James Brown

[monkeypox]

RIP, Godfather. You were a mess, but there will never be another one like you.

[Deleted]

RIP, Godfather.

[dwanollah]

Santa, go straight to the ghetto.

Amazing performer, amazing body of work.

Pretty sucky human being in a lot of ways.

*sigh*

I guess he can't give his pat answer when someone asks him how he feels. Either that, or he's rockin' out in the Heaven Band, feelin' REEEEALLY good.

[doctorgirlfriend]

Amazing performer, amazing body of work.

Pretty sucky human being in a lot of ways.

This sums up exactly how I feel about James Brown (and a lot of my favorite musicians.) Terrible dude, immaculate musician. I have no idea how it balances out.

I'm imagining him singing Sex Machine in honor of Jesus' birthday right now, but then again, I always knew I was going to straight to Hell.

[Inkyblott]

Certainly not the best news to hear on Christmas morning. It's amazing how influencial and universal James Brown was. Not a nice person by any stretch but an amazing musician and performer.

[zivvie]

What y'all said: RIP.

Can you imagine what a musical powerhouse the memorial service will be?

[carlita7]

wow

Found out on the Michael Jackson thread of all places. Yes, not much with human relationships as far as I've heard, but incredible, pioneering musician, RIP.

[iceblink]

"This bandstand wasn't double-bolted!"
RIP James.

[Deleted]

Eulogy for the Godfather of Soul

It was 1973, when I went off to school at Knoxville College, an historically black higher learning institution, just over the hill from UT Knoxville. There were no black radio stations in areas like Knoxville in that era; we had to listen to country, pop country (i.e., the Carpenters), or rock.

Especially during that time of the dawning of the black power era, when we proudly wore afros that were pamoja, when EWF and Marvin Gaye were just hitting their strides in music, for young people like us, who were usually the first in the history of our entire family to attend college, it was important that we have music with which we could identify. Music positively shaped the black movement, shaped black consciousness during that time.

Recognizing this, not only did James Brown bring the first black radio station to Knoxville and other southern towns with black colleges located in Hicksville USA, but he donated at least $100K (a significant amount of money at that time) to our schools' music departments AND he was the homecoming entertainment at KC for that, my freshman year. Yep, it was one of the best concerts I've ever attended.

I have no way of knowing how despicable he was as a human being but, based on the same info about him as others of you have and, in comparison, I daresay, to Elvis who wasn't the greatest human being either, or to Jerry Lee Lewis or any of the other "white" superstars of music, I'd say James Brown was no less despicable than anyone else; let's put it this way, he was a better human being to my mind than any of the current self-described black leaders/ministers/preachers or the current president and his VP, or even Condoleeza Rice.

In fact, ALL human beings have interpersonal faults and failings, including the ones who run the Godfather of Soul down because he, like you, had an imperfect character. Piety and self-righteousness are easy when we castigate other folk rather than examine our ownselves which, if we took all the time it takes to do constant critical self-examination, would give us no time to judge others.

I wonder how many people who are casting self-righteous judgment on the late great James Brown judge themselves as harshly?

Nope, I don't like it when people run down the Godfather of Soul, especially now that he's dead. He truly was the "real superbad and ain't nobody out there good enough to take the things he had."

He was at the forefront of the civil rights/black power movement and, as a child/teen of the 60s-70s, I remember that every week he had a hit that we could dance to, unlike the schlock that's made now. He was the first rapper, one of the first to inspire us to proudly assert our blackness, the first, in fact to do a lot of what's now copied by Scriddy and the like.

Most of you have no idea what it was like being black in the south during James Brown's era, nor growing up black during the Jim Crow era like those of my generation who grew up southern and denigrated because of the color of our skin. IMO, empathy isn't the last 2 generations' strongest suit and it's not something most of you can feel just from reading a book about the era. The degradation and ugliness of those times undoubtedly shaped our character and personalities, often scarring many of us but especially those blacks like James Brown, who would be pioneers.

Leaves CPMCoG sadly singing "Living in America...."

[gloworm]

Nice words.

I know he did a lot of toy drives and work for the homeless in South Carolina. Despite the other dirt that he's done in life. Hardly the first, nor the last.

Not even looking at solely his music -- but my goodness -- the JB's, Martha Anderson, Lyn Collins, All of those Funky Divas CD's, the rap samples...

It's truly mind boggling when you look at this man's influence on modern music.

Rest in Peace.
I say he's earned it.