On Christmas Day 2006, the Godfather of Soul James Brown passed away. Alan Leeds once summed it up pretty well when he said that we'll all probably remember where we were when we heard that James Brown died.

Last year, to remember the first anniversary of his death, we did a radio special dedicated to James Brown on W-RIR in Virginia. I know that many networks all over the world did the same thing, but apart from playing some pretty rare music, we've also talked to some of Brown's associated artists, and these conversations are quite personal. We talked with Soul Sister 1, Marva Whitney, James' longtime drummer Tony Cook, Sax-player Jeff Watkins, former tour manger Alan Leeds, and young hit-maker Joss Stone (who has performed with Brown a few times before he passed away).
The show is a year old, but I think it's a timeless classic and worth listening to again.

listen to the show here:
http://www.radio4all.net/...p?id=25971

I was sitting in a jam packed LaGuardia airport when I got the news. I just sat their in a trance. It was a huge loss.

I was still living in Germany, and it was about 7 a.m. when my wife woke me up. She had seen it online. First thing I did was to call Marva Whitney, who I'm working with. It was around midnight in Kansas City when I called her, and I remember how calm she was about it. "I hope that he had made his peace with God," she told me. Then I called a few guys in Brown's band, and there were all up and talking. Later in the morning I called Brown's longtime backing vocalist Martha High, assuming that she had already heard the news. But she hadn't. It was sad.
To me, it didn't really sink in until later that day, because I was so busy being on the phone, talking to people about it. Everybody was figuring out how to get some money together to go to the funeral.

SHUT THE HELL UP. Is it really 2 years already???! Damn, time is the space shuttle these days

Thank you Mr. Brown for being you

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

It's funny, to me it seems like it was much longer than just two years. Maybe because my life has been so turbulent since.

MrSoulpower said:

If you told me it was 6 months ago I would totally have believed it

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I'm not so sure if that's a good thing or not. I'd rather decline to comment on that.

MrSoulpower said:

Words do not do justice to the mans work....RESPECT! Mr Brown your music still lives with us all

Can't forget over in the UK BBC Radio Giles Petersons show, what a tribute the man was in tears as he played each track...nuff love..you known he was feeling it big time...
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I can remember where I was (in my room) and what I was doing (opening up Christmas presents and checking things online) when I got the news at around 3:00 am about James' untimely death. I was checking the news on Yahoo.com. It was first reported around 1 am that James had pneumonia and was in the hospital and had to cancel a few shows so I figure "OK, get well James", whatever. So imagine my shock 2 hours or at least one and a half hours later when I checked again, all it said was:

"Godfather of Soul James Brown dies at 73".

My heart skipped two beats! And then a few minutes later, I refreshed and they told what killed him and then I turned to CNN... and I looked at my mother like "no, no, he's not dead... "

It didn't destroy my whole Christmas but believe me I was in mourning for the rest of the day.

James was a true pioneer, innovator, influential musician, architect of rock, funk, soul and hip-hop. His death still shocks me. Even more so than Aaliyah's and Left-Eye's deaths for some odd reason.

Two years on, I'm still missing James.

Damn, it has been two years. I remember Little Richard was going to be playing at a casino on the coast in my state on New Year's Eve that year. He was on one of the news channels giving an interview about James Brown and saying.....

Honey, I was James Brown's idol.....
He idolized me honey.....

I saw him say the same thing in a documentary about Jimi Hendrix. Seems like Little Richard is everyone's idol.

vainandy said:

Didn't you know HE discovered the Beatles and the Stones?

You gotta admire somebody for that.

Actually James admitted that Little Richard was one of his biggest influences so it made sense, he DID use Richard's band.
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i'll never forget it as long as i love. i couldn't fully enjoy that Christmas after i found out. you'll be missed James

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Timmy84 said:

And he said that Prince is just like him.

I've been listening to alot of James Brown music lately

I remember when Ifirst heard about JB's passing. I was online like Timmy, I was actually at a Dreamgirls message board from IMDB and it said JB had passed. Christmas is supposed too be happy.

damn its been two years already!??! it feels like its only been one year. Anyway, yeah i remember, i was on the floor opening up gifts when i heard on the television that jb had died. i wasn't crying or anything, but it was kind of sad, didn't ruin my Christmas that year though.

missfee said:

It didn't ruin my Christmas either, because I knew that JB was 73 and had lived a full life. I was a bit surprised because I didn't know that he was sick (nobody knew, in fact, the band was gearing up to get back on the road that week). But I think it shocked so many people because nobody ever thought of James Brown dying ... he was such an icon, people just believed that he'd outlive us all and be around forever.

Wow, 2 years already!?!? Funny how time flies.
I miss him

MrSoulpower said:

I ain't gonna lie, I shed a few tears that morning. Then I cheered myself up by playing all my JB stuff while I was cooking. After that I listened to JB for 2 straight weeks.

anybody know what's going on with the planned biopic,to be directed by Spike Lee? I wonder who will play James.

Wow 2 years already?! It was like it was yesterday. I went to the Apollo Theater when JB's body was there and it was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life. I went there right after work and I waited on line for over 2 hours but it was so worth it. When I saw him there, I had to give a salute and I was honored to be there. It was a beautiful experience. Without him, the musical landscape would be so different. The world hasn't been the same since his passing. Thank God for James Brown.

purplecam said:

I saw the footage of him in the casket and it was very eerie and sad. I was watching the Man, the Music, the Message documentary on him and they featured footage of the funeral in the last minute, it tore me and mom up.

MrSoulpower said:

THAT'S why it was shocking. He was sick for a while unbeknownst to us but we all thought "ah, it ain't nothing, James will survive this like he's done everything else" and when it sunk in, I realize how much he had gave to us that I stopped feeling sad about my Christmas. He was going home to the Lord.

Timmy84 said:

It was sad to be there but I also felt good being there cause he was home with the Lord. Plus, to see all the people waiting on line the way they did was just incredible. There were 2 line and they went from the Apollo on 125th St to 130th St and 8th Ave and from it was the same length over on 7th Ave as well. It was a celebration cause JB's music was playing while we would talk with each other about James and how his music touched us individually. The media was in full force and people were just staring at all of us either walking by or on the buses that went past us. It was incredible.

Yeah i remember going to my hometown to visit my mom christmas weekend
in columbia, sc that friday and they were showing him on the news handing
out christmas toys to kids in augusta. Then on christmas morning when i saw it
on tv my jaw just dropped. It was unreal. I'm going to make it my business this spring to go to the museum they have in honor of him. Lot of history there.
The drive from columbia is about an hour and ten minutes.