Actor Donald Glover has been busy the last several years, notably by playing Lando Calrissian in a Star Wars prequel and starring in an Amazon Prime series, a remake of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” that Glover created himself. His hip-hop alter ego, Childish Gambino, had rarely surfaced after the unfortunately timed album dubbed “3.15.20” was released on that date, close to Day 1 of the Covid Era.
Amid the pandemic panic, the album sank quickly into the memory hole, and Glover moved on to acting projects. As is typical for him, he gave little advance notice that Childish Gambino was returning, but Sunday he released the album, retooled and retitled “Atavista,” and announced a summer tour that will visit Philadelphia Aug. 21.
Gambino, who works closely with Swedish producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ludwig Göransson, started out as a rapper, then expanded into other genres, particularly funk on his 2016 LP “Awaken, My Love!” That album, an acknowledged homage to P-Funk, included his only hit single before “This Is America” went to No. 1 in 2018. “Redbone,” though, might go a step beyond homage. It was a surprise hit, reaching No. 12 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the R&B chart.
The song’s foundational riff might sound familiar if you were a fan of funk in the ’70s. Bootsy Collins used it, slightly embellished, to create “I’d Rather Be With You,” a song from his 1976 album “Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band.” The riff is virtually the same, but the melody is entirely different.
So why didn’t anyone shout “plagiarism”? For one thing, by legal standards, it’s too short a musical figure to copyright. Which is why Bootsy was free to use a snippet of musical DNA that he certainly heard in Jaco Pastorius’ “Portrait of Tracy.” Every bass player knows Pastorius’ work – he expanded the electric bass as much as Jimi Hendrix did the electric guitar – and this is one of his best-known songs. Bootsy changed one note of the opening theme and clipped the ending, but obviously took it in a direction all his own, just as Glover did.
