Funk legend George Clinton has regained possession of four master recordings that he recorded under the name Funkadelic after a long drawn out legal battle in the US courts. The legal dispute centred on the albums 'Hardcore Jollies', 'One Nation Under A Groove', 'Uncle Jam Wants You' and 'The Electric Spanking Of War Babies'.
The initial legal dispute, which began twelve years ago, didn't actually involve Clinton himself. Then Cuban-American Nene Montes brought a suit against Armen Boladian and Bridgeport Music, who were at that time licencing the recordings, claiming ownership. Montes lost the case in the LA courts, but then began new proceedings in New York where flaws were found in the documents Boladian claimed showed he was the rightful owner. Among other things Boladian admitted he had signed a number of documents himself as George Clinton. In that case, which was transferred back to LA, Boladian had to hand the recordings over and pay compensation to Montes, and another company called Association of Parliament- Funkadelic Members (APF), who Montes said co-owned the tapes. You keeping up with this, yes?
Anyway, then a new legal dispute began between Montes and APF over ownership of the tapes. In one action APF won sole ownership of the recordings - the most recent case saw Montes trying to win back the copyright.
George Clinton entered this lawsuit as a defendant and counter-claimant, telling the court he had never signed over the masters to anyone - Boladian, Bridgeport, Montes or APF. The judge in the case found flaws in a number of documents used by the various players to prove ownership over the years, and eventually handed the rights to the recordings back to Clinton, ruling that the singer had been defrauded of his work by various associates and colleagues over the years.
That result is something of a coup for George Clinton Enterprises given that they have not been involved in much of the arguments over these tapes. It remains to be seen what the decision means for the back catalogue release of the four albums. They were originally released by Warners, but more recently appeared via a partnership with EMI division Priority.