I awoke this morning to hear that James Brown , a man who influenced so much of American Popular Music for the second half of the 20th century,had passed from Pneumonia. He was the cornerstone for so much of the Black music in this country today and for many past decades. There are probably very few Rap and Hip Hop recordings that do nt in someway sample his work. The man was a rough cut genius. HE will definitely be missed...
Yep, the news was quite disheartening to wake up to on Christmas morning. James Brown certainly had a disturbing personal life, with the drug use and accusations of domestic violence and the stints in jail. Even with recent appearances, he seemed quite energetic, so I was hoping that he would have a few more albumns left to produce -- perhaps one where he expressed his hopes for the future, similar to how a grandfather would express hopes for his lineage. At least his music lives on ...
"Energetic" might be the default word when thinking about him. That energy was so accessible, and attracted all walks (dances?). RIP James.
Fortunately, I stand corrected. I just looked up James Brown's recent career i.e. 2000 to 2006. Apparently he put out an alubm in 2002 where the most popular song was, "Killings Out, Schools In". He also performed at the UK Live 8 concert for Africa in the Summer of 2005 - the big concert that Sony Bono of U2 was championing as a cause at the time. So, yes, James Brown would probably admit to having many personal problems over the years, but at least he had cares about our collective tomorrow.
I had just logged on to post this myself -- sad, sad news. (Though, on a personal note: better him than Freddie53!) *sigh*
I remember many years ago when James Brown came to town for the first time. On performer like him had ever graced this town. There will never be another like James Brown. His legend will live on.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, baby don't you do it! Don't do it, baby! Don't you break my heart! Pleeeeeeeze, don't do it, baby. Now, don't you do it!
The great thing about musicians of his caliber is that he will always live on through his recordings. His fingerprints are on most of modern music.
The year was 1965, and I was a kid whose dad had just retired from the U.S. Army. So we returned home to New Orleans, only the people renting our home hadn't vacated yet, so we had to stay in a motel. That was the first time I saw (or heard of) James Brown, because he and his entourage had come to town and stayed at the same hotel. So I was up on that balcony (not right with them, but close enough) looking down on that crowd of people and kids on the Washington Ave. "neutral ground" (that's median for the rest of the world) who were screaming and frantically waving up to Mr. Brown and the others. Only I was too dumb then to be as excited about being there as I should have been. That's because I was (up until about a week before) this army brat who hung with mostly white kids - and all we knew were Beatles and Beach Boys (well, practically), so my knowledge of black ("soul") music at that time was pretty much limited to what came out of Motown: Supremes and the like. Anyway, later that same week we went to a little theater on Orleans Street near my grandmother's house (she lived in the projects there) to see one of those Avalon/Funicello beach movies (called "Ski Party" which, incidentally, was not on a beach at all). We didn't go to see the movie though. We went because word was that James Brown was going to be in the movie. Well, to shorten a longer story, I sure found out who James Brown was then. Yeah boy!
