James Brown

For other people named James Brown, see James Brown (disambiguation).

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. During 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.

Early life

James Brown was born as the only child of Joseph ("Joe") and Susie Brown (née Susie Behlings) in the small town of Barnwell, South Carolina during the Depression era. Although Brown was to be named after his father, his name was reversed mistakenly on the birth certificate. Because of this mix-up during the birth registration, Brown's name instead became James Joseph Brown, Jr. As a young child, Brown was known to his family as Junior, and he was also known as Little Junior when he later lived with his aunt and cousin, since his cousin's nickname was also Junior.

Brown's parents separated when he was 4 years old after his mother decided to leave his father for another man. After his mother left the family, Brown continued to live with his father and a host of live-in girlfriends until he was 6 years old. By the time Brown was 7 years old, his father moved to Augusta, Georgia, and he sent Brown to live with an aunt, who ran a house of prostitution. From that time on, Brown never lived with his father again.

During his childhood, Brown earned money by picking cotton in the nearby fields, shining shoes, sweeping out stores, washing cars and dishes and singing in talent contests. As a child, Brown also performed buck dances for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon during the start of World War II as their convoys traveled over a canal bridge near his aunt's house. Between earning money from these adventures, Brown taught himself to play a harmonica given to him by his father, and he learned to play some guitar from Tampa Red (who was dating one of the "girls" from his aunt's house), piano from Leon Austin and drums from a "Mr. Dink." Brown was inspired to become an entertainer after watching Louis Jordan, a popular jazz and R&B performer during the 1940s, and His Tympany Five in a short film performing "Caldonia."

As an adult, Brown legally changed his name to remove the "Jr." designation. In his spare time, Brown variously spent time practicing his skills in Augusta-area halls and 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 reform school, he became acquainted with Bobby Byrd, who first saw Brown in a prison performance as Byrd watched and admired Brown's adept ability to sing and perform. 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 in semi-professional baseball (a career move ended by a leg injury), Brown turned his energy toward music.

Music career

James Brown's career spanned over five decades, and his sound and beat profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown's music and vocal style changed over the course of his career, evolving from a style tinged with blues and gospel to an uptempo "Africanized" musical style.

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. Nine subsequent singles released by The Flames failed to live up to the success of their debut, and they were in danger of being dropped by their label until they returned to the charts in 1958 with the #1 R&B hit "Try Me". It became the best-selling R&B single of the year, and the first of 17 chart-topping R&B singles by Brown over the next two decades. By the time of its release the group's billing had changed to James Brown and The Famous Flames.

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Cover of the landmark Live at the Apollo LP from 1962

Brown's early recordings were fairly straightforward gospel-inspired R&B compositions, heavily inspired by the work of contemporary musicians, such as Ray Charles. Little Richard was also 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. 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 group.

Early and mid-1960s

Brown scored on the charts in the early 60's, with classic hit recordings, such as his 1962 cover of "Night Train".

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. Its 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.

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."

The 1970 jazz-oriented LP Soul on Top

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.

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The cover to the 1970 live Sex Machine LP

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.

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 the People label, an imprint Brown founded which was purchased by Polydor as part of his new contract. Most of these recordings (almost all of which were produced by Brown himself) exemplify what might be termed James Brown's "house style," and are as much a part of Brown's recorded legacy as those released under his own name. The early 1970s marked the first real awareness of Brown's achievements outside the African-American community. 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.

The 1974 LP The Payback

In 1974, Brown toured Africa and performed in Zaire as part of the buildup to the The Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

Brown's Polydor recordings during the 1970s were arguably a summation of all the innovation of the last twenty years. 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 to 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."

Music during later years

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Live at Chastain Park

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.

The James Brown Revue

For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during the ballads. Altogether, the Revue employed between 40 and 50 people who traveled in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters.

The introduction

Before James Brown appeared on stage, his personal MC gave him an elaborate introduction accompanied by drumrolls, working in Brown's various sobriquets along with the names of many of his hit songs. The introduction by Fats Gonder, captured on Brown's 1963 Live at the Apollo album, is a representative example:

So now ladies and gentlemen it is star time, are you ready for star time? Thank you and thank you very kindly. It is indeed a great pleasure to present to you at this particular time, national and international[ly] known as the hardest working man in show business, the man who sang "I'll Go Crazy" ... "Try Me" ... "You've Got the Power" ... "Think" ... "If You Want Me" ... "I Don't Mind" ... "Bewildered" ... million dollar seller, "Lost Someone" ... the very latest release, "Night Train" ... let's everybody "Shout and Shimmy" ... Mr. Dynamite, the amazing Mr. Please Please himself, the star of the show, James Brown and the Famous Flames!

In another case, Levi Rasbury, who also played valve trombone in the performance, gave the following introduction. The recording was made January 14, 1967, at the Latin Casino, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and is available on Foundations of Funk: A Brand New Bag, 1964-1969:

Right about here ladies and gentlemen, it's the moment that all of you been waiting for. So are you ready for star time? [cheers] Come on, come on, let me hear it, are you ready for star time? [cheering, louder] We'd like to introduce ... we'd like to introduce at this time, the man that sings "Try Me" [horn hits after he says each song title] "Prisoner of Love"..."Night Train"..."Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"..."You've Got the Power" ... "Ain't That a Groove" ... "Bring It Up" ... and the most popular tune recorded of all time, "Please, Please, Please" ... So come on ladies and gentlemen, let's hear a big round of applause for the world-famous Flames, and now the star of the show, Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother Number One, the Man with the Crown, James Brown!

Brown's most famous MC was Danny Ray, who appeared with him for over 30 years.

The performance

Brown's performances were famous for their intensity and length. His own stated goal was to "give people more than what they came for — make them tired, 'cause that's what they came for." Brown's concert repertoire consisted mostly of his own hits and recent songs, with a few R&B covers mixed in. Brown danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as the Mashed Potato into his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and slides. In addition, his horn players and backup singers typically choreographed dance routines, and later incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Male performers in the Revue were required to wear tuxedoes long after more casual concert wear became the norm among younger musical acts. Brown's own extravagant outfits and his elaborate processed hairdo completed the visual impression.

A James Brown concert typically included a performance by a featured vocalist such as Vicki Anderson or Marva Whitney and an instrumental feature for the band (which also sometimes served as the show's opening act). Although Brown released many excellent live albums, the Deluxe Edition of the 1968 Live at the Apollo, Vol. II double album, released by Polydor in 2001, was one of only a few audio recordings that captured a performance of The James Brown Revue from beginning to end.

MC Danny Ray and James Brown during cape performance at the BBC Electronic Proms '06 concert

The cape routine

By the end of each concert, Brown would have worked himself to the point of genuine exhaustion. Brown typically lost several pounds over the course of a performance, and he sometimes required glucose injections afterwards to resuscitate himself. As the band continued to play, the MC would put a cape over Brown's shoulders and try to escort him off of the stage, but Brown would shake off the cape and stagger back to the microphone to perform an encore (often singing the hit "Please, Please, Please"). This act was often repeated several times in succession. Brown's cape routine was inspired by a similar routine used by the professional wrestler Gorgeous George.

Brown as band leader

Brown was a taskmaster when it came to band practices and performances. He demanded extreme discipline, perfection and precision from his musicians and dancers during performances — right down to the notes sung by his singers and played by his band members, and even down to presentation of the clothing worn by members of his Revue. Brown required his band to wear uniforms complete with patent leather shoes and cummerbunds, which some of them looked upon as a "time warp" back to the 1950s. In an interview with Bootsy Collins, a bass player in Brown's band during the 1970s, conducted on October 10 1994 by Terri Gross during the NPR segment "Fresh Air," Collins offered the following reflection of "dress requirements" during his time with Brown's band:

Those were the days like in the '60s, getting ready to go into the '70s, but ... it was another kind of movement going on. Kids were like coming up to the front of the stage wearing bleached jeans and t-shirts and afros and the granny glasses. We were all freakin' out; we was havin' a freakin' party, you know ... and then here we are playing with James Brown and we're in the army now ... We wanted to dress crazy; ... [w]e didn't want to wear suits – we knew that ... [H]ere we are getting stuck wearing suits and patent leather shoes, ... We said that we'll eat this because we definitely wanted to be with James [Brown]. If you wanted to be with James [Brown], that's what we had to do.

In an earlier interview with Maceo Parker, Terri Gross asked him about the discipline that Brown demanded of the band:

You gotta be on time. You gotta have your uniform. Your stuff's got to be intact. You gotta have the bow tie. You got to have it. You can't come up without the bow tie. You cannot come up without a cummerbund ... [The] patent leather shoes we were wearing at the time gotta be greased. You just gotta have this stuff. This is what [Brown expects] ... [Brown] bought the costumes. He bought the shoes. And if for some reason [the band member decided] to leave the group, [Brown told the person to] please leave my uniforms ....

During some of his performances, Brown also had a practice of directing and correcting members of his band by dancing in front of them with his back to the audience as he slid across the floor and splayed the fingers on his hands, with fingers pulsating to the beat of the music. Although audiences thought Brown's dance routine was part of his act, this practice was actually his way of pointing to the offending member of his troupe who sang the wrong note or committed some other infraction, such as wearing unshined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage. Brown used his splayed fingers to alert the offending person of the fine that person must pay to him for breaking his rules.

Musicianship

Technical ability in music

Brown played several instruments proficiently, including drums, guitar, organ and piano. Despite his prowess as a performer, Brown, like many popular musicians, never learned to read music. 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 bandleader 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.

Despite these technical limitations, Brown's unique musical vision was indisputably the driving force behind the music that he created with his bands.

Evolution of musical style

When Brown began his professional music career during the mid-1950s, his music featured "a raw supplicating tempo" that consisted of ballads with a gospel flavor (such as "Please, Please, Please," "Try Me," and "Bewildered"). Brown's music and vocal tempo shifted from that time into a second style during the mid-1960s, where Brown's music featured "modification of the twelve-bar blues form with gospel vocal styles and increasingly tight and moderately complex horn arrangements used in a responsorial fashion." Songs and music that were representative of this second style included "Night Train," "I Feel Good," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You."

The third genesis of Brown's music and vocal style embarked on "extensive vamps" in which Brown used his voice as "a percussive instrument with frequent rhythmic grunts and with rhythm-section patterns ... [resembling] West African polyrhythms." The evolution of Brown's style during this third genesis featured a "frenzied and rhythmically percussive vocal style, based on black folk preaching and hollering," complete with whoops, screams and vocal grunts. As for this last shift in his style, Brown combined a polyrhythmic approach to his music and vocal style to recreate the "ecstatic ambiance of the black church" in a secular context to create movement in his music. During the evolution towards this musical style, Brown’s groove emphasized the downbeat – that is, with heavy emphasis on the "1" (first beat of every bar) – to etch his distinctive sound, rather than placing the accent on the second beat that was familiar to many musicians. According to Maceo Parker, who first joined Brown's band in 1964 and played with him for most of the 1960s and part of the 1970s and 1980s, playing on the downbeat took some getting used. He continued his reflection of the early days by adding that playing on the downbeat was hard for him when he first played solo for Brown because he (Maceo Parker) was used to hearing and playing with the accent on the second beat.

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

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Brown and "wife" Tomi Rae Hynie at the 2005 Grammy Awards

Brown was married four times — Velma Warren (1953–1969, divorced), Deidre "Deedee" Jenkins (1970–1981, divorced), Adrienne Lois Rodriguez (1984–1996, wife's death) and Tomi Rae Hynie (2001–2006, his death). From these and other relationships, James Brown had five sons — Teddy Brown, Terry Brown, Larry Brown, Daryl Brown and James Joseph Brown II, in addition to three daughters — Dr. Yamma Noyola Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas and Venisha Brown. Brown's eldest son, Teddy, died in a car crash in 1973. Brown also had eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Controversy surrounding the Brown-Hynie marriage

Much controversy surrounds Hynie's December 2001 "marriage" to James Brown, which was officiated by Rev. Larry Fryer. 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 Pakistani 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. 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. According to Dallas, Brown was angry that Hynie had concealed the marriage from him, and that Brown moved to file for annulment from Hynie. 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. In August 2003, Brown took out a full-page public notice 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.

Paternity of the youngest child: James Joseph Brown II

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.

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 along the 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. In 2003, Brown was pardoned for past crimes that he was convicted of committing in South Carolina.

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.

Death

On December 23 2006, Brown, in ill health, showed up at his dentist's office in Atlanta, Georgia several hours later than his 1:30 p.m. appointment for dental implant work. During that visit, Dr. Terry Reynolds, Brown's longtime dentist, observed that Brown looked "very bad ... weak and dazed." Instead of performing the dental work, Dr. Reynolds advised Brown to see his doctor right away about his medical condition.

Brown checked in at the Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta on December 24 2006 for a medical evaluation of his condition, and he was admitted to the hospital for observation and treatment. According to Charles Bobbit, Brown's longtime personal manager and friend, Brown had been sick and suffering with a noisy cough since he returned from a November trip to Europe. Bobbit also added that it was characteristic of Brown to never tell or complain to anyone that he was sick, and that Brown frequently performed during illness. Although Brown had to cancel upcoming shows in Waterbury, Connecticut and Englewood, New Jersey, Brown was confident that he would be released from the hospital in time to perform New Year's Eve shows at the Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey and at the B.B. King Blues Club in New York, in addition to performing a song live on CNN for the Anderson Cooper 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. According to Bobbit, Brown uttered "I'm going away tonight," and then Brown took three, long quiet breaths and closed his eyes.

Honors, awards and dedications

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A larger-than-life-sized bronze statue stands on the 800 block of Broad Street in Augusta, Georgia.

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." The bridge 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, the ranchers 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, Mayor Charles DeVaney of the city of Augusta, Georgia held a ceremony during which a section of 9th Street between Broad and Twiggs Streets was renamed "James Brown Boulevard" in the entertainer's honor. On May 6 2005, as a 72nd birthday present for Brown, the City of Augusta unveiled a seven-foot bronze statue of the singer on Broad Street. 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.

James Brown received several prestigious music industry awards and honors. In 1983, Brown was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In addition, Brown was named as one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York at its inaugural induction dinner on January 23 1986. On February 25 1992, he was awarded 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 into 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 on December 7 2003.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked James Brown as #7 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

On August 22 2006, the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority voted to rename the city's civic center the James Brown Arena.

On December 30 2006 during the public memorial service at the James Brown Arena, Dr. Shirley A.R. Lewis, president of Paine College, a historically black college in Augusta, GA, bestowed posthumously upon James Brown an honorary doctorate in recognition and honor of his many contributions to the school in times of its need. Brown was scheduled originally to receive the honorary doctorate from Paine College during its May 2007 commencement.

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.

1956: "Please, Please, Please" (R&B #5) 1959: "Try Me" (R&B #1, U.S. #48) 1960: "Think" (R&B #7, U.S. #33) 1961: "Baby, You're Right" (R&B #2, U.S. #49) 1961: "Bewildered" (R&B #8, U.S. #40) 1961: "I Don't Mind" (R&B #4, U.S. #47) 1962: "Lost Someone" (R&B #2, U.S. #48) 1962: "Night Train" (R&B #5, U.S. #35) 1963: "Prisoner of Love" (R&B #6, U.S. #18) 1965: "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #8) 1965: "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (R&B #1, U.S. #3) 1966: "Ain't That a Groove" Pts. 1 & 2 (R&B #6, U.S. #42) 1966: "Don't Be A Drop-Out" (R&B #4, U.S. #50) 1966: "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (R&B #1, U.S. #8) 1966: "Sweet Little Baby Boy" - Part 1 (U.S. #8) 1967: "Cold Sweat" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #7) 1967: "Let Yourself Go" (R&B #5, U.S. #46) 1968: "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)" (R&B #4, U.S. #28) 1968: "I Got The Feelin'" (R&B #1, U.S. #6) 1968: "Licking Stick - Licking Stick" - Part 1 (R&B #2, U.S. #14) 1968: "Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #10) 1968: "There Was A Time" (R&B #3, U.S. #36) 1969: "Ain't It Funky Now" (R&B #3, U.S. #24) 1969: "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" (R&B #1, U.S. #15) 1969: "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door, I'll Get It Myself)" (R&B #3, U.S. #20) 1969: "Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn" - Part One (R&B #2, U.S. #21) 1969: "Mother Popcorn (You Got To Have A Mother For Me)" Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #11)

1970: "Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like A) Sex Machine" (Part 1)" (R&B #2, U.S. #15) 1970: "Santa Claus Is Definitely Here To Stay" (U.S. #7) 1970: "Super Bad" - Part 1 & Part 2 (R&B #1, U.S. #13) 1971: "Escape-ism" - Part 1 (R&B #6, U.S. #35) 1971: "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved" - Pt. 1 (R&B #4, U.S. #34) 1971: "Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants)" – Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #15) 1971: "I'm A Greedy Man" - Part I (R&B #7, U.S. #35) 1971: "Make It Funky" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #22) 1971: "Soul Power" - Pt. 1 (R&B #3, U.S. #29) 1972: "Get On The Good Foot" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #18) 1972: "King Heroin" (R&B #6, U.S. #40) 1972: "Talking Loud And Saying Nothing" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #27) 1973: "Down And Out In New York City" (R&B #13, U.S. #50) 1973: "I Got A Bag Of My Own" (R&B #3) 1973: "Sexy, Sexy, Sexy" (R&B #6, U.S. #50) 1974: "Funky President" (People It's Bad)" (R&B #4, U.S. #44) 1974: "My Thang" (R&B #1, U.S. #29) 1974: "Papa Don't Take No Mess" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #31) 1974: "Stoned To The Bone" - Part 1 (R&B #4, U.S. #58) 1974: "The Payback" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #26) 1976: "Get Up Offa That Thing" (R&B #4, U.S. #45) 1985: "Living in America" (R&B #10, U.S. #4) 1987: "How Do You Stop" (R&B #10) 1988: "I'm Real" (R&B #2) 1988: "Static, Pts. 1 & 2" (with Full Force) (R&B #5)

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. II 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 said chart.

• 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.

• Brown had his natural eyebrows replaced with tattooed ones in 1991.

• 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.

• Brown was featured in Tony Scott's 2001 short film, Beat the Devil, alongside Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson.

• 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.

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 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.

• In the 13th season finale, The Simpsons DABF17 episode featured an obvious James Brown-inspired title: "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge."

• In 1991, the Techno group L.A. Style released a highly irreverent and controversial single entitled James Brown Is Dead, inspired by an erroneous news report of James Brown's death. Two songs were quickly released in response to this erroneous death notice: James Brown Is Still Alive by Holy Noise and Who the Fuck Is James Brown? by Traumatic Stress.

• James Brown appeared small in stature, but was actually well over six feet tall. He preferred camera angles that made him appear short. He was quoted "I want people to see short, but hear tall!"

References

Footnotes

Other References

• Obituary: James Brown. (2006, December 25). BBC News. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
• Pareles, J. & Sussman, M. (2006, December 26). Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," dies at 73. The New York Times (registration required). Retrieved January 9, 2007.
• Sussman, M. (producer). (2006, December 25). Arts: Soul classics by James Brown (multimedia presentation). The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
• Slide show: James Brown through the years. (2006, December 25). The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
• Burnett, B. (2006, December 21). James Brown: Audience With the godfather (interview). The Hour. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
• Lethem, J. (2006, June 12). Being James Brown. Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
• Audio interview of Rolling Stone Magazine with Jonathan Lethem about James Brown and his music. Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 9, 2007.

External links

• James Brown - Godfather of Soul, official site of James Brown.
• 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

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