My earliest James Brown memory was when he released the "Unity" duet with Afrika Bambaataa back in the mid 80s. My friend bought the 12" and we would listen to it and think it was godawful! We found especially funny the a cappella parts where James would just be ad-libbing in his James speak and we wouldn't know what the hell he was saying.

The first James record I could really call my own however, was the 'I'm Real' album produced by Full Force a few years later. That was really good.

Thanks for the memories Godfather.

CNN has live coverage @ the Apollo thru out the day.

Granted they're interviewing the crazies but just FYI.

That was the first one I had also. Then, I went back and got a greatest hits compilation called "Doing It To Death".

serpan99 said:

Not trying to hate or anything, but that pic is cheesy as hell. What's with the neon Apollo sign in the background?

When Gi Dussault and myself were preparing for our six hour
drive to Montreal last Friday , Gary Hines of Sounds of Blackness
said remember to bring some James Brown CDs. Got to have some funk for
the long ride. We were at a great party on Dec. 24th in downtown Montreal with
our family. Kind of a funk/disco themed gala.

As we were waiting for our ride in the lobby, I sat down and
started to read the local music newspaper. On the cover was a small picture of
James Brown with a bigger story inside. The journal was hyping an upcoming Jan.
3rd James Brown show at the Metropolis. I thought to myself James was still 
sharp as ever with his monogrammed bowtie.

Next morning, I was laying down in bed and listening to the
local radio newcast. The announcer made a brief announcement of James Brown
passing at the age of 73. Whew, I don't think I've cried like that in a long
time. But it is time to celebrate the life and music of music of Mr. James
Brown.

Back in 1983, I had the great honor of meeting James Brown. I
was a 19 year old deejay at AM 1450 WNAB in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
James Brown and Wilson Pickett were playing a two show gig at the
American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut. I was filling
in on-air for Ted Brown, host of the R&B show at night. Ted was emceeing
the Brown/Pickett concerts.

After wrapping up my show, I drove over to the concert venue
where they were in between shows. Ted Brown asked me if I wanted to meet Wilson
and James. I said sure and first met Wilson Pickett. Next, we strode over to
Brown's dressing room. And, James warmly greeted us and shook my hand and said,
"God bless you, son.". That was too cool !!  Always ready to look dynamite,
James had his hair up in curlers prepping for the nightcap show.

We went upstairs and hung out behind the stage curtain with
James' band. James' third wife was backstage too and if memory serves me
correct, she had a nice shiny bling (did we call it that back then )) 
on one of her fingers. James' guitar player was real cool with us and we made
plans to hang out after the show. But you know showbiz, show ends and the bus
has to move to another city. I do remember one last thing about that night. One
of James' bandmates was smoking a cigarrette right before they were going to go
onstage. Brown walked by and sternly said to him, "Put that out. " Brother ran a
tight ship but that's why it rode so smoothly.

Personally, James Brown has given me so many goosebump
moments from the funk, the dancing, musicianship and aura. Plus, he was a
stellar balladeer. Underrated in my opinion.  And, I can't tell you how
many times musicians have referenced James Brown to me in interviews or personal
conversations. I asked Jellybean Johnson of the Time how did he
learn the drums. Jellybean quickly said, "James Brown records." Bean even called
my house one day and was so pumped about a show that he and his Minneapolis
musician friends did the previous night. He said they did a 20 minute version of
Brown's "The Payback" . I think Prince even jumped onstage
to play a bit.

When Sheila E. appeared on my radio show a few years
ago, I complimented her about a picture inside her CD. She was pictured playing
an acoustic guitar and I asked her if she played the guitar. She said a little
bit and had the James Brown guitar licks down pat.
Musicians speaking  highly of other musicians really
holds validity in my book. Chris Frantz and Mystic Bowie of the
Tom Tom Club  had gone to see James Brown a couple years ago in NYC
at BB King's Blues Club and they were still raving about James' prowess
onstage.

Thank You James Brown. We love ya!!!!
Peace
Joe Kelley

JoeKelley said:

Stymie said:

Not witcha there, Stymie. Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, stabilized the executive branch, and ended the Vietnam War. In all likelihood, JB touched more lives than Ford did. But Ford indisputably affected (and saved) more lives than JB did (and JB saved some lives and limbs in the wake of MLK's assassination) for those three reasons I rattled off.

namepeace said:

That's fair. Change my word to "touched".

Stymie said:

It's fair to say that James Brown means much more to my soul than Gerald Ford!

There's even a live stream of the event in the apollo.
The viewing of James Brown on myfoxny.com:
http://www.myfoxny.com/my...geId=1.1.1

as sad as I am about his passing, I kind of get the feeling he would want us to break out the 45s and dance, to celebrate his memory so to speak.

Some of you are so dramatic. A warning in this thread certainly didn't mean porno pictures were going to follow the warning. What else could it have been?



[edit]pics of James Brown were here[/edit]
[Edited 12/29/06 5:31am]

My parents loved James Brown's music and played it in the house
frequently when me and my sister were kids. My dad always spoke
of JB and many other soul singers with much respect and admiration.
My parents would boast to us about going to see JB shows in and
around Boston when his tour would come through in the late 60's
before we were born. They had these little square shaped b&w photographs
they took of the JB stage spectacle complete with dancers and a
row of police officers standing on the floor around the front of
the stage.

In my teens in the late 80's, I commented to a friend of mine who
was a few years older and Puerto Rican that a Beatles song with
horns was "funky". He returned to my house the next day with his
parents' JB albums and his older brother's Parlament/Funkadellic
albums! THIS is FUNKY he said. Hot Pants and Superbad were 2 of
those records. Unlike the 3 1/2 minute JB "pop hits" and shortened
part 1/part 2 versions that I had known up to that time, these
records had long stretched out studio jams on them. I believe that
the first one of these songs that I heard was the first cut on
the Hot Pants record called "Blues & Pants". It's this awesome
slinky steady groove with plucky guitars, organ & a horn line
to die for James's vocal is smooth and gritty at the same time.
"You need someone to love you.. you need someone to be... thinkin' of you.. heeeeyy!"
We had it up loud and I was instantly hooked. Also on that record
the "Escapism PT 1 & 2" where he just bullshits with the band on
mike while they groove along. Then the Hot Pants cut which is a
non-stop 9 minute groove! One of my favorite JB records to this day.

When I started listening to a lot of this JB stuff, I remember my
mom telling me things like: "now you'll hear James Brown all the
time yelling 'FRED!' to his horn player. 'FRED!... FRED!' or
"BIRD!... BOBBY BIRD!...' to the guy in his band".
I got my dad the Star Time box set when it came out in the early
90's and I was excited to be giving him cd copies of a lot of those
great long JB jams.

One night in the late 90's the guy who owns the house I live in
here in Brooklyn called me up out of nowhere and said he had two
tickets to see JB that night at the Hammerstein Ballroom that he
couldn't go to and wanted to give them to me. I called up a friend
of mine and asked him if he wanted to see JB that night for free.
His response: "Hell yeah!". I went to the show thinking that I was
going to see The Legend perform, but well aware that he was in his
late 60's and it has been a long time since he was in his prime and
on the cutting edge, so I figured it would be very cool, but not
really expecting much. It ended up being one of the best shows I
have ever seen in my life and I will never forget it!

We had to go early to pick up the tickets, so we went right to the
front center of the stage, waited there all night through all of the
opening acts and ended up having the best spot up against the stage
right in front of JB! It was incredible being able to see everything
that was going on on stage not to mention the shine on his shoes!
The band was huge, a line of guitarists behind him, a line of back up
singers on one side of the stage, & a line of horns on the other
and it wasn't schmaltzy at all. The show was filled with raw power.
And James himself, although he didn't move around much like the
old days, his voice was rock-sold dead on and wavered not once.
Getting to see him controlling and signaling the band was a total thrill.
At one point the band was grooving and JB up in front pointed his
finger strait up into the air for a moment. Then in one swift move,
brought it down, spun around and pointed at the guitarist. At the
on-the-one second that the finger met it's target, the band cut out
and the pointed out guitarist was left in to carry the groove solo
until JB cued the band back in and no one missed a note or a beat!

There was a tiny pit section between us in the front row and the stage
that had a few people sitting in looking up at the stage. VIP's of some
sort we figured. Some time during the show all while a song is grooving,
JB keeps pointing to the guy sitting in the pit in front of us. The guy's
beenied head is right under me and JB starts yelling out "It's Issac
Haaaaayyys... It's Issac Haaaaayyys..." Issac Hays stands up and waves
to the audience, sits back down and then JB starts heckling him from
up on the stage because Isaac had just announced that he was retiring
from music to be an NYC radio DJ. JB was saying stuff like "what you
gotta go and retire for.. Look at me.. I ain't retiring!" All of this
while some song is churning out, it was awesome. So after being heckled
a bit Issac gets up to move out of the pit and JB starts trying to coax
him up onto the stage to which Issac was expressing disinterest, but
before Issac could get out to the end of the stage, JB had convinced
him up to sing! Issac comes up on stage making bowing motions of respect
as he approaches James at center stage. They hug, James signals the
band to change and they sing "Soul Man" together. Very cool.

The other thing from that show that I will never forget is when the band
broke into the sweeping introduction of "It's A Man's Man's Man's World"
The string part swirled down and JB right in front of me took that one step
to the mike, grabbed it, cocked his head back and let it out: "This is a
Man's..." and that was it for me, before he could get out the word "world"
I was screaming, ....and screaming and screaming. It is the pure power of
his performance. It totally takes you. My friend laughs at me to this day
and loves to tell the story of me "screaming like a 14 year old girl"
at the James Brown Show!
[Edited 12/28/06 16:20pm]

K a little more info on the warning would be nice.

I don't come here to look at pics of corpses.

The services are over and Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a very good speech!

(plus he said there's one more hour to view JAMES BROWN, till 9.00pm, as there are so many people...)

incredibleD said:

Thank you for posting the link. I got to see Rev Sharpton's speech.

lazycrockett said:

Ah yes, I wasn't expecting that. Maybe put a little description with the warning.

WOW!

As much as the warning was definilty not enough I was moved to see it.

He looks at peace and I like the touch of the glove - ready to let it loose in HEAVEN!

God Bless JB

this signals the end of an era with ray charles,luther,ruth brown,gerald levert and now james passin on....

I saw James live for the first time back in 1975. Maceo Parker was leading the J.B.'s @ that time; Fred Wesley had already left for the P-Funk thang. "Hustle (Dead On It)" was his single out @ the time, and also the theme for the show!
Awesome show!!!!


I'll always Love you
I miss you
Rest In PeAcE

serpan99 said:

Comment deleted.
[Edited 12/28/06 19:30pm]

How is it disrespectful to post pictures of the funeral? Obviously, James' family didn't have a problem with the press being at the memorial taking pictures. They certainly didn't have a problem with the memorial being broacasted over the internet. If they didn't want his corpse photographed, they would not have allowed cameras into the Apollo.

PurpleCharm said:

Ok, purplecharm, no need to be rude, I was just stating that it just in some way doesn't look right to have someone's dead body spread across the page like that, I don't expect anyone else to feel the same way I do about that. We are all entitled to our opinion, or at least I hope so. My comment was not to offend Serpan. I know Serpan from the club and have absolutely no disrespect for him. I've communicated with him many times and I could call him a friend on these forums. Isn't that right Serpan? (Serge).

As a matter of fact, I love when he posts pics, always keeps and kept everyone up to date at the former club and here. So if my comment offended you, then I do apologize if you took it so personally and anyone else here, as I am not looking to argue on a thread that is honoring everyone's feelings about Mr. Brown...so with that being said, I deleted that comment to not offend anyone.....you take care.

Peace
[Edited 12/28/06 19:36pm]
[Edited 12/28/06 19:43pm]

Well I managed to make it out to the Harlem to see if I would be able to pay my respects to Mr. Brown. The lines on both sides of the Apollo ran at least 6 to 7 blocks back of people. It was phenomenal. So I walked up by the front of the Apollo, and stood directly across the street in front of it with many others and hung out there from 4:15 until 7:15pm. I was able to take some pictures of the crowd standing and waiting for the viewing, but because it was near evening, they came out kind of dark. I'll see if I could post them sometime tomorrow.

I have to say there was so much unity among the crowd and everyone telling their own personal James Brown stories. People from all walks of life and nationalities were there, goes to show you how his music affected so many people. There were a lot of news cameras, 2 helicopters flying overhead. I met quite a few people. This man was loved so much and people stood out there for hours. The lines did not move very well because it was soooo many people there--parents with their small children, grandmothers, grandfathers, young people, you name it they were there. The crowd was pretty calm. Some sang James Brown's songs, some played James Brown's music. They had about 10 jeeps (they had "X Ryders") written across the jeeps, don't know who they were but they drove by in front of the Apollo blasting James Brown's music. Just about every driver that passed by took pictures of the front of the Apollo and the crowd, even the many tourist buses that passed by and the mta buses with the passengers looking on.


I was very surprised that they did not stop the traffic just on that particular block because of the vast crowd of thousands. I did see Jermaine Dupree pull up but security and NYPD made him get back in the car and go in through the back to keep the crowd from getting excited when they saw him--and there were a few people yelling hello to him and he returned same. Also, Jim Brown showed up, he looked well. Devoe from New Edition, stopped to give an interview before he went in, didn't say hi to the crowd that waved hello to him though.

Congressman, Charles Rangel showed up for the private service, when it was over, he came out and waved to the crowd. Also, the head security guy came over across the street to talk to us for a little while. He said he was also called to be in Augusta, GA tomorrow for security purposes as well. Anyway he told us that MJ was to show up and that's why they called him to come down to the Apollo. So when two black limos showed up 40 minutes later and he dashed across the street to it. Only 2 unknowns (1 from each limo) came out and whomever the others were in the limo, security and NYPD directed them to go around the back entrance of the Apollo there, apparently not to stir up the crowd and cause too much excitement. So if it was MJ, we did not get a chance to see him..

Besides all that, and even though I wasn't able to get in due to the enormous crowd that showed up, I felt good knowing I was there and able to show some type of respect for a man whose music affected so many and showed many of us how to be proud of who we are and was able to cross all racial lines with hhis music. A beautiful soul that will truly be missed but the spirit of his music will live on for generations.

2elijah said:

I am not looking to argue with anyone either. You made your point and I responded to it.


Anywho, may Mr. Brown RIP.

its a poor mentality that cheers a celebrity's arrival at a funeral. good for Devoe for not falling into it.

PurpleCharm said:

Ok.

sallysassalot said:

Agree.

well it took me 5 hrs to see the man, but i did it... they had James dressed in
a Royal Blue and Silver suit and Silver Shoes...The Casket was Gold... won't talk about how he looked but it was amazing to see all the people that came out to pay their respect to James....I had to light this one brother up who was being interviewd and he said James Brown is the Black Elvis.... I said What ????
James Brown is not the Black Elvis !!!! JAMES BROWN IS JAMES BROWN .....


by the way i got on the line at 3:30 and it was on 127th between 7th nd 8th
and it was after 6 when i finally made it to 125th st... so i was stuck in the line during the service and the finally started letting us back in around 7:15
i didn't enter the Apollo until 8:05
[Edited 12/28/06 20:11pm]

banks said:

Good for you. I got there around 4:15pm but the lines were at least 7 blocks long on one side and on the other side it stretched further. I guess I went on the side that had the longer lines, but there was no way I was going to get in when I saw how long the lines stretched back. I stayed for about 3 hours, and managed to stand across the street directly in front of the Apollo, so I was just happy I got to that point. But I left at 7:15pm and had to travel back to Queens on the subway. I have to say though, that I loved the unity in the crowd and the shared JB stories...and yeah, you're right...James Brown is James Brown, the one and only....Elvis, no way. I do believe in James Brown's last book, he mentioned Elvis coming down to see him sing in a club.
[Edited 12/28/06 20:22pm]