A point worth making about the incomparable James Brown - in the later stages of his career, he was more often used as a puppet by producers and songwriters who tried (and without exception) failed to replicate his groundbreaking heyday.

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Not that Mr. Brown was content to sit back and be manipulated - but as his personal and professional life became a sad, tragic mess due to drug abuse and significant anger management issues, his decision-making process became severely compromised.

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He remained a force to be reckoned with on stage, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, he hired great musicians. Second, he was driven by a staggering work ethic and never gave up on delivering excellent showmanship. Third, it was much harder to discern how much he had lost vocally when listening in the din of a live concert hall. And even by the '80s, he had inarguably lost much of his astonishing vocal ability.

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Back the "being used as a puppet" - while he continued to chart records sporadically in the '80s (and even the early '90s), these records had virtually nothing in common with his radical, innovative, and just plain mind-blowingly awesome '60s and '70s records. His judgement seemingly permanently clouded by drug use, Mr. Brown chose to sing crap that represented *other people's* vision of what a typical "James Brown record" should sound like. These latter-day releases traded on what had become cliches - the Eddie Murphy take on JB, only for real. It was sometimes laughable (his '90s-era Christmas album is appalling - especially coming from the man who sang the indubitably great "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" and handled classics like "The Christmas Song" with exqusite care), but mostly it was just sad.

.

Would it have made for an artistically valid collaboration? We'll obviously never know. But the evidence does not support the notion. Having Prince put Mr. Brown in front of a microphone to sing one of his productions would've likely been indistinguishable from many of Prince's lesser protege records - a weak voice standing in for the person who should've been singing the song. [EDIT] Would that have offered, at the very least, a piece of historical curiosity - sure.

[Edited 11/9/16 5:58am]

CAL3 said:

A point worth making about the incomparable James Brown - in the later stages of his career, he was more often used as a puppet by producers and songwriters who tried (and without exception) failed to replicate his groundbreaking heyday.

.

Not that Mr. Brown was content to sit back and be manipulated - but as his personal and professional life became a sad, tragic mess due to drug abuse and significant anger management issues, his decision-making process became severely compromised.

.

He remained a force to be reckoned with on stage, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, he hired great musicians. Second, he was driven by a staggering work ethic and never gave up on delivering excellent showmanship. Third, it was much harder to discern how much he had lost vocally when listening in the din of a live concert hall. And even by the '80s, he had inarguably lost much of his astonishing vocal ability.

.

Back the "being used as a puppet" - while he continued to chart records sporadically in the '80s (and even the early '90s), these records had virtually nothing in common with his radical, innovative, and just plain mind-blowingly awesome '60s and '70s records. His judgement seemingly permanently clouded by drug use, Mr. Brown chose to sing crap that represented *other people's* vision of what a typical "James Brown record" should sound like. These latter-day releases traded on what had become cliches - the Eddie Murphy take on JB, only for real. It was sometimes laughable (his '90s-era Christmas album is appalling - especially coming from the man who sang the indubitably great "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" and handled classics like "The Christmas Song" with exqusite care), but mostly it was just sad.

.

Would it have made for an artistically valid collaboration? We'll obviously never know. But the evidence does not support the notion. Having Prince put Mr. Brown in front of a microphone to sing one of his productions would've likely been indistinguishable from many of Prince's lesser protege records - a weak voice standing in for the person who should've been singing the song. [EDIT] Would that have offered, at the very least, a piece of historical curiosity - sure.

[Edited 11/9/16 5:58am]

"Din of a live concert hall"? I saw him in a small bar. You love hearing youself expound, get a blog. Your (only) argument is that JB wasn't good on recordings in the '80s - stated over and over. Doesn't mean he and Prince would have failed.

purplepoppy said:

CAL3 said:

A point worth making about the incomparable James Brown - in the later stages of his career, he was more often used as a puppet by producers and songwriters who tried (and without exception) failed to replicate his groundbreaking heyday.

.

Not that Mr. Brown was content to sit back and be manipulated - but as his personal and professional life became a sad, tragic mess due to drug abuse and significant anger management issues, his decision-making process became severely compromised.

.

He remained a force to be reckoned with on stage, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, he hired great musicians. Second, he was driven by a staggering work ethic and never gave up on delivering excellent showmanship. Third, it was much harder to discern how much he had lost vocally when listening in the din of a live concert hall. And even by the '80s, he had inarguably lost much of his astonishing vocal ability.

.

Back the "being used as a puppet" - while he continued to chart records sporadically in the '80s (and even the early '90s), these records had virtually nothing in common with his radical, innovative, and just plain mind-blowingly awesome '60s and '70s records. His judgement seemingly permanently clouded by drug use, Mr. Brown chose to sing crap that represented *other people's* vision of what a typical "James Brown record" should sound like. These latter-day releases traded on what had become cliches - the Eddie Murphy take on JB, only for real. It was sometimes laughable (his '90s-era Christmas album is appalling - especially coming from the man who sang the indubitably great "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" and handled classics like "The Christmas Song" with exqusite care), but mostly it was just sad.

.

Would it have made for an artistically valid collaboration? We'll obviously never know. But the evidence does not support the notion. Having Prince put Mr. Brown in front of a microphone to sing one of his productions would've likely been indistinguishable from many of Prince's lesser protege records - a weak voice standing in for the person who should've been singing the song. [EDIT] Would that have offered, at the very least, a piece of historical curiosity - sure.

[Edited 11/9/16 5:58am]

"Din of a live concert hall"? I saw him in a small bar. You love hearing youself expound, get a blog. Your (only) argument is that JB wasn't good on recordings in the '80s - stated over and over. Doesn't mean he and Prince would have failed.

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Small bar, concert hall, whatever - excuse me for not saying a more general term like "performance venue." The point still stands.

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And if all you got out of what I said was that he'd lost his voice in his later years, you didn't pay any attention to what I wrote.

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I make no apologies for attempting to expain my point of view. [EDIT] Nor for taking more than a sentence or two to say it.

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And - not sure why I have to even clarify this - I didn't say "he and Prince would have failed." I ventured the opinion that it wouldn't have likely yielded great results.

[Edited 11/9/16 8:11am]

MD431Madcat said:

Okay I thought so, but I read up here that it was a lefty, and I was like "that's why Prince didn't shred it." My bad

CAL3 said:

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By the '80s, JB was such a parody of himself, the window for meaningful collaboration to occur had long since closed.

This is what you originally said. Now it has changed to "I ventured the opinion that it wouldn't have likely yielded great results". With a lot of filler in between.

purplepoppy said:

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Nothing changes, both comments stand. And if you didn't read what I said in between, it's pretty obvious why you'd call it filler.
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My reasoning is sound. And I love both artists as much as any artist I've ever heard. Not sure what your problem is.