James Brown

Happy Birthday James Brown 1933-2006...The "Godfather of Soul" was born in a one room shack to a 22 year old father and a 16 year old mother in Barnwell, South Carolina. Brown spent his early life in turns at a brothel, with relatives and hanging on the streets dancing for pennies, shining shoes, washing cars or in the fields picking cotton in Georgia. He lived in extreme poverty, as he described it," I was 9 years old before I got a pair of underwear from a real store; all of my clothes were made of sacks and things like that. But I knew I had to make it. I had the determination to go on, and my determination was to be somebody."

Dismissed from school at age 12 for "insufficient clothing" Brown turned his part time jobs into full time work. He ironically turned to the church and religion for solace, singing in the choir, and to crime. At the age of 16 he was arrested for stealing a car and spent 3 years in prison. While incarcerated he formed a gospel choir and met the aspiring  R&B singer and pianist Bobby Byrd.

After leaving prison Brown, who had always been athletic, focused his energies on boxing and playing semi-professional baseball for two years. When Bryd invited him to join his R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters, Brown jumped at the chance and was soon the main attraction. They changed the name of the group to The Famous Flames and began playing local clubs around Macon, Georgia. In 1956 they signed a record contract with King Records on the strength of their demo of "Please, Please, Please". The recording was an instant hit. The band hit the road touring with B.B. King and Ray Charles but couldn't make another record that could match the popularity of their first.

Brown left for New York in 1957 and formed a new Flames group hoping to rekindle the magic. In 1958 he recorded "Try Me" and kick-started his career again, following with other hits like "Night Train" and "Prisoner of Love". He also toured relentlessly throughout the late 50's and early 60's, spreading his high energy sound throughout the country; performing 5 or 6 nights a week and earning himself the title of "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business". Brown's shows were exuberant, soulful, mesmerizing productions that caught his audiences up in rapturous delight. His saxophonist,  Pee Wee Ellis, once said, "When you heard that James Brown was coming to town, you stopped what you were doing and started saving your money."

Brown was a masterful, demanding showman, asking as much from his back up singers and musicians as he did from himself. He would fine musicians for wrong notes or dancing out of sync and would call out to them during performances to improvise on the spot. He was also an incredible dancer, learning all of the new dances of the era and created his own, often on the spot during performances. A 1963 album "Live a the Apollo" became Brown's biggest selling recording followed by "I Got You (I Feel Good)", "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World " which, with it's percussive instrumentation and unique rhythmic quality, is considered the first precursor to funk. In 1967 he recorded his first true funk song, "Cold Sweat" which hit number one on the R&B chart. During this time Brown was using musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition and he was known as a bandleader and a songwriter who could blend the complexities of jazz with the simple rhythms and drive of R&B.

Brown also became involved in social issues in the 60's, recording "Don't Be a Dropout"; a plea to the African-American community to place more focus on education (Brown himself barely finished 7th grade) and "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud", an anthem of empowerment. He was a follower of Martin Luther King Jr. and a proponent of non-violence. After King's assassination, Brown gave out a televised concert to calm nervous citizens and would-be rioters in Boston, hoping to keep them home watching the concert instead of out in the streets.

Throughout the 70's Brown continued to tour and record, most notably "Sex Machine" and "Get Up Offa That Thing" but trouble with the IRS and the rise of disco saw a fall-off of his performance abilities and popularity by the late 70's. He had a comeback with his performance in the film "The Blues Brothers" in 1980 and his song "Living in America", featured in the film "Rocky IV" in 1986, was his biggest hit in decades but he began to slid into drug addiction and depression. he was cited several times for domestic violence, the worst being in May 1988 when he hit his wife with a lead pipe and shot at her in their car. In a satellite interview with Brown by an L.A. reporter about the incident,  the singer appeared incoherent and the video went viral.  In September, 1988 he was sent to prison for entering an insurance seminar high on PCP bearing a shotgun, then leading police on a high speed chase.

After his release from prison Brown continued to record, making his last bill board hit, "Can't Get Any Harder" in 1993 and he kept up his grueling concert schedule despite his age and failing health, performing all over the world. He died a month after his final television appearance in 2006 of complications from diabetes and congestive heart failure.

Brown's career spanned 60 years and inspired many different genres of music including soul, funk and hip-hop. He understood fully where he stood in the development of American pop music. In his words, "Others may have followed in my wake, but I was the one who turned racist minstrelsy into black soul-and by doing so, became a cultural force." "As I always said, if people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music."