I am the only person who prefers the JBs stuff to the actual James Brown albums?

Am grooving to the 'Doing it to Death' album right now and it's hella funky! I think it's the extended horn solos that do it for me.

Give me 'Damn Right I am Somebody' over 'The Payback' any day.

soulyacolia said:

Gotta have James man.....get up!

oh!!!

and one mo'

funkpill said:

Once again .. not the J.B.'s.

I know

The last 2 aren't either

Just making comparisons
[Edited 10/26/09 14:03pm]

funkpill said:

Oh, the last two are.

ok, i get whatcha saying

That's tough. Just put Star Time together with the JB's Anthology and you never have to decide.

funkpill said:

Technically, King Heroin isn't the J.B.'s either. It was recorded by New York based studio musicians hired by Fred Wesley. There it is is actually the J.B.s if I'm not mistaken.

A lot tracks from albums released in the 1970s was recorded by studio musicians, while the J.B.'s served as Brown's live band. It was simply cheaper to use musicians based in NY instead of flying in band members from all over the country.

Much of There it is, Slaughter's Big Rip Off, Black Caesar and the albums released in the second half of the 1970s (like Mutha Nature) were recorded by studio musicians, including some of the material released under Fred Wesley and the J.B.'s.
There were even some tracks on the first J.B.'s release Food for Thought that weren't recorded by the J.B.s - like Wine Spot and Blessed Blackness. If you listen closely you can hear that these tracks sound much more polished and sophisticated than the raw, chaotic (in a good way ) hits like Hot Pants Road and The Grunt, which actually featured the J.B.'s.

yeah, i hear the difference


but Boots and em' are on Hot Pants Road??

funkpill said:

Yeah, that's them.

soulyacolia said:

The JBs and James Brown are the same.

Jump Back !!!! uhh.....Love it....

Give it up or Turn it loose.....


The Master at work....

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Not all the way. The releases under Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s are definitely material that Fred did with more freedom. At times, Brown wasn't even around when Fred and the J.B.'s laid down the tracks, although the same could be said for much of the Black Caesar and Slaughter album. The albums were not released after the notion "Let's record some Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s tracks today", but you can definitely tell that Brown picked tracks with even more input by Fred than his own releases already had.

Since there are so many theories floating around on how the J.B.'s material was recorded, I asked Fred Wesley today to explain it. Here's what he came up with:


"Certain tunes like Breaking Bread, Wine Spot, Blessed Blackness were done by me for the JBs. Others like Same Beat, Gimmie some mo, Pass the Peas were done by James Brown for the JBs.
Then others like Doing it to Death, Damn right I am somebody, Watergate were collaborations by me and James Brown for the JBs. There were some like Blow your head, Giving up food for Funk, I'm payin' taxes that started out James Brown tunes or Lyn Collins tunes or Sweet Charles tunes but for lack of vocals turned out to be JBs tunes.
Then there were others like Hot Pants Road that written by St. Clair Pinckney for the JBs and The Grunt that was written by Bootsy for the original JBs.
We did so much recording in the early 70s until its difficult to pinpoint which was for what. But, as I explain in the book, Hit me, Fred, published by Duke University Press, available at Amazon.com and autographed at Funkyfredwesley.com, this went on until Polydor Records insisted on having a written budget that spelled out who the music was for, how much it would cost, etc.This was the beginning of the end of the free and open recording era for me and James Brown. I hope this clears it up."

funkpill said:

Thanks to Fred Wesley for laying it all out.

MrSoulpower said:

I read his book too

Qutie interesting


Now if only Maceo would write one

MrSoulpower said:

Uh, somebody needs to get you a job at University of Virginia, Willima & Mary, or Virgina Tech teaching a course in James Brown. Don't even laugh cuz if somebody can have a course about Beatles I know damn well there could be a course on James Brown, this shit is epic.

TD3 said:

Hook me up at UCLA and I'm there!!

MrSoulpower said:

OH, I have peeps on staff at UCLA just a away.