From: Bob Davis (earthjuice_at_prodigy.net)
Date: 2005-07-08 15:54:50
I got this information overnight via email from our friend Dr. Brookenstein.
I will most likely attend the viewing on Sunday.
I won't be able to make the funeral on Monday.
The viewing of Ray Davis's body will be held at:
Brown's Funeral Home (on Sunday 7/10/05)
122 Plainfield Avenue (east of Front Street)
Plainfield, NJ
Phone#: (908) 756-4241
Viewing times: 6 - 9pm
http://www.davisind.com/wc/view_entry.php?id=1392&date=20050710
The funeral services will be at:
Calvary Baptist Church (on Monday 7/11/05)
320 Monroe Avenue (west of 4th Street)
Plainfield, NJ
Phone#: (908) 561-5187
Time of Service: 11:00am
http://www.davisind.com/wc/view_entry.php?id=1393&date=20050711
This information is also posted on the Soul-Patrol Times
And on the front of the Soul-Patrol website
Feel free to pass this info along to anyone that you know who ever loved THA FUNK...
I was all set to give yall a sterling report from the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Inductions.
However on my way back tonight my cellphone was burning up with calls, not unlike what
happened to me on friday afternoon with Luther Vandross. I was getting phone calls all the way
from Chicago to NJ from members of the P-Funk family.
Right at this moment I don't feel much like writing anything
Ray Davis the GREAT bass singer for P-Funk, Temptations and Zapp passed away this evening.
At various points in his career, Ray had been a member of all three groups.
However he is best known as one of the founding members (along with George Clinton, Fuzzy
Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon) of a relatively unsuccessful/long suffering doo wop
group from Plainfield New Jersey called the "Parliaments" back in the late 1950's.
They later went on to great fame as "Funkadelic", then later "Parliament" and of course as
"Parliament-Funkadelic" during the 1970's. Ray Davis's is voice is famous for having delivered
some of the most memorable and lasting lines in the history of FUNK MUSIC. In fact some of his
most famous lines have become a part of the lexicon of the American language as we know it
today and will last well into the future. And for those accomplishments and more, Ray Davis
was enshrined into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Later he joined Zapp where he played a similar role.
Then he joined the Temptations, replacing Melvin Franklin. It is Ray's bass singing that you
hear on what was in my opinion, the last great album by the Temptations ("For Lovers Only" -
1995). After that album Ray was forced to leave the Tempations because of the onslaught of
lung
cancer. When the cancer receeded Ray along with Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon
formed a group called "Original P" touring the country performing P-Funk, Temptations and Zapp
songs.
Ray Davis was a member of the Soul-Patrol mailing list for many years and he loved it,
although he never made more than a few postings
He was one of the first artists to become "internet savvy" and as such was a big supporter of
what we were trying to accomplish here on Soul-Patrol. He opened many doors for us, that we
otherwise would not have been able to walk thru...
He was a friend to me.
I am going to miss Ray Davis quite a bit....
NP: "We gonna tear the roof off the muthasuka, tear the roof off the muthasucka, tear the roof
off the suka..."
--Ray Davis
Click the link below for Original P, featuring Ray, Grady, Fuzzy and Calvin on Soul-Patrol<br>
<a href="http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/originalp.htm"
">http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/originalp.htm </a>
--------------------
Bob Davis
earthjuice_at_prodigy.net
--------------------
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