James Brown

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  I'm Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will flash back to review the illustrious career of the hardest working man in show business:  James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul"!

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John, and the basic track was recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004.
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Rock On!

Transcript

Thank you for that introduction!  I am today's host, Jumpin' John, and I extend a warm welcome to all listeners on the Rock and Roll Flashback podcast!  This episode will flash back to review the illustrious career of the hardest working man in show business:  James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul"!

 James Joseph Brown was born on May 3rd, 1933, in Barnwell, South Carolina.  His family moved to Augusta, Georgia, when he was five.  Brown began singing in talent shows as a young child, and he became inspired to become an entertainer after hearing "Caldonia" by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.  As a teenager, Brown was convicted of robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center in Toccoa, Georgia.  There he sang in a gospel quartet with other convicts and met singer Bobby Byrd.  With the help of singer Bobby Byrd's family, Brown gained parole and started a gospel group, the Avons, with Byrd.  They quickly changed their focus to R&B, and the group changed its name, first to the Toccoa Band and then to the Flames.  In 1955, while performing in Macon, Georgia, the group contacted Little Richard.  Richard convinced them to get in contact with his manager at the time, Clint Brantley.  Brantley agreed to manage them and sent them to a local radio station to record a demo session.  The Flames signed to the Federal subsidiary of King Records and in 1956 had a million selling R&B hit with the ballad  "Please, Please, Please."  The song was inspired when Little Richard wrote the words of the title on a napkin, and Brown was determined to make a song out of it.  James Brown's talent, energy, and charisma made him the natural star attraction, and the Flames became James Brown & the Famous Flames.

James Brown sought to establish his own style, but his singles over the next two years failed to have chart success.  What made Brown ultimately succeed where others failed was his relentless determination and eye for new trends.  His perseverance finally paid off, as the ballad "Try Me", released in October 1958, became a #1 R&B hit in 1959.  Shortly afterwards, he recruited his first band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra.  He also reunited with Bobby Byrd, who joined a revived Famous Flames lineup that included Lloyd Stallworth, Bobby Bennett, and Johnny Terry.  Brown, the Flames, and his entire band debuted at Harlem's Apollo Theater on April 24th, 1959.  With the hit songs "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown had built a reputation as a dynamic live performer.  In 1960, the band released the top ten R&B hit "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" on Dade Records, billed under the pseudonym "Nat Kendrick & the Swans" due to label issues.  Brown's style of R&B got heavier, as he added more complex rhythms.  This resulted in three 1960 hits:  "Good Good Lovin'," "I'll Go Crazy," and "Think," as well as his 1962 hit "Night Train".  

After recording an October 1962 gig at the Apollo Theater, the Live at the Apollo album was released in June 1963.  It became an immediate hit, eventually reaching #2 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.  It spent 66 weeks on that Billboard Albums chart and sold over a million copies!  Live at the Apollo was an important pop breakthrough both for Brown and for the idea of the concert album.  Brown's concerts had come to be known their energy and for his stringing several songs directly together, without dropping a single beat, to produce a cumulative effect of steadily mounting excitement.  The album listener could experience this excitement of Brown's extended song medleys without interruption.  In 2015 Rolling Stone listed Live at the Apollo as the greatest live album of all time!

 In 1963, Brown scored his first top 20 pop hit with his version of "Prisoner of Love".  Then in 1964, Brown and Bobby Byrd formed the production company, Fair Deal, linking the operation to the Mercury subsidiary, Smash Records.  Brown ignored his King contract to record "Out of Sight" for Smash, igniting a lengthy legal battle that prevented him from issuing vocal recordings for about a year.  "Out of Sight" topped the R&B charts and made the pop Top 40.  Brown had been incorporating more elemental lyrics, with chants and screams, and more intricate beats and horn charts that took some of their cues from the ensemble work of jazz outfits.  "Out of Sight" wasn't called funk when it came out, but it had most of the essential ingredients.  Touring throughout 1964, Brown and the Famous Flames gained more national attention after delivering an explosive show-stopping performance on the live concert film, The T.A.M.I. Show.  The Flames' dynamic gospel-tinged vocals, polished choreography and timing, as well as Brown's energetic dance moves and high-octane singing even upstaged the Rolling Stones, who were the show's closing act.

When Brown finally resumed recording for King in 1965, he had a new contract that granted him far more artistic control over his releases.  Then came three hits that kicked off Brown's period of greatest commercial success and public visibility.  1965's hit "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" was released as a two-part single.  It was Brown's first song to reach the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten, peaking at #8, and was a #1 R&B hit, topping the charts for eight weeks.  It won Brown his first Grammy Award, for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording. In 2004, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" was ranked #72 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.  In 2010 when the magazine updated its list, the song was moved up to #71.  In 1999, the 1965 recording of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (Part 1)" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" had a major influence on the emergence of funk music as a distinct style. 

The follow-up 1965 release, "I Got You (I Feel Good)," reached #3 on December 18th.  Of Brown's 91 hits to reach the Billboard Hot 100, "I Got You (I Feel Good)" is his highest-charting song.  The song remained at the top of the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Singles chart for six non-consecutive weeks.  In 2004, "I Got You (I Feel Good)" was ranked #78 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  In 2013, the 1965 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 

Brown followed that up in 1966 with the ballad "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".  It reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.  In 2004, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was ranked #123 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.  In 2010, the 1966 recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

From 1965 to the end of the decade, James Brown was rarely off the R&B charts.  He was also often on the pop listings and appeared all over the concert circuit and national television.  Brown even met with Vice President Hubert Humphrey and other important politicians as a representative of the Black community.  During the late 1960's, Brown moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a new approach to music-making.  He began emphasizing stripped-down interlocking rhythms that influenced the development of funk music.  Brown's style in the late 1960's and the 1970's became a pioneering of mixture of rap repetitive, riff-based style, minimization or elimination of chord changes, and a de-emphasis on harmony.  His music became even bolder and funkier, as melody was dispensed with almost altogether in favor of chunky rhythms and an interplay between his vocals, horns, drums, and electric guitar.  What James Brown excelled most at compared to other musicians was his entertainment energy.  He became known for his acrobatic live performances and remarkable personal charisma.  This added great excitement to his vocal improvisations, reminiscent of the intensity of a dynamic gospel preacher.  Brown's emerging sound began to be defined as funk music, as could be heard in the 1967 release "Cold Sweat," which hit #1 on the R&B chart.

James Brown acquired the nickname "Soul Brother No. 1", and he became noted for songs of social commentary.  The 1968 funk hit "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" was released as a two-part single.  It held the #1 spot on the R&B singles chart for six weeks, and peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Both parts of the single were later included on James Brown's 1968 album A Soulful Christmas and on his 1969 album sharing the title of the song.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" in their 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.  In 2004 it was ranked #305 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

James Brown's prolific output during this period included two more successful live albums, 1967's Live at the Garden and 1968's Live at the Apollo, Volume II, and a 1968 television special, James Brown: Man to Man.  As Brown's music empire grew, his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well.  Brown even bought a few radio stations during the late 1960's.

The instrumental arrangements on 1968 tracks such as "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" and 1969 track "Funky Drummer", featured a more developed version of Brown's mid-1960's style.  The horn section, guitars, bass and drums all meshed together in intricate rhythmic patterns.  With hits like "I Got the Feelin'" in 1968 and "Mother Popcorn" in 1969, Brown's vocals took a rhythmic form that only intermittently featured traces of pitch or melody.  This would became a major influence on the techniques of rapping and hip hop music in the coming decades.  When Brown's backing band quit in late 1969, he recruited a band called the Pacemakers, who stayed with him for a year.  This continued Brown's evolution into even harder funk, with interlocking syncopated parts of strutting bass lines, syncopated drum patterns, and percussive guitar riffs.  

In the early 1970's many of the most important members of Brown's late 1960's band returned to the fold, calling themselves the "J.B.'s".  Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J.B.'s with records such as "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "The Payback."  He was drifting away from the white audience he had cultivated during the 1960's.  Records like "Make It Funky," "Hot Pants," and "Get on the Good Foot" were huge soul sellers, but only modest pop ones.  

By the mid-1970's, James Brown was beginning to burn out artistically.   Disco was taking over the charts, and Brown was running into problems with the IRS.  He had sporadic hits, and he could always count on enthusiastic live audiences, but by the 1980's he didn't have a label.  The explosion of rap, however, which frequently sampled vintage J.B.'s records, brought back his popularity.  After collaborating with Afrika Bambaataa on the hit single "Unity", Brown's song "Living in America" was released in 1985.   "Living in America" reached #4 in 1986 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, remaining on the chart for 11 weeks.  It also hit #5 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming  Brown's only top 10 single in the UK.  "Living in America" was his first Top 40 hit in ten years on the US pop charts, and it would also be his last.  In 1987, the song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and won James Brown a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

In 1988, Brown was accused by his wife of assault and battery.  He eventually ended up leading police on an interstate car chase after allegedly threatening people with a handgun.  The episode ended in a six-year prison sentence, and he was paroled after serving two years.

Throughout the 1990's, Brown continued to perform and release new material.  Ironically, his classic catalog became more popular in the American mainstream during the 1990's and 2000's than it had been since the 1970's.  Despite a 2004 diagnosis of prostate cancer, Brown continued to perform and record until his death from pneumonia on Christmas Day 2006.

 James Brown had a profound influence on two revolutions in American music.  He was one of the figures most responsible for turning R&B into soul.  He then developed a tight, driving, repetitive style - a style that elevated rhythm far above harmony as the primary source of interest.  Thus, he was also the one figure most responsible for transforming soul music into funk.  Fittingly, his music became even more influential as it aged, since his voice and rhythms were sampled on innumerable hip-hop recordings from the 1970's onward.  As a result, Brown remains to this day the world's most sampled recording artist.  James Brown influenced multiple musicians across the industry.  Michael Jackson, throughout his career, would cite James Brown as his ultimate idol.

As influential as his recordings were and are, Brown was above all an artist who exulted in and excelled at live performance , in which his acrobatic physicality and remarkable personal charisma added great excitement to the vocal improvisations he spun over the ever-tight accompaniment of his band.  A typical Brown show ended with the singer on his knees, evoking once again the intensity of the gospel preacher as he exhorted his audience, "please, please, please!"  As a master showman and one of the most influential singers of the 20th Century, few musicians were as influential as James Brown was over the course of popular music.  His exciting performances were marvels of athletic stamina and split-second timing.  

Not only did James Brown record 17 singles that reached #1 on the Billboard R&B charts, but he also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that did not reach #1.  Brown was one of the first ten inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23rd, 1986.  At that time, the members of his original vocal group, the Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd, Johnny Terry, Bobby Bennett, and Lloyd Stallworth) were not inducted.  In 2012 the Famous Flames were automatically and retroactively inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Brown, without the need for nomination and voting, on the basis that they should have been inducted with him in 1986.  

James Brown would receive many other prestigious music industry awards and honors.    He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the New York Songwriters Hall of Fame, the UK Music Hall of Fame, the R&B Music Hall of Fame (as both a singer and a songwriter), and the Atlantic City Walk Of Fame.  In 1992 Brown was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards.  Brown was honored twice by the city of Augusta, Georgia, for his philanthropy and civic activities.  In 1993 a section of 9th Street was renamed "James Brown Boulevard", and in 2005 a life-sized bronze James Brown statue was erected on Broad Street.  At 1993's 4th annual Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards he received a Lifetime Achievement Award.  In 1997 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  In 2002 he was honored as the first BMI Urban Icon at the BMI Urban Awards.  In 2003, in recognition of his accomplishments as an entertainer, Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors.  In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked James Brown at #7 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and in 2023 Rolling Stone ranked Brown at #44 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.  

 Thank you for that checking out another episode of Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  This episode reviewed the career of singer and dynamic entertainer, Mister Dynamite - James Brown!  I'm Jumpin' John McDermott and - until next time - Rock On!