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.
There are some sad things in his story. You can read them at the link. I'm not going to bring them up here. The man is dead. Goodbye to a brilliant artist.
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8 comments:
Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now
I feel good, I knew that I would, now
So good, so good, I got you
Whoa! I feel nice, like sugar and spice
I feel nice, like sugar and spice
So nice, so nice, I got you
Don't get no better than that.
James Brown and Kraftwerk are the same thing. I can never get anybody to understand that.
James Brown is the most influential musician of the last forty years, bar none.
I'll save you the trouble of rooting around on YouTube. James Brown at the height of his power: You Felt Good, Now You're Dynamite
"James Brown and Kraftwerk are the same thing. I can never get anybody to understand that"
I can never get anybody to understand how I bend air and make baskets out of water...
"James Brown is the most influential musician of the last forty years, bar none"
I will agree with that and maybe go back a decade or more.
JB. An original.
Will remember him today with black coffee, and a hard roll.
Ironically, he died in Emory Crawford Long, one of the premier heart care centers in the country.
On Christmas Eve, I read that he had pneumonia, and was "resting comfortably".
Yesterday, he died of heart failure. If they could not save him there, he had to have been in real bad shape.
He apparently never saw the end coming.
What a performer.
I still can't believe this.
We thought he would live forever. And we were awful proud of him, when he wasn't shooting at the police. Died in Atlanta, too. He lives here in the medical care capital of the world, and he gets sick in Atlanta. I always remember the same thing about him. It was one of his career troughs, and he was playing a local high school gym. There wasn't enough white people to field a basketball team, and still nobody knew who he was. Black kids in his hometown, and they were completely indifferent to him. That pissed him off. He came out on fire, and burned the place to the ground. It looked like they had a riot there, after he was done.
Uhh! I feel bad!
I was driving my daughter home after daycare when she was about 4. JB was playing on the cd player.
My daughter, used to a wide variety of music, had a puzzled look on her face as she listened to him vocalize. "Why he say 'Hey' daddy?" she asked. "Well sweetie, some times you have feelings that are so strong, words won't work. And you have to sing "Hey" or "Huh" or even "good God,"" I demonstrated.
"Daddy, you sound just like that man!" Honestly, there has never been a prouder day in my life.
James so understood the funk. He had a relationship with it. And he was an amazing band leader. The JBs would respond to a look or a "hit it" and know what to hit and how hard. If it was the one, they really hit it hard.
I heard Bootsy Collins talking about the history of funk and how James Brown knew that funk is all about hitting that first beat hard enough to make it wince. Bootsy was playing for James when Bootsy was 16.
James was certainly a musical genius. I will miss him, but I will continue listening to him till I am gone.
Trey
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