James Brown - R.I.P.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Hard to know what to say -- he shaped the music of our times, and left an indelible impression on those of us who saw him perform.

"Please please please!" let him find peace now. His music has enriched us all.


°°°°°°°



Associated Press
Legendary Singer James Brown Dies at 73
By GREG BLUESTEIN 12.25.06, 3:10 AM ET

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.

Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

Copsidas said Brown's family was being notified of his death and that the cause was still uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said.

Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.

If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.

"James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told The Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close."

His hit singles include such classics as "Out of Sight," "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Out Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.

"I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 Associated Press interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society."

He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

He triumphed despite an often unhappy personal life. Brown, who lived in Beech Island near the Georgia line, spent more than two years in a South Carolina prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police officer. After his release on in 1991, Brown said he wanted to "try to straighten out" rock music.

From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business."

With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince.

In 1986, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And rap stars of recent years overwhelmingly have borrowed his lyrics with a digital technique called sampling.

Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," he told the AP in 2003.

Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, he was abandoned as a 4-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets of Augusta, Ga., in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it. There he learned to wheel and deal.

"I wanted to be somebody," Brown said.

By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in Alto Reform School near Toccoa, Ga., for breaking into cars.

While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, Please, Please" was in the R&B Top Ten.

While most of Brown's life was glitz and glitter, he was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his third wife, Adrienne.

In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private restroom.

Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and back to Georgia. The chase ended when police shot out the tires of his truck.

Brown received a six-year prison sentence. He spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state.

Soon after his release, Brown was on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable television viewers nationwide who watched the three-hour, pay-per-view concert at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery two days earlier, the coroner said.

More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr.

Two years later, Brown spent a week in a private Columbia hospital, recovering from what his agent said was dependency on painkillers. Brown's attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, said singer was exhausted from six years of road shows.

[lazarus]

He was one of the giants in modern music.


RIP

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

[Gary Delligatti]

Legendary Singer James Brown Dies at 73
Monday, December 25, 2006 5:05 AM EST
The Associated Press
By GREG BLUESTEIN

see #1

[Gary Sisco]

Speechless. He blew my mind as a kid and those records are still in my top favorites though I've heard them thousands of times. When I was a kid, I used to play JB singles on 33 so I could hear just what the drummer was doing and try to play along at that slower speed to learn the rhythms. Record player turned up loud so I could hear it over my drums. I can't imagine what it must've been like for my parents.

"I Feel Good" is my favorite single of all time, a perfect record. "Cold Sweat" isn't far behind. And so many others.

Fuckin' hell.

Soul Brother Number One, now and forever.

RIP, Boss.

[John L]

James Brown would get my vote for the most influential musician of the last half decade.

RIP

[Dr Dave]

I think he deserves an obit on Speak Out. He may not have played jazz, but he was hugely influential. He was supposed to play New Year's Eve at BB King's in New York; whoever plays in his stead will not replace him; he's irreplacable.


From the newswires:

By Matthew Bigg

James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul" whose frenetic singing style and bold rhythms brought funk into the mainstream and influenced a new generation of black music, died on Monday at age 73, his manager said.

Brown died at 1:45 a.m. (0645 GMT) at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta after being admitted on Saturday for treatment of severe pneumonia, his manager, Frank Copsidas, said. Charles Bobbit, Brown's longtime friend and personal manager, was at his side, he said.

One of America's great showmen, Brown's innovative rhythms and soul-rending vocals defined funk and made him a revered figure among rap and hip hop artists who used his beats extensively as the backdrop to their own songs.

Brown emerged from a boyhood of extreme poverty and petty crime to become one of the biggest record-sellers in rhythm and blues and later achieved crossover success. His gospel-style voice backed by staccato horns brought a distinctive funky and frenetic sound to black and later white audiences.

He could never quite escape his troubled roots. By 1988 Brown, who had begun his music career in jail as a juvenile offender, was back behind bars, sentenced to six years for drug, weapons and vehicular charges after a high-speed car chase through Georgia and South Carolina which ended with police shooting out the tires of his truck. He left prison in 1991.

He was chosen to be a member of President Reagan's Council Against Drugs but was arrested several times in the mid-1980s and 90s and charged with drug and weapons possession.

"Soul is all the hard knocks, all the punishment the black man has had ... all the unfulfilled dreams that must come true," he once said.

"MR. DYNAMITE"

He had more than 119 charting singles and recorded over 50 albums, was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys in 1992. Big hits included "Please, Please, Please," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" "Get Up (I feel like being a Sex Machine)" and "It's a Man's World."

The singer, also known as "Mr. Dynamite," combined his music with a theatrical delivery, typically changing suits a dozen times during a show as he danced himself into a frenzy. He once said he aimed to wear out his audience and "give people more than what they came for -- make them tired."

"Feeling and flamboyance fused into calculated spontaneity," one critic wrote of a Brown performance, adding he danced like a dervish and sang with "an astounding range of primitive emotional sounds -- grunts, groans, screeches, screams, wails..."

Brown's hit "Say it Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" became a civil rights anthem during the turbulent 1960s and he performed the song at Richard Nixon's inaugural in 1969 -- an act that temporarily hurt his popularity among young blacks.

Brown also built a successful business empire, including a string of radio stations and his own production company, and owned a fleet of expensive cars and his own plane.

He even played the role of a manic preacher in the hit 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers."

Every record he made during 1960-77 reached the top 100.

His 1985 monster hit "Living in America," which was featured in the movie "Rocky IV," brought him a whole new generation of fans and his first Grammy.

He also developed a trademark routine in which he would keep coming back on stage after a show and sing a few lines of "Please, Please, Please" with the sweat pouring from his bare-chested body.

His stage crew would throw a cape over his back and he would leave, only to reappear seconds later on his knees, moaning the song into the microphone. The routine would sometimes go on for 30-40 minutes and send his fans delirious.

(Additional reporting by Steve James)

[Dr Dave]

You mean the last half-century!

It's funny, my mind just rejects this. I thought James Brown would go on forever.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by John L

James Brown would get my vote for the most influential musician of the last half....

RIP

Music in the U.S., Africa & Brazil was transformed by him.

[Gary Sisco]

They'd be inconceivable without him. The UK can also be added. Might could argue Jamaica, too.

[John L]

Yes, I obviously meant half century. Thank you.

[cookie]

Hard to believe he's gone.

My youngest requested that we say a prayer before opening our presents today. Not only did he express gratitude for the bounty of gifts, he prayed that James Brown would find peace in heaven.

I listened to James Brown's Funky Christmas just the other day. He's been a Christmas favorite of mine since I first heard "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" on Bernie Milton's soul show on the college station.

I never had the chance to see him live, but his television appearances were always electrifying. The energy and soul just poured out of him.

RIP, James Brown. You will be most missed.

[Gary Sisco]

I got to see him live only once but his records have been such a constant in my life, since seventh grade, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of a planet without The Boss. The real real thing.

The ruler for good, come who may.

[patricia]

I thought the Godfather of Soul would live forever.
He was one of a kind.

RIP James Brown.

[tippy]

Nothing will ever be the same. I too thought he would live forever. Thanks for the music, JB! Rest in peace.

[Adam]

Damn. RIP.

[GoodSpeak]

Papa's Got a Brand New....Gig.



On the One: Rest in Peace, James.

[Al in NYC]

Tremendously sad news. A true musical giant.

Just had the Christmas collection (Santa's Got a Brand New Bag) on this morning before I heard the news.

"Are you ready for star time..."

Bye James, you are already missed.

[Monte Smith]

I know he's in heaven, 'cause he was super bad.

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

I know he's in heaven, 'cause he was super bad.

Check this out, Monte!

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Check this out, Monte!

Nice!

[Uli]

RIP, Mr. Brown!

[graypencil]

When all is said and done, he is the man who is responsible for putting the grease and funk in the music of our times.

RIP James ..

[Ron Thorne]

James was the real deal. He had some would-be imitators and wannabees, but was never equalled.

As many before me have said, it's pretty difficult to imagine our music scene without James.



R.I.P., James Brown~

[Cem]

Listening to...



...the instrumental side of JB, his musicianship & musicality, that got overlooked by the stage antics & catchy tunes. He was not just a song & dance man -not that there's anything wrong with that. Phenomenal playing all around!

Rest in peace, man!

[hearsay]

What more can you say, a truly great artist and a huge influence for the music of today.

GET BACK!!!!!!

[Jason Bivins]

What a supreme bummer. RIP, sir, you are the greatest.

An anecdote which some might appreciate. One of my best friends is a conservatory trained vocalist (tending towards Shubert lieder and the like). He often told me that the single greatest vocal performance he'd ever witnessed/heard was seeing JB live in Milwaukee. My pal was in high school and had managed to score two seats front row center. He and his pal Tom were, they have always insisted, forever changed by what they saw and heard. At the end of the show, an appreciative Godfather tossed them his towel. They rose at dawn the next morning to put the towel - still stinky with sweat - in a safe deposit box, where it remains to this day. Too funky in here!

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Jason Bivins

My pal was in high school and had managed to score two seats front row center.

I too saw him live from front row center (in Boston--circa 1969, I think), which likewise is a little story in itself.

I have hardly any words.

Originally Posted by John L

R.I.P.

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

Damn.. this news breaks my heart! I admired his amazing combination of funk and soul since the 70's. A high school friend of mine called me last month from Los Angeles saying that he was planning to come to NYC for the Christmas and New Years weeks. He had heard that James Brown would be playing at BB King's club on New Year's Eve. I said that we had other plans, but would see if I could pull off going to the earlier show. We played phone tag.. until this morning when he called me with the news today, oh boy.

If you believe in these things, then rock and roll Heaven has become an incredibly fantastic place. Rest in peace and soul, Mr. Brown.

[MRS]

This is really mawkish but every Christmas Eve I go to St. Stan's for midnight mass in Polish, afterward we all head to Missouri Bar & Grill, an old Post-Dispatch haunt that stays open, run by a nice old Greek lady. There were some inherent holiday fisticuffs and I came home loaded and sad, no bullshit pulled out the JB Star Time box, had no idea. You will be missed.