Mothership Connection

CTL-E-5290 · Work · album · 1975

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

Mothership Connection is the fourth studio album by Parliament, released on Casablanca Records on December 15, 1975. A concept album produced by George Clinton, it established the band's P-Funk mythology — Clinton's Star Child persona descending in the Mothership — and its title track reworks the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” as “Swing down, sweet chariot.” It was the first P-Funk album to feature horn players Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, formerly of James Brown's J.B.'s. “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)” became the group's first million-selling single, reaching No. 5 on the R&B chart and No. 15 on the Hot 100, and the album became Parliament's first to be certified gold and later platinum. In 2011 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, citing its enormous influence on jazz, rock, and dance music.

Notes

Staged 2026-10-15 under CTL-GOV-006 (Next Slate D3). Gate A clear (no existing Mothership Connection Work or namesake). Gate B met (4 sources, 2 primary/authoritative). Statistics carried: 'Give Up the Funk' No. 5 R&B / No. 15 Hot 100 and first million-selling Parliament single (uDiscover/Wikipedia, cross-checked); gold then platinum certification; National Recording Registry 2011 (Library of Congress). Smithsonian accuracy note: the NMAAHC Mothership is a mid-1990s near-exact REPLICA of the 1976–81 concert prop (the original was scrapped in 1983) — any caption must say so. CTL treatment: CTL Short #32, published 2026-10-07 (Shorts link map, recorded URL); CTL Archive score 85/100 is CTL's judgment, recorded 2026-10-01 — it appears only in the packet's Curator's Judgment. Photo slot: CANDIDATE named in packet (Smithsonian Open Access, CC0); nothing downloaded.

Relationships

• Parliament — authored by
  Mothership Connection is Parliament's fourth studio album (Casablanca Records, December 15, 1975), billed to Parliament on the release.

Sources

• Library of Congress, National Recording Registry — Mothership Connection added 2011; “has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music” (primary source)
• Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture, “The Mothership” object record nmaahc_2011.83.1.1-.9 — stage-prop history and display (primary source)
• uDiscover Music (Universal Music Group), “'Mothership Connection': Parliament's Funk Masterpiece” — https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/parliament-mothership-connection-album/ — single peaks and million-seller status
• Wikipedia, “Mothership Connection” — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothership_Connection — cross-checked against LOC and uDiscover, October 2026

Record CTL-E-5290 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 4 sources (2 primary) · 1 mapped relationship · CTL research: PPL-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite this record

Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.