James Brown
Template:Infobox musical artist 2 James Joseph Brown (May 3 1933 – December 25 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," was an American entertainer recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th-century popular music. He was renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and unique rhythmic style.
As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader and record producer, Brown was a seminal force in the evolution of gospel and rhythm and blues into soul and funk. He left his mark on numerous other musical genres, including rock, jazz, reggae, disco, dance and electronic music, afrobeat and hip hop music.
Brown began his professional music career in 1953 and skyrocketed to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and string of smash hits. In spite of various personal problems and setbacks, he continued to score hits in every decade through the 1980s. In the 1960s and 1970s, Brown was a presence in American political affairs, noted especially for his activism on behalf of African Americans and the poor.
Brown was recognized by a plethora of (mostly self-bestowed) titles, including Soul Brother Number One, Mr. Dynamite, the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business, Minister of The New New Super Heavy Funk, Mr. Please Please Please, The Boss, and the best-known, the Godfather of Soul.
Biography
Early life
Brown was born in the small town of Barnwell during Depression-era South Carolina as James Joseph Brown, Jr. As an adult, Brown legally changed his name to remove the "Jr." designation.[1] Brown's family eventually moved to nearby Augusta, Georgia. During his childhood, Brown helped support his family by picking cotton in the nearby fields and shining shoes downtown. In his spare time, Brown variously spent time either practicing his skills in Augusta-area halls or committing petty crimes. At the age of sixteen, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center upstate in Toccoa in 1948.
While Brown was in prison, he became acquainted with Bobby Byrd. Byrd's family helped Brown secure an early release after serving only three years of his sentence, under the condition that he not return to Augusta or Richmond County and that he would try to get a job. After brief stints as a boxer and baseball pitcher (a career move ended by a leg injury), Brown turned his energy toward music.
Music through the years
The legendary music career of James Brown spanned over five decades, adding the tastes and flavors to music throughout the ages. Despite his prowess as a musical performer, Brown never learned to read music. Like Duke Ellington, he developed his repertoire in close association with the members of his band, who were predominantly jazz-trained musicians with a working knowledge of music theory. As his former band leader Fred Wesley recalled,
| [I]t would have been impossible for James Brown to put his show together without the assistance of someone like Pee Wee [Ellis], who understood chord changes, time signatures, scales, notes, and basic music theory. Simple things like knowing the key would be a big problem for James ... The whole James Brown Show depended on having someone with musical knowledge remember the show, the individual parts, and the individual songs, then relay these verbally or in print to the other musicians. Brown could not do it himself. He spoke in grunts, groans, and la-di-das, and he needed musicians to translate that language into music and actual songs in order to create an actual show.[2] |
As a tower and icon in music history, Brown's beat shaped and influenced music over the years ranging from gospel, rock and roll, rhythm and blues and soul, straight through to funk, techno, rap and hip hop.[3]
Beginnings of the Famous Flames
In 1955, Brown and Bobby Byrd's sister Sarah performed in a group called "The Gospel Starlighters." Eventually, Brown joined Bobby Byrd's vocal group, the Avons, and Byrd turned the group's sound towards secular rhythm and blues. After the group's name was changed to The Flames, Brown and Byrd's group toured the Southern "chitlin' circuit," and the group eventually signed a deal with the Federal subsidiary of Syd Nathan's Cincinnati, Ohio-based King Records.
The group's first recording was the single "Please, Please, Please" (1956). The single was a #5 R&B hit, selling over a million copies. However, subsequent records released by The Flames failed to live up to the success of "Please, Please, Please". By 1958 and after nine failed singles, King was ready to drop Brown and the Flames when they bounced back with "Try Me," which became Brown's first No. 1 R&B hit.[4] By this time, the group's billing had changed to James Brown and The Famous Flames, and Brown had decisively taken over the leading role from Byrd. The group had several more chart hits over the next four years, including "I'll Go Crazy," "Bewildered," and the instrumental "Night Train," which reached the Pop Top 40. By the end of 1960, the group's recordings were released on the King label proper, rather than released on the label of its subsidiary. Brown also recorded songs on his own without vocal backup from the Famous Flames, such as the #2 R&B hit, "Baby, You're Right."
Brown's early recordings were fairly straightforward gospel-inspired R&B compositions, heavily inspired by the work of contemporary musicians such as Ray Charles. Yet, some of these recordings, such as his 1960 cover version of The "5" Royales' "Think," were already marked by a heavy rhythmic emphasis that would become even more pronounced in the coming years. Little Richard was a notable influence on Brown at this point. In fact, Brown once called Little Richard his idol, and credited his saxophone-studded mid-1950s road band The Upsetters with being the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat.[5] When Little Richard bolted from pop music in 1957 to become a preacher, Brown honored Little Richard's remaining tour dates in his place; consequently, several former members of Little Richard's backup band joined Brown's revue.
Early and mid-1960s
While Brown's early singles were major hits across the southern United States and became regular R&B Top Ten hits, he and the Flames were not nationally successful until his self-financed live show was captured on the LP Live at the Apollo in 1962, which was released without the consent of his label, King Records.
Brown followed this success with a string of singles that, along with the work of Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, essentially defined funk music. The 1964 single "Out of Sight" was a harbinger of the new James Brown sound, even more than "Night Train" had been. The song's arrangement was raw and unornamented, the horns and the drums took center stage in the mix, and Brown's vocals took on an even more intense, rhythmic feel. However, Brown violated his contract with King Records again by recording "Out of Sight" for Smash Records; the ensuing legal battle resulted in a one year ban on the release of his vocal recordings.[6]
The mid-1960s was the period of Brown's greatest popular success. Two of his signature tunes, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)," both from 1965, were Brown's first Top 10 pop hits as well as major #1 R&B hits, with each remaining the top-selling singles in black venues for over a month. In 1966, Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording (an award last given in 1968). His national profile was boosted further that year by appearances in the films Ski Party and the concert film The T.A.M.I. Show in which he upstaged The Rolling Stones. In his concert repertoire and on record, Brown mingled his innovative rhythmic essays with ballads such as "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1965), and even interwined them with Broadway show tunes.
Brown continued to develop the new funk idiom. "Cold Sweat" (1967), a song with only one chord change, was considered a departure when compared even to Brown's other recent innovations. Critics have since come to see this shift as a high-water mark in the dance music of the 1960s; "Cold Sweat" was sometimes called the first "true" funk recording.
Brown often made creative adjustments to his songs for greater appeal. He sped up the released version of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" to make the song even more intense and commercial. He also spun off new compositions from the grooves of earlier ones by continual revision of their arrangements. For example, the hit "There Was a Time" emerged out of the chord progression and rhythm arrangements of the 1967 song "Let Yourself Go."[7]
The late 1960s
Brown employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition. He was noted for his ability as a bandleader and songwriter to blend the simplicity and drive of R&B with the rhythmic complexity and precision of jazz. Trumpeter Lewis Hamlin and saxophonist/keyboardist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (the successor to previous bandleader Nat Jones) led the band. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen provided percussive, deceptively simple riffs for each song, and Maceo Parker's prominent saxophone solos provided a focal point for many performances. Other members of Brown's band included stalwart singer and sideman Bobby Byrd, drummers John "Jabo" Starks, Clyde Stubblefield and Melvin Parker (Maceo's brother), saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney, trombonist Fred Wesley, guitarist Alphonso "Country" Kellum and bassist Bernard Odum.
As the 1960s came to a close, Brown refined his funk style even further with "I Got the Feelin'" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (both recorded in 1968) and "Funky Drummer" (recorded in 1969). By this time, Brown's "singing" increasingly took the form of a kind of rhythmic declamation that only intermittently featured traces of pitch or melody. His vocals, not quite sung but not quite spoken, would be a major influence on the technique of rapping, which would come to maturity along with hip hop music in the coming decades. Supporting his vocals were instrumental arrangements that featured a more refined and developed version of Brown's mid-1960s style. The horn section, guitars, bass and drums all meshed together in strong rhythms based around various repeating riffs, usually with at least one musical "break".
Brown's recordings influenced musicians across the industry, most notably Sly and his Family Stone, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s and soul shouters like Edwin Starr, Temptations David Ruffin, Dennis Edwards and a then-prepubescent Michael Jackson, who took Brown's shouts and dancing into the pop mainstream as the lead singer of Motown's The Jackson 5. Those same tracks would later be resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the 1970s onward. In fact, James Brown remains the world's most sampled recording artist, and "Funky Drummer" has itself been counted as the most sampled individual piece of music.[8]
The content of Brown's songs developed along with their delivery. Socio-political commentary on the black person's position in society and lyrics praising motivation and ambition filled songs like "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968) and "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door I'll Get It Myself)" (1970). Although this change gained him an even greater position in the black community, the change in how Brown developed and delivered his songs caused him to lose much of his white audience, who could no longer relate to the songs' lyrics.
The 1970s: The JB's
By 1970, most of the members of James Brown's classic 1960s band had quit his act for other opportunities. He and Bobby Byrd employed a new band that included future funk greats such as bassist Bootsy Collins, Collins' guitarist brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins and trombonist/musical director Fred Wesley. This new backing band was dubbed "The JB's", and the band made its debut on Brown's 1970 single "Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like a) Sex Machine". Although the JB's went through several lineup changes (the first in 1971), the bank remained Brown's most familiar backing band.
As Brown's musical empire grew (he bought radio stations in the late 1960s, including Augusta's WRDW, where he had shined shoes as a boy), his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. In 1971, he began recording for Polydor Records. Among his first Polydor releases was the #1 R&B hit "Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants)." Many of his sidemen and supporting players, such as Fred Wesley & the JB's, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Myra Barnes and Hank Ballard, released records on Brown's subsidiary label, People, an imprint created as part of Brown's Polydor contract. These recordings were as much a part of Brown's legacy as those released under his own name, and most are noted examples of what might be termed James Brown's "house" style. The early 1970s marked the first real awareness, outside the African-American community, of Brown's achievements. Miles Davis and other jazz musicians began to cite Brown as a major influence on their styles, and Brown provided the score for the 1973 blaxploitation film Black Caesar.
In 1974, Brown performed in Zaire as part of the build up to the The Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
His Polydor recordings during the 1970s were a summation of all the innovation of the last twenty years, and while some critics maintain that he declined artistically during this period. Compositions such as "The Payback" (1973), "Papa Don't Take No Mess" and "Stoned to the Bone" (1974), "Funky President (People It's Bad)" (1975) and "Get Up Offa That Thing" (1976) are still considered among his best recordings.
The late 1970s and 1980s
By the mid-1970s, Brown's star-status was on the wane, and key musicians such as Bootsy Collins had begun to depart Brown's band form their own groups. The disco movement, which Brown anticipated, and some say originated, found relatively little room for Brown. His 1976 albums Get Up Offa That Thing and Bodyheat were his first flirtations with "disco-fied" rhythms incorporated into his funky repertoire. While the 1977 release Mutha's Nature and the 1978 release Jam 1980s did not generate charted hits, The Original Disco Man LP, released in 1979, was a notable late addition to his oeuvre. This album featured the song "It's Too Funky in Here," which was his last top R&B hit of the decade. Ironically, the song was not produced by Brown himself, but rather by producer Brad Shapiro.
Brown experienced somewhat of a resurgence during the 1980s, effectively crossing over to a broader, more mainstream audience. He made cameo appearances in the feature films The Blues Brothers, Doctor Detroit and Rocky IV, as well as guest starring in the Miami Vice episode "Missing Hours" in 1988. He also released Gravity, a modestly popular crossover album, and the hit 1985 single "Living in America," featured prominently in the Rocky IV film and soundtrack. In 1987, Brown won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the hit release for "Living in America." Acknowledging his influence on modern hip-hop and R&B music, Brown collaborated with hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa on the single "Unity", and worked with the group Full Force on a #5 R&B hit single, contributed to 1988 single "Static" from the hip-hop influenced album I'm Real. The drum break to his 1969 song "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" became so popular at hip hop dance parties (especially for breakdance) during the late 1970s and early 1980s that hip hop founding father Kurtis Blow calls the song "the national anthem of hip hop."[9]
Music during later years
Brown met with a series of legal and financial setbacks during later years. After a stint in prison, Brown released the album Love Overdue, with the new single "Move On." Brown also released the 1991 four-CD box set Star Time, which spanned his four-decade career. Nearly all of his earlier LPs were re-released on CD, often with additional tracks and commentary by experts on Brown's music. In 1993, James Brown released the album called Universal James, which spawned the singles "Can't Get Any Harder," "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina." In 1995, the live album Live At The Apollo 1995 was released, featuring a new track recorded in the studio called "Respect Me," which was released as a single that same year. A megamix called "Hooked on Brown" was released as a single in 1996. And in 1998, James Brown released the studio album, I'm Back, featuring the single "Funk On Ah Roll." In 2002, James Brown released the album The Next Step, which featured the single "Killing is Out, School is In." In 2003, he participated in the PBS American Masters television documentary James Brown: Soul Survivor, directed by Jeremy Marre.
Although Brown had various run-ins with the law, he continued to perform and record regularly, and even made appearances in television shows and films, such as Blues Brothers 2000. He appeared at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert, on July 6, 2005, where he did a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag." He also did a duet with another British pop star, Joss Stone, a week earlier on the United Kingdom chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Before his death, he was scheduled to perform a duet with singer Annie Lennox on the song "Vengeance" on her new album Venus, scheduled for release in early 2007. In 2006, Brown continued his "Seven Decades Of Funk World Tour", to be his last, performing all over the world. His latest shows were still greeted with positive reviews. One of his final concert performances was at the Irish Oxegen festival in Punchestown in 2006 to a record crowd of 80,000 people.
Personal life outside of music
At the end of his life, James Brown lived in a riverfront home in Beech Island, South Carolina, directly across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. Brown was once diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was successfully treated with surgery. Regardless of his health, Brown maintained his reputation as the "hardest working man in show business" by keeping up with his grueling performance schedule. However, James Brown led as colorful a life on stage with his performances, as he had off stage with his troubles with the law and his last marriage in particular.
Marriages
Brown was married four times — Velma Warren (1953–1969, divorced), Deidre "Deedee" Jenkins (1970–1981, divorced), Adrianne (Adrienne) Rodriguez (1984–1994, wife's death) and Tomi Rae Hynie (2001–2006, his death). Brown had three children by his first wife (Velma Warren — Teddy, Terry and Larry Brown), three by his second wife (Deidre Jenkins — Dr. Yamma Noyola Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas and Daryl Brown, a guitarist in Brown's band) and one child with his last wife (Tomi Rae Hynie — James Joseph Brown II, who was born on June 11, 2001). His eldest son, Teddy, died in a car crash in 1973.[10]
However, much controversy surrounds Hynie's 2001 "marriage" to James Brown, which was officiated by Rev. Larry Fryer.[11] Brown's longtime attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, reported that the marriage between Brown and Hynie was not valid because Hynie was married at that time to Javed Ahmed, a Pakastani whom Hynie claimed married her for a "green card" in an immigration fraud. Although Hynie stated that her marriage to Javed Ahmed was later annulled, the annulment for Hynie's 1997 marriage to Ahmed did not occur until April 2004.[12][11] In an interview on CNN with Larry King, Hynie produced a 2001 marriage certificate as proof of her marriage to James Brown, but she did not provide King with court records pointing to an annulment of her marriage to him or to Ahmed.[13] According to Dallas, Brown was angry that Hynie had concealed the marriage from him. Dallas added that, although Hynie's marriage to Javed Ahmed was annulled after she married James Brown, the Brown-Hynie marriage was not valid under South Carolina law because Brown and Hynie did not remarry after the annulment.[13][14] Sometime in 2003 during Brown's volatile relationship with Hynie, he took out an advertisement in Variety Magazine featuring Hynie, James II and himself on vacation at Disney World to announce that he and Hynie were going their separate ways.[15]
In a separate CNN interview, Debra Opri, another Brown family attorney, revealed to Larry King that Brown wanted an DNA test performed after his death to confirm the paternity of James II — not for Brown's sake, but for the sake of the other family members.[16]
Brushes with the police
Brown's personal life was marred by several brushes with the law. At the age of 16, was arrested for theft and served 3 years in prison. In 1988, Brown was arrested following a high-speed car chase on Interstate 20 Georgia-South Carolina state border. He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer, along with various drug-related and driving offenses. Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he was eventually released in 1991 after serving only three years of his sentence. On July 3, 2000, the police was summoned to Brown's residence after he was accused of charging an electric company repairman with a steak knife during the repairman's visit to Brown's house to investigate a complaint of having no lights at the residence.[17]
During the 1990s and 2000s, Brown was repeatedly arrested for drug possession and domestic abuse. Adrienne Rodriguez, his third wife, had him arrested four times between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s on charges of assault. In January 2004, Brown was arrested in South Carolina on a domestic violence charge after Tomi Rae Hynie accused him of pushing her to the floor during an argument at their home, where she suffered scratches and bruises to her right arm and hip. Later that year in June 2004. Brown pleaded no contest to the domestic violence incident, but served no jail time. Instead, Brown was required to forfeit a $1,087 bond as punishment.[18]
Death
On December 23 2006, Brown, in ill heath, showed up at his dentist's office for dental work. During preparation for the dental work, Brown's dentist advised him to see his doctor right away about what appeared to be a severe case of pneumonia. Brown checked in at the Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia for medical evaluation of his condition, and his doctor admitted him to the hospital for observation and treatment.[19] Although Brown had to cancel upcoming shows in Connecticut and New Jersey, he was confident that he would be released from the hospital in time to perform at the Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey, perform two shows on New Year's Eve at the B. B. King Blues Club and a perform a song live on CNN for Anderson Cooper's New Year's Eve special. Instead, his medical condition worsened throughout that day.
On December 25 2006, Brown died at approximately 1:45 a.m. (06:45 UTC) from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia, with his agent, Frank Copsidas and his friend Charles Bobbit at his bedside.[20] According to Bobbit, Brown uttered "I'm going away tonight," and then took three, long quiet breaths and closed his eyes.[20]
Honors, awards and dedications
In 1993, the City Council of Steamboat Springs, Colorado conducted a poll to choose a new name for the bridge that crosses the Yampa River on Shield Drive. The winning name with 7,717 votes was "James Brown Soul Center of the Universe Bridge". It was officially dedicated in May of that year. Later in the summer, James Brown performed on the bridge and held a concert at the Strings in the Mountains tent. In 2006, a petition was started by a local group of ranchers to return the name of the bridge to "Stockbridge" for historical reasons; however, due to the popularity of the James Brown name, they withdrew their petition. James Brown returned to Steamboat Springs, Colorado on July 4, 2002 for an outdoor music festival, performing with other bands such as the String Cheese Incident.
On November 11 1993, Augusta mayor Charles DeVaney held a ceremony during which Augusta's 9th Street was renamed "James Brown Boulevard" in the entertainer's honor. On May 6 2005, as a seventy-second birthday present for Brown, the City of Augusta unveiled a seven-foot bronze statue of the singer. The statue was to have been dedicated a year earlier, but the ceremony was put on hold because of a domestic abuse charge that Brown faced at the time. He later forfeited bond on the domestic abuse charge.
James Brown received several prestigious music industry awards and honors. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural induction dinner in New York on January 23 1986. On February 25 1992, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards. Exactly a year later, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th annual Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards. On November 14 2006, Brown was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame. He was one of several inductees who performed at the ceremony.
Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors in 2003.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #7 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[21].
On August 22 2006, the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority voted to rename the city's civic center the James Brown Arena.
Discography
For a full listing of albums and singles, see James Brown discography.
Top ten singles
These singles reached the top ten on either the Billboard Hot 100 or the Billboard Top R&B Singles charts.
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Best albums
Until the early 1970s, Brown was famous mostly for his roadshow and singles rather than albums (his live LPs being a major exception). Many of his early albums include tracks that were recorded in the studio and later overdubbed with the sounds of a live audience in an attempt to recreate the explosive excitement of the original Live at the Apollo. Four James Brown albums, all but one of them compilations, appear on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time:
- Live at the Apollo (1963)
- In the Jungle Groove (1986)
- Star Time (1991)
- 20 All-Time Greatest Hits! (1991)
The following albums, originally released as double LP records, feature extensive playing by the legendary JB's. They have been a prolific source of samples for later musical artists:
- The Payback (1973)
- Get on the Good Foot (1972)
- Hell (1974)
The Live at the Apollo Vol. 2 double LP album, released in 1968, was notably influential on then-contemporary musicians. It remains an example of Brown's highly energetic live performances and audience interaction, as well as documenting the metamorphosis of his music from R&B and soul styles into hard funk.
Chronological collections
In addition to the career-spanning Star Time, Polydor released a series of CD collections devoted to specific periods in Brown's long career, similar to Columbia Records' Miles Davis boxed sets.
- Roots of a Revolution (2 CD; covers 1956-1964)
- Foundations of Funk: A Brand New Bag, 1964-1969 (2 CD)
- Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang (1 CD)
- Make It Funky - The Big Payback: 1971-1975 (2 CD)
- Dead on the Heavy Funk, 1975-1983(2 CD)
Two other collections anthologize Brown's instrumental recordings with his 60s band and the JBs:
- Soul Pride: The Instrumentals (1960-69) (2 CD)
- Funky Good Time: The Anthology (2 CD; covers 1970-1976)
Trivia
- Brown held the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.[22]
- Brown's 1976 single "Hot" (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)" (R&B #31) borrowed the main riff from David Bowie's "Fame", not the other way around as is often believed. The riff was provided to "Fame" co-writers John Lennon and Bowie by guitarist Carlos Alomar.[23]
- Brown appeared at the World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view event SuperBrawl X in 2000, dancing alongside wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller, whose character was based on Brown.[25]
- Brown was featured in Tony Scott's 2001 short film, Beat the Devil, alongside Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson.[26]
- Brown made a cameo appearance in the 2002 Jackie Chan film The Tuxedo, in which Chan was required to finish Brown's act after Brown is indisposed.[27]
Pop culture references
- Brown's inspiration was habitually credited in the liner notes of hip hop albums during the late 1980s. His name is also mentioned in several hit rock and R&B songs, including Arthur Conley's 1967 "Sweet Soul Music," Tom Tom Club's 1982 "Genius of Love," and Prince's 1991 "Gett Off."
- One of Eddie Murphy's well-known characters during his tenure on Saturday Night Live was his caricature of Brown during the James Brown Hot Tub Party sketch. In this sketch, Murphy as Brown danced while wearing a towel in typical James Brown fashion in front of a backing band, singing about his attempt to get into a scalding hot tub of water. Murphy also referenced Brown in his standup comedy film Delirious, mocking Brown's energy and style of conversing with the band during a song. However, Brown got revenge; his song "Living in America" includes the line "Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out!", ostensibly in retaliation to Murphy's jokes.
- In the 1993 movie Mrs. Doubtfire, Daniel Hillard, played by Robin Williams, joked around in a movie studio with toy dinosaurs, not realizing that he was being watched by the studio executive, who is impressed with his humor and ingenuity. During one scene, Hillard joked with a brontosaurus character by saying "Let's welcome Mr. James Browntasaurus," and continued on to sing a parody of I Got You (I Feel Good), called "I Eat Wood." Because of this scene, Hillard was offered a position, and the studio executive set up a meeting with him to discuss the parody.
- James Brown Jr. was featured as a recurring character on Mad TV, played by Aries Spears. The portrayal was an exaggerated parody of Brown's energetic performing style.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied Brown's "Living in America" with his song, "Living With a Hernia". The accompanying video featured Yankovic with dark skin and an identical costume to that which Brown wore in his Rocky IV appearance.
- The Simpsons DABF17 episode, 13th season finale, features an obviously James Brown-inspired title: "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge."
Sample
References
- Footnotes
- ^ Brown, J. & Eliot, M. (introduction). (2005). I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life Soul. New York: New American Library. ISBN 045-121393-9.
- ^ Wesley Jr., F. (2002). Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman, 97. Durham: Duke University Press.
- ^ Pitts, Jr., L. (2007, January 9). Brown's legendary status went beyond his music. The Kansas City Star. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ 1986 Inductees: James Brown, performer. (2005). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ 1986 Inductees: Little Richard, performer. (2005). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. Retrieved October 28, 2006.
- ^ James Brown: Biography. (2006). All Media Guide. Retrieved November 22, 2006.
- ^ George, N. (1988). The Death of Rhythm and Blues, 101. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 0452266971.
- ^ Most sampled songs and Most sampled artists. The-Breaks.com. Retrieved December 30, 2006
- ^ Liner notes - Kurtis Blow presents: The History of Rap, Vol. 1. Rhino Records. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ Stritof, S. & Stritof, B. (2006). The marriages of James Brown. About.com: Marriage. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ a b Martin, J. (2007, January 4). Tomi Rae defends her relationship with James Brown. WRDW-TV (Augusta, GA). Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ Gardner, L. (2006, December 26). Tomi Rae Hynie: "It's a blatant lie." WRDW-TV (Augusta, GA). Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ a b Anderson, V. (2007, January 5). Probate hearing may determine whether Hynie is James Brown's widow. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ Brown widow: I've been locked out. (2006). CNN Entertainment News. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ Public announcement of annulment in Variety Magazine. (2003, July 22). The Smoking Gun. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ Brown wanted paternity test. (2007, January 8). The Herald Sun (Australia). Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ Aiken County Sheriff's Office Incident Report, Case No. 0000030719. (2000, July 3). The Smoking Gun. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ James Brown pleads to domestic violence. (2004). The Smoking Gun. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ James Brown hospitalized with pneumonia. (2006, December 24). CNN Entertainment News. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ a b Soul "godfather" James Brown dies. (2006, December 25). CNN Entertainment News. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
- ^ Whitburn, J. (2000). Top Pop Singles: 1955-1999, 900. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research. ISBN 0-89820-140-3.
- ^ The Whole Note: Under the Radar in '06. (2006). All Media Guide. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ James Brown: Biography. Rotten.com. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ James Brown profile. Celebrity Wonder. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ Beat the Devil. (2002). Internet Movie Database Inc. (IMDB). Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- ^ Full cast and crew for The Tuxedo. (2002). Internet Movie Database Inc. (IMDB). Retrieved January 9, 2007.
- Other References
- BBC Obituary: James Brown
- Pareles, Jon and Sussman, Mick (December 26, 2006). "James Brown, the 'Godfather of Soul', Dies at 73". The New York Times.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) (registration required), Song Clips, Photos - Burnett, Bugs. "Audience With the Godfather" -- Interview. The Hour, December 21, 2006.
- Lethem, Jonathan. "Being James Brown" -- Interview. Rolling Stone, June 12, 2006. with audio.
External links
- James Brown - Godfather of Soul, Brown's official site.
- James Brown World Tributes
- The James Brown Burn Team
- James Brown Photo Gallery
- James Brown discography
- James Brown at IMDb
- Template:AMG name
- James Brown at Curlie
- Photo archive of James Brown by rock photographer Chris Walter
- James Brown
- American soul musicians
- American funk musicians
- American male singers
- American rhythm and blues guitarists
- American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
- Rhythm and blues pianists
- American artist-producers
- American bandleaders
- American dancers
- American singer-keyboardists
- Blues Brothers
- Miami Vice actors
- Rocky actors
- Super Bowl halftime performers
- Hollywood Walk of Fame
- People with absolute pitch
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
- Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees
- People from Augusta, Georgia
- South Carolina musicians
- African-American singer-songwriters
- Incarcerated celebrities
- Prostate cancer survivors
- 1933 births
- 2006 deaths