July 7, 2005

Ray Davis, a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic, died Tuesday from respiratory complications at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., according to his son, Derrick. He was 65.

Davis provided bass vocals on songs such as “Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucka),” “One Nation Under a Groove” and “Flashlight.” The latter two songs reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B charts.

Under leader George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic fused R&B, jazz, gospel and rock styles combined with garish costumes and elaborate stage displays to form one of the most original bands of the 1970s.

Davis was a member of the original Parliaments, a vocal group formed in the 1950s by Clinton while he was a junior high school student. In the early 1970s, Clinton changed the group’s name from plural to singular and also created Funkadelic, a funk band with a sound more influenced by the electric guitar. The two overlapping groups and other affiliated acts became known as “P-Funk.”

Source billboard.com.

Five releases by English singer/songwriter Billy Bragg will be expanded in deluxe two-disc editions later this year by indie Yep Roc Records. Due Sept. 20, the new versions of three EPs and two albums will comprise four two-disc sets, with bonus material making up the second disc of each. One set features a DVD.

In addition to being made available individually, the discs will also be packaged in a box with a separate DVD of unreleased live performance footage and a booklet featuring lyrics and photographs.

To read more visit billboard.com.