Today on Christmas day, 2006, the world was deprived of the godfather of soul, the legend, the one and only James Brown. A man whose voice, lifestyle, and hairstyle were inimitable. James Brown could sing! He could dance! But he could do a lot more than that! He could invent words and sounds that sounded like words, and no matter how many times you rewound that cassette (a sound medium of the past) you could never quite make out what that word was. As Eddie Murphy observed, only James Brown knew what James Brown was saying, and whatever James Brown was saying was always some serious shit, because at the end of every sentence he added the word, 'ha'. Almost everyone has a James Brown favourite, classics ranging from 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' to 'Living In America', play any of his records at a party and suddenly the dance floor will liven up. He'd done some weird shit on and off the stage, but he sure lived his life to the full. But the true genius of James Brown was that he was an inovator of the modern day art of word PUMPing. He was the 7th Dan Master of the PUMP. And no song exemplifies this more than the mezmerizing 'Man's World' "This is a maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan's wooooooorld, but he wouldn't be nooothiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing without a woman on earth." The world will miss James Brown, for he was a talented and truly interesting human being, plus he could skin up a reaaaaally good one with his eyes closed. Pneumonia took our beloved soul-man away. Reputedly his last words were: "I don't feeeeel so gooooood, you know what I'm sayin'" James Brown (1933-2006) You'll be missed, mate! Thank you for the music. ha
I like his darker music where he would talk about gang violence and guys with razors and guns he predated gangster rap and was a real musician who informed many styles of music
He certainly was. I saw him about 8 years ago at the open air theatre in Thessaloniki. He couldn't do the moves he used to in younger days and he took long stage breaks, but still it was great to see the man, because he was a legend. They gave him the Presidential Suite at the Hyatt Regency and he wrecked the place in just one night something like $25,000 worth of damage. The walls were plastered with hairdye and the cleaners got stoned just from the smoke residue. Phenomenal man.
Great thanks for the tip - If I meet any of his entourage they can sleep in a tent in the garden, if thats how they abused hospitality. As for trashing hotel rooms, respect??? Dude the guy was 73 and acting like a teenager ! jeez the only thing that behaviour earns respect for is that he had the strength aged 73 to lunk a TV set out of a hotel window. A feat most 20 year olds would find daunting. Do you know if he threw up in the bath or on the $50,000 dollars worth of carpet they put in his room? If I was that hotel manager, whether Brown was aged 73 or not, I would have smacked the dude in the bollocks with my knee, while twisting his nipples really hard. Then I would have jumped on him so I could beat the living crap out of him. If it was my hotel I may even have let a couple of Panthers out of a cage into his room to teach the bastard a lesson. Mind you, Brown woulda probly killed em with a sawn off ' - a hangover from his days robbing banks These pop stars think they can just trash hotel rooms to show how craaaaaazzzzzzzzzy they are but really all they are doing is tainting their own obituaries with sarcasm and disrespect - thats whats meant by the saying that to disrespect others is to disrespect yourself Being a bankrobber and hotel room trasher doesnt take away from his music but it does put him up there with people like Ronnie Biggs who also robbed banks and put peoples lives in danger ! Ronnie Biggs was a Train Robber who nearly killed a guy when he coshed him - and left him brain damaged - but thats not to take away from the fact that he was good for british newspaper sales Thank heavens some bank robbers provide a bit of entertainment so we can all live the experience of a cut-throat life as told by those who actually lived it, through their art. Without them our youth wouldnt be traumatised into violence and therefore life in the inner cities would be much less challenging for the elderly ! we have bankrobber muicians to thank for keeping our elderly citizens active and streetwise. Hurrah for the values of capitalism Failed bank robber ! James brown + successful bank robber Ronnie Biggs PS. After John Lydon - the brains behind the sex pistols - left them- they did an album called "The Great Rock n Roll Swindle" in which Biggs appeared and rattled off a couple of numbers which sounded like a leopard giving birth. It was still some 25 years before "Knacker" of the yard, caught up with him Biggs and Brown could have been great if they had teamed up and robbed banks together instead they failed and became musicians (well brown did) Biggs just became a senile twat and an embarrassment to everyone living off his immoral reputation in Brazil near to Martin Boorman PPS: I once nicked a mars bar from the corner shop - does this mean I should continue that career and perhaps become a getaway driver for some hardcore bankrobbers then after a decade inside I could be a musical legend? It would be the way to practice guitar and vocals - and either way I'd win .
Excellent report. Incidentally, a cetain fellow reporter in the Evening Standard made a complaint that in all the obituaries that were published regarding the late James Brown, not a single one said one iota of the truth of what the man's wild side was like. Sometimes respect walks hand in hand with hippocrisy, but at least you know that with the Scorpion and Sentient you can rely on reading a reportage that strikes deep in the vein of truth.
