I get to go see James Brown in concert.
05.02.2003 : West Palm Beach, FL : Sunfest


Currently touring in the U.S. and abroad, Mr. James Brown's dynamic showmanship remains timeless. His style has been celebrated throughout generations. As one of the most sampled artists to date, he has more honors attached to his name than any other performer in music history.


Mr. Brown is a three-figure hitmaker with 114 total entries on Billboard's R&B singles charts and 94 that made the Hot 100 singles chart. Seventeen of these hits reached number one, a feat topped only by Stevie Wonder and Louis Jordan. Mr. Brown is still putting that "Good Foot" forward with new recordings and protoges such as Derrick Monk, Laurice Monica and Roosevelt Johnson.

Mr. Brown's life history contains many triumphs over adversity.


He was born in South Carolina during the Great Depression. As a child, he picked cotton, danced for spare change and shined shoes. At 16, he landed in reform school for three years where he met Bobby Byrd, leader of a gospel group and life-long friend. Mr. Brown tried semi-pro boxing and baseball, but a leg injury put him on the path to pursue music as a career.

James Brown joined his friend Bobby Byrd in a group that sang gospel in and around Toccoa, Georgia. After seeing Hank Ballard and Fats Domino in a blues revue, Byrd and Brown were lured into the realm of secular music. Naming their band the Flames, they formed a tightly knit ensemble of singers, dancers and multi-instrumentalists.

Over the years, while maintaining a grueling touring schedule, James Brown amassed 800 songs in his repertoire.


Mr. Brown became an icon of the music industry. With his signature one-three beat, James Brown directly influenced the evolutionary beat of soul music in the Sixties, funk music in the Seventies and rap music in the Eighties.

Mr. Brown instilled the essence of R&B with recordings under the King and Federal labels throughout the Sixties. With albums such as "Live at the Apollo", Mr. Brown captured the energy and hysteria generated by his live performances. People who had never seen him in person could hear and feel the excitement of him screaming and hollering until his back was soaking wet. Convinced that such an album would not sell, King Records refused to produce the album.


Mr. Brown put up his own money and recorded the performance at the Apollo Theater in 1962.

Released nearly a year later, "Live At The Apollo" went to Number Two on Billboard's album chart, an unprecedented feat for a live R&B album. Radio stations played it with a frequency formerly reserved for singles, and attendance at Mr. Brown's concerts mushroomed.

As the leader of the James Brown Revue (The J.B.'s), James Brown sweated off up to seven pounds a night through captivating performances. His furious regimen of spins, drops, and shtick such as feigning a heart attack thrilled crowds. The ritual donning of capes and skintight rhythm & blues became part of his personal trademark as a performer.

Mr. Brown's transformation of gospel fervor into the taut, explosive intensity of rhythm & blues, combined with precision choreography and dynamic showmanship, defined the direction of black music from the release of his first R&B hit ("Please Please Please") in 1956. In 1965, Brown scored his first Top 10 pop single with "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," and the hits kept coming one after another for the next decade.

The gospel and blues structure of his early records gave way to rhythmic vocals and a complex funk sound. His innovations during this period had a profound influence on popular music styles around the world, including funk, rock, Afro-pop, disco and eventually rap.


James Brown's status as "The Godfather of Soul" remains undiminished. He continues to influence new generations of fans who often hear his funk grooves as samples on rap recordings. A charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Mr. Brown added to his collection of accolades when he received a lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 1992.







James Speaks Out! (listen)

James is Mad (listen)

The man has been "doing it to death" for quite some time. I plan on taking full advantage of going to see him cause I'm not sure how much longer he's going to keep doing it!

Check out how many albums this guy is still putting out!
http://www.godfatherofsou.../index.htm

GodFather Of Soul... he is!!

Hey maybe we could flood http://www.npgmusicclub.com and http://www.michaeljackson.com with e-mails asking for Prince and MJ to make a reunion appearance!

JB is THE DADDY.

I just got through making a mix cd of him and his funky peoples:

1. Gimme Some Mo (Very Live) - The JBs
2. There It is (Live)
3. Think - Lyn Collins
4. From the Love Side - Hank Ballard
5. The Boss
6. The Payback
7. Think (73)
8. Hot Pants
9. I Know You Got Soul - Bobby Byrd
10.She's the One
11.Doin' It To Death - The JBs
12.Soul Power 74 - Maceo and the Macks
13.You Got To Have A Mother For Me
14.SuperGood - Vicki Anderson

I loves some JB

He's DEF cool...

My studio partner Frank knows everybody down here. Last time he was down, Frank got to go back stage and talk with him.

I'm going to ask if he could do me that favor this time! I'll have my digital camera ready too!

JAMES IZ THA MAN...

I would say that JB is one of the greatest musical innovators of the last century... almost all pop music owes a debt to him... however the shows are not what they were... his band is largely a bunch of dorkish looking white guys these days and he tends to have these operatic types in the band, since the "defection" of even Martha High (to Maceo's band) JB has gone from sad to sadder, I wish he would stick with some grooves in a show... sadly without the guys who helped create that JB sound, Maceo, Fred Wesley, the Collins brothers, the great drummers: (Jabo, Clyde... etc), Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, things are not what they were even in the eighties... I am not wanting to "diss" the man, but somehow I find it all a bit sad, from the man who created all that music it's interesting to see that since all the greats left there hasn't been a great JB new song since... well you tell me... notice too that with the long list of deserved accolaydes Yamomma posted here not ONE of his great sidemen or women is mentioned even though the list of Chickengrease's compilation is predominantly those exact side people!!!
... if you want a good read on the James Brown heyday, check out Fred Wesley's book "Hit Me Fred"... he pulls no punches in telling it like it was... just got it from Amazon and couldn't put it down..

I wish though I had seen him in his heyday, that dancing must have been incredible!!!

FelixtheCat said:

felixthecat,the Fred wesley book is intoxicating. couldn't
put the sucker down! JB is a musical treasure...and a legend
in his own mind!!! (ha ha) he's BAD...and he's mr.EGomaniac
with a capital E!

i saw him in his hey-day and he was...amazing.

MJ got his moonwalk from Jb...and TAKE my word for it-JB was
the better dancer!!!


'you ain't seen nothin' yet until you see me do theJAMES BROWN,hey!!!..."

Arguably the Most Influential Musical Figure in Popualr Music over the last 50 Years When you think about how many People got stuff off Him in all Styles of Music&the Fact His Music is still Sampled,Looped&whatnot to this Day.Image&style as well.ALL Hail to the GODFATHER!!!

You said it, Mistermaxxx. JB is the King!!!

Great documentary on James Brown

The Politics of Soul : http://broadband.wgbh.org/quicktime/politicsofsoul/

Great documentary on James Brown

The Politics of Soul : http://broadband.wgbh.org...icsofsoul/

I STILL SEE HIM WHEN HE DOES A SHOW. BUT LAST YEAR ALL I DID WAS BUY OLD JAMES BROWN VIDEOS FROM E-BAY.


BOSTON GARDEN 1968
APOLLO 1968
OLYMPIA 71
SOUL TRAIN 1971-1974 (FANTASTIC VIDEOS)

YOU CAN BUY THEM ON EBAY NOW EVEN!

NOW I KNOW MICHAEL JACKSON WAS NOT THE BETTER DANCER (TRUST ME) AFTER SEEING THOSE VIDEOS FROM E-BAY.

yamomma said:

He's THE MAN! he's the one that got me hooked on funky/soul. back to "PAPA"S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG", "IT"S A MANS WORLD", "I FEEL GOOD", "COLD SWEAT", "MONEY WONT CHANGE U", "LICKEN STICK", "TRY ME" & many others. love u james!!!saw him perform many times, and he really knew how to put on a show. still does.