"Swing Down Sweet Chariot"

1976

This 1976 video shows the dramatic lowering of the Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership. During the video, the band plays a funky rendition of an African American Spiritual, “Swing Down Sweet Chariot,” sang by Glenn Goins. Linking ancient themes of spiritual and physical exodus to modern notions of departure and freedom, Parliament-Funkadelic constructed a physical emblem of the ideals of Afrofuturism.