New at Reason

December 28, 2006

Jesse Walker looks at the life and legacy of James Brown.

Comments

Guy Montag|12.28.06 @ 9:38AM|#

Ah, yes, another attempt to overshadow the death of the most underrated President of the United States!

|12.28.06 @ 9:46AM|#

Great piece, Jesse. Appreciated the context on the Nixon connection, hadnt heard Nixons 'Black power' endorsement speech before. Maybe 'splains Sammie Davis Jr's Nixon support also.

|12.28.06 @ 9:51AM|#

"Ah, yes, another attempt to overshadow the death of the most underrated President of the United States!"

That rat bastard Brown probably planned it that way.

Oww!|12.28.06 @ 10:00AM|#

James Brown has been sampled more than any other artist. He didn't just influence hip hop. He became a basic building block of the genre.

For this sin alone he is surely roasting in hell.

|12.28.06 @ 10:04AM|#

"James Brown has been sampled more than any other artist. He didn't just influence hip hop. He became a basic building block of the genre.

For this sin alone he is surely roasting in hell."

You have to understand, everything is "hip hop" now. It has become the most rediculous and meaningless terms in the history of the English language. Basically, anything or anyone in history that is in anyway liked by anyone who likes the genra is immediately called "hip hop". John Coltrane? he was hip hop jazz. Richard Pryor? Hip hop comedian. And so forth. I wish the term and the bullshit surounding it would just go away.

ChrisO|12.28.06 @ 10:11AM|#

For this sin alone he is surely roasting in hell.

Geez, talk about blaming the victim...

James Brown and the Beatles were the two most important musical acts of the last half of the 20th Century. Period.

Oww!|12.28.06 @ 10:32AM|#

"Victim."
It's funny 'cause it's true.

Guy Montag|12.28.06 @ 12:33PM|#

James Brown and the Beatles were the two most important musical acts of the last half of the 20th Century. Period.

The Beatles were the second most overrated band in all of history, IMHO.

|12.28.06 @ 1:01PM|#

I think it's appropriate. On the whole James Brown probably had a far greater influence on American lives than Gerald Ford did.

|12.28.06 @ 2:02PM|#

Fantastic piece, Jesse.

I own only 2 albums by the man: The 50th Anniversary Collection, and Live at the Apollo. Listening to them both on shuffle last night, it occurred to me that a huge part of his greatness was the intensity he brought to every song. Despite that a lot of the tracks on the compilation are rewrites of previous compositions, every time the man recorded he completely invested himself into that recording. The intensity of the live album cannot be overestimated. Every person in the audience could feel that he was singing right to them. Listening 44 years later, right after the man's death, I felt like he was singing for me.
Both albums are essential to any collection that includes anything recorded by a black man. He touched all popular music that has been recorded since.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.28.06 @ 4:22PM|#

I heard James Brown go Cosby on the young rapper crowd at his induction to the British version of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

So far, nobody told him to have a Coke and STFU.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.28.06 @ 4:33PM|#

Jesse, great piece, but I have to disagree with this:

After a decade of crossing over from the R&B world to the pop charts, he lost a large chunk of his white audience in 1968...

In 1968, the palefaces who were offended weren't buying his records anyway.

Jesse Walker|12.28.06 @ 4:36PM|#

Unfortunately, a number of the palefaces who were offended (or afraid of causing offense) owned radio stations.

|12.28.06 @ 5:40PM|#

In 1968, the palefaces who were offended weren't buying his records anyway.

Dude, paleface is not the preferred nomenclature. Honky-American, please.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.28.06 @ 6:12PM|#

...owned radio stations....

Maybe so, but not in LA.

Jesse, I know you're The Man when it comes to radio, but with all due respect, 1968 was not 1958. 1968 followed the Summer of Love and James Brown was not hurting for airplay or record sales. Not in So Cal anyway. So, maybe that's what it was, L.A. was just on the cutting edge and Grand Rapids wasn't.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.28.06 @ 6:14PM|#

Walter, I couldn't think of anything snappy so I went with something dumb. :-)

The Wine Commonsewer|12.28.06 @ 6:15PM|#

And even if JB lost airplay, and I'm not stipulating that he did, he was still selling records like hot cakes. You know how it goes, Money Talks and BS Walks.

Jesse Walker|12.28.06 @ 7:17PM|#

Well, the Billboard charts -- which are based on both sales and airplay -- show Brown continuing to have monster R&B hits after "Say it Loud." But he didn't have another top 10 *pop* hit until the mid-'80s, when "Living in America" (to my taste one of his weaker efforts) was a surprise success. Brown also wrote in one of his memoirs that his concert audiences became much more overwhelmingly black after '68.

Brown thinks that was because of the militant sentiments of "Say it Loud." It might also have something to do with the fact that his records were less melodic and thus less attractive to typical white stations (though of course there were exceptions). But while I'm sure he still had plenty of white fans, their relative numbers were definitely fewer.

|12.28.06 @ 9:50PM|#

"Ah, yes, another attempt to overshadow the death of the most underrated President of the United States!"

Well, in all fairness Mr. Ford's stuff was not nearly as danceable...

The Wine Commonsewer|12.28.06 @ 10:56PM|#

It might also have something to do with the fact that his records were less melodic and thus less attractive to typical white stations

I liked his early stuff best. So maybe that's really all it was for me and the rest of us White Boys.

Jim Walsh, plus Ford was always hitting people in the head with golf balls.