Listening to this album: http://www.discogs.com/Fr...ase/550580

The track "Makin' Love" musically is "Skin Tight", exactly (except for the lyrics)

Discogs says James Brown wrote "Makin' Love", but as far as i know "Skin Tight" is a Ohio Players composition. Both albums were released in 1974 but i don't know which came 1st...

I'd love to know the story (if any) behind this: who stole who? Why? How? Were there legal problems around it?

Thanks ^^

I wasn't aware of that but James also blatantly copied David Bowie's "Fame" when he recorded "Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved)."

Here's "Makin' Love"

and "Skin Tight"

It's pretty obvious that the songs are very similar.

The Ohio Players album was released in April, the JB's in December.

I think James Brown had the attitude that he created funk, so all funk was his.

I love James but dude outright stole his melodies and rhythm grooves from other funk and soul songs in the past.

"Good, Good Lovin'" from his early years sounded like a Little Richard reject.

His 1960s arrangement of "Think" was similar to the Five Royales' one though that one was slower. (He did a way different arrangement in the '73 version)

His duet with Lyn Collins, "What My Baby Needs Now is a Little More Loving", was really a remake of Bobby Womack's "Come L'Amore" albeit with different lyrics and a different key pitch.

The JB's "The Grunt" is definitely a stole: he got the melody and groove right out of the Isley Brothers' "Keep on Doin'"; the Isleys recorded "Keep on Doin'" in late 1969 and released it in Feb. 1970; the JB's "Grunt" was recorded in March '70 and released in May of that year.

Of course "I Need to Be Loved, Loved, Loved" stole the riff from David Bowie's "Fame". Some historians claimed James did that to "get back" at guitarist Carlos Alomir from taking a riff from one of his songs. Apparently he thought Carlos and David had stolen the riff from an unreleased JB song but he couldn't prove it.

----
In fact, like George Clinton and Sly Stone, James Brown can't be single-handedly created for creating funk music anyways.

JB had a backing team: Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Jabo Starks, Alfred Ellis, Bobby Byrd obviously being a great benefactor from JB's early years into the '70s, etc., etc., etc.

I think he was thinking the songs that sounded like songs he would do, he would come out with a "remake" and say "this is how it done" when it wasn't no different from the other songs.

Imitation may have been a form of flattery but James seemed to have a problem with people doing music that he claimed came from within his own mind.

That's why he dissed the Ohio Players and Barry White in "Get Up Offa That Thang", he accused them of stealing his sound. "BARRY WHITE, I'M MAD!" Come on now, dude was JEALOUS!

According to his book, Fred Wesley stated around that time, J.B. was running out of ideas and started to copy the music of people he influence, which gave heated arguments between him and Fred.

The last straw was when (It's Not The Express) It's The JB's Monaurail was recorded, which came from B.T. Express "Express"

Fred left J.B. for good afterwards.





It's a good read

funkpill said:

Hahaha nice. I remember reading on a blog about Hank Ballard (one of James' heroes, the creator of "The Twist" and one of the early pioneers of R&B and rock and roll) that when Hank started working for James in the late '60s that James was already in the throes of an addiction to PCP and said that James barely wrote a track, saying that Bobby Byrd wrote all of James' early hits (the ones that weren't covers) and that James didn't credit him (and other members of the Famous Flames and the James Brown Orchestra). Had something to do with being a control freak.

I thought that was interesting because you would hear other musicians say that he would make his band do the same riffs 100 times before they got it right in his head. Like Marvin didn't had to tell the Funk Brothers to go over "Inner City Blues" 50 times before they had it right, but James wasn't satisfied with any one take. And after all those takes, James would end up picking the first take anyway.

I wonder if Bootsy and Catfish left, not only because James caught them smoking weed, but if they felt like they weren't compensated for "Sex Machine" and other songs from that period. I always wondered about that.

No doubt James played a pivotal role in music and deserves his accolades but something about how he would steal riffs or not credit any of the musicians who helped to write his classics (though Fred Wesley was credited on a bunch of James' songs in the '70s) bothered me.

2 bad the Ohio Players version KILLS the JB version.
It is obvious JB stole his version.

Thanks y'all 4 the insights

I knew about the Bowie rip-off but had no clue that Brown did this on a regular basis

On "Makin' Love", the stealing is SO obvious & so complete that it almost makes it ridiculous

So basically, since i guess "Makin' Love" was copyrighted, the funny thing is that if you cover "Skin Tight" & pay royalties to the Ohio Players, the James Brown estate might be able to sue you claiming you used THEIR song
[Edited 5/26/10 16:36pm]

Rioub said:

Impressive knowledge of details considering that it was 36 years ago!!!

Thanks!

(If you're good with release dates you might want to help with my chronological discography - see link below )

I don't think JB did blatant rip-offs, more so showing respect. He liked the groove's so much that he redid them. No different than in a live show and doin' a tune.

I Don't Know

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I would be more inclined to agree with that theory if he did that with album tracks but by releasing these "tributes" as singles it seems like he was trying to cash in.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Maybe LATER in his life, but back in the day, HELL NAW, dude was MAD.