral; Wild Bunch, etc.); suspense (Jaws, Inception, Silence of the Lambs, etc.); drama (Apocalypse Now, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, etc.); and comedies (Life of Brian, Superbad, Ruthless People, etc.). I have attended many hundreds of concerts and movies (in theaters or screenings). I may as well also throw in a few favorite TV shows to give an even broader taste of my sensibilities. A handful would be Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Lost, Justified, Fargo, Seinfeld, Sopranos, South Park, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Key & Peele, Monty Python, Inside Amy Schumer, Louie, Modern Family, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Last Man on Earth, Bob Newhart Show, All in the Family and The Office. Fave authors are Stephen King, Clive Barker and Michael Crichton. I am also a big sports fan and lifelong supporter of the Dallas Cowboys (NFL), Los Angeles Lakers (NBA) and Pittsburgh Pirates (MLB). Also enjoy my family of course, electronics/computers/AV gear, and animals, nature and outdoor activities. Graduate of Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica College and California State University Northridge (Radio-TV-Film, Psychology minor). Also studied at UCLA for kinesiology/psychology and earned post-grad Certificate in Accounting from Santa Monica College. Present main occupation is as Associate Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Security Sales & Integration (SSI), which I joined in 1998. I am responsible for overseeing all editorial content in print. online, electronic, in-person and any other media or products for the electronic security industry's leading business-to-business trade publication. SSI is part of Framingham, Mass.-based Emerald Expositions.