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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 pivotal 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, disco, dance and electronic music, reggae and hip hop.^[2] Brown's music also left its mark on the rhythm of African popular music, such as afrobeat, jùjú and mbalax,^[3] and provided a template for go-go – a music form derived "from the 'thumpin' funk' sound of James Brown" according to Chuck Brown (no relation), who popularized this music in and around the Washington, DC area.^[4]

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 addition to his acclaim in music, Brown was a presence in American political affairs during the 1960s and 1970s, noted especially for his activism on behalf of African Americans and the poor. During the early 1980s, Brown's music helped to shape the rhythms of early hip hop music, with many groups looping or sampling his funk grooves and turning them into what became hip hop "classics" and the foundations of this music genre.

James 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 (Susie Behlings) in the small town of Barnwell, South Carolina in the Jim Crow South 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.^[5] As a young child, Brown was known to his family as Junior, and he was also known as Little Junior

Brown and his family lived in extreme poverty,^[6] and his parents separated when he was 4 years old after his mother decided to leave his father for another man.^[7] 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. After that time, Brown and his father moved to Augusta, Georgia, and his father sent him to live with an aunt who ran a house of prostitution. Even though Brown lived with relatives, he spent long stretches of time on his own, hanging out on the streets and hustling to get by. Brown managed to stay in school until he dropped out in the 7th grade.

During his childhood, Brown earned money by picking cotton, racking pool balls, shining shoes, sweeping out stores, washing cars and dishes and singing in talent contests.^[6] 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.^[7][8] Between earning money from these adventures, Brown taught himself to play a harmonica given to him by his father,^[7] and he learned to play some guitar from Tampa Red (who was dating one of the "girls" from his aunt's house), in addition to learning to play piano and drums from others.^[7] 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."^[9]

As an adult, Brown legally changed his name to remove the "Jr." designation.^[10] In his spare time, Brown variously spent time practicing his skills in Augusta-area halls and committing petty crimes. When Brown was 16 years old, he was convicted of burglarizing cars and armed robbery, and he was sentenced by the court in 1948 to serve 8-to-18 years in a juvenile detention center upstate in Toccoa.^[11] Brown, who was nicknamed "Music Box" while he was in prison, formed a gospel quartet that performed for the local prison crowd and other prisons around that area.^[6] Brown and his quartet made their own instruments for prisons shows, including a paper-and-comb "harmonica," a "drum set" made of lard tins and a "bass" made of a broomstick and washtub.^[7]

During one of those performances, Bobby Byrd, who watched the show from outside of the prison gates, admired Brown's adept ability to sing and perform.^[7] Brown became acquainted with Byrd when the prison baseball team played the local team, with Brown playing on the prison team as pitcher and Byrd playing on the local team as shortstop.^[8] Byrd promised to help Brown get out of prison by offering to provide him with a place to live.^[8] Byrd's family helped Brown secure an early release after serving about three years of his sentence, under the condition that he would try to get a job^[6] and not return to Augusta or Richmond County. After brief stints as a semi-professional boxer^[12] and a pitcher in semi-professional baseball (a career move ended by a leg injury), Brown turned his energy toward music.^[13]

Music career

James Brown's career spanned over five decades, and his sound and beat profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres.^[14] 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.^[11] Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the "chitlin' circuit," and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, 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.^[6][15]

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 group was in danger of being dropped by King Records until the group returned to the charts in 1958 with the #1 R&B hit "Try Me." This hit record was the best-selling R&B single of the year, becoming the first of 17 chart-topping R&B singles by Brown over the next two decades.^[16] By the time "Try Me" was released on record, the group's billing was changed to James Brown and The Famous Flames.

Brown's early recordings were fairly straightforward gospel-inspired R&B compositions, heavily inspired by the work of contemporary musicians, such as Ray Charles and Little Richard, who was also a notable influence on Brown at this point. Brown once called Little Richard his idol, and credited his saxophone-studded mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, with becoming the first group to put the funk in the rock and roll beat.^[17] When Little Richard bolted from pop music in 1957 to become a preacher, Brown honored Little Richard's remaining tour dates in his place. Several former members of Little Richard's backup band joined Brown's group as a consequence of Little Richard's exit from the pop music scene.

One release that Brown and his backup band did not record under their own names was the single "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes." Brown wanted to record the song with his band, but Nathan refused to let him do the record. After Nathan refused to let Brown record the song, he enlisted the help of Henry Stone, a record producer and distributor and owner of the label Dade Records.^[18] Stone arranged for Brown to record the song, and Brown recorded his vocals on the record, shouting "Mashed Potatoes" throughout the song. Although Brown recorded vocals for the song, Stone told him that he could not release it in that form because Brown's voice was too recognizable. Stone also told Brown that, for contractual reasons, both of them would get in trouble with Nathan over the record.^[18] Therefore, "Mashed Potatoes" was released in 1960 as an instrumental on Stone's Dade Records label with faint hints of Brown's voice under the music, but under the pseudonym "Nat Kendrick & The Swans." Brown's backup band assumed the persona of "The Swans," while Nat Kendrick, who was Brown's drummer at that time, assumed the persona of the lead.^[18] The single that was released under the Kendrick pseudonym became a hit, reaching #8 on the R&B Top Ten and #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.^[18] In an interview with Larry King, Brown mentioned that Stone also helped him as a mentor with his earlier hit, "Please, Please, Please."^[19]

Early and mid-1960s

Brown scored on the charts in the early 1960s, 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 then regular R&B Top Ten hits, he and the Famous Flames were not successful nationally until his self-financed live show was captured on the 1963 LP Live at the Apollo. Brown financed the recording of the album himself, and it was released on King Records over the objections of label owner Syd Nathan, who saw no commercial potential in a live album containing no new songs. Defying Nathan's expectations, the album stayed on the pop charts for fourteen months, peaking at #2.^[20] In addition, Brown recorded a hit version of the ballad "Prisoner of Love" in 1963 and founded (under King auspices) the fledgling Try Me Records, his first attempt at running a record label.

Brown followed the success of Live at the Apollo 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, starting a legal battle that culminated in a one year ban on the release of Brown's vocal recordings.^[21]

During the mid-1960s, two of Brown's signature tunes, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)," both from 1965, were his 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). Brown's national profile was boosted further that year by appearances in the movie 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 with Broadway show tunes and ballads such as his hit "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1965).

Brown continued to develop the new funk idiom. "Cold Sweat" (1967), a song with only one chord change, was considered a departure from his earlier music style when compared even to Brown's other recent innovations. This shift represented a high-water mark in the dance music of the 1960s, with "Cold Sweat" becoming one of the first "true" funk recordings.

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. He also spun off new compositions from the grooves of earlier ones by continual revision of their arrangements, with hits such as "There Was a Time" emerging out of the chord progression and rhythm arrangements of the 1967 song "Let Yourself Go."^[22]

The late 1960s

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 were later resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the 1970s onward. As a result, James Brown remains to this day the world's most sampled recording artist, with "Funky Drummer" itself becoming the most sampled individual piece of music.^[23]

Brown's band in this period 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.

During this period, Brown's music empire also expanded along with his influence on the music scene. As Brown's music empire grew, his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. Brown bought radio stations during the late 1960s, including radio station WRDW in Augusta, Georgia where he shined shoes as a boy. Brown also branched out to make several recordings with musicians outside his own band. He recorded Gettin' Down To It (1969) and Soul on Top (1970), two albums consisting mostly of romantic ballads and jazz standards, with the Dee Felice Trio and the Louie Bellson Orchestra respectively. He recorded a number of tracks with the Dapps, a white Cincinnati bar band, including the hit "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)". He also released three albums of Christmas music with his own band.

The content of Brown's songs developed along with its delivery during the Civil Rights era. 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 in music style 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 J.B.'s

By 1970, most members of James Brown's classic 1960s band had quit his act for other opportunities. Brown 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 and musical director Fred Wesley. This new backing band was dubbed "The J.B.'s," and the band made its debut on Brown's 1970 single "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine." Although The J.B.'s went through several lineup changes (the first in 1971), the band remained Brown's most familiar backing band.

In 1971, Brown 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 J.B.'s, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Myra Barnes and Hank Ballard, released records on the People label, an imprint Brown founded that was purchased by Polydor as part of his new contract. Most of these recordings (almost all produced by Brown himself) exemplified what might be termed James Brown's "house style," which were considered as much a part of Brown's recorded legacy as those recordings released under his own name. 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. Brown, like others who were influence by his music, also "borrowed" from other musicians. 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.^[24]

Brown's Polydor recordings during the 1970s were arguably a summation of all the innovation of the previous twenty years. His 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) were considered among his best recordings during this time. In 1974, Brown even 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.

The late 1970s and 1980s

By the mid-1970s, Brown's star-status was on the wane, and key musicians in his band, such as Bootsy Collins, left the troupe to form their own groups. Although the onslaught of the disco movement found little room for Brown's music style, 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" 1988. He also released Gravity, a modestly popular crossover album, and the hit 1985 single "Living in America," which was 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 "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," worked with the group Full Force on a #5 R&B hit single, contributed to the 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 called the song "the national anthem of hip hop."^[25]

Music during later years

Brown suffered 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 included music spanning his four-decade career at that time. 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 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 the new studio track "Respect Me," which was released as a single that same year, and he followed up with a megamix called "Hooked on Brown" that was released as a single in 1996. James Brown released the 1998 studio album, I'm Back, featuring the single "Funk On Ah Roll," and he later released in 2002 the album The Next Step, featuring the single "Killing is Out, School is In." In 2003, Brown participated in the PBS American Masters television documentary James Brown: Soul Survivor, which was directed by Jeremy Marre.

Although Brown had various run-ins with the law, he continued to perform and record regularly, and he also made appearances in television shows and films, such as Blues Brothers 2000, and sporting events, such as his 2000 appearance at the World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view event SuperBrawl X. In Brown's appearance at the SuperBrawl X event, he danced alongside wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller, whose character was based on Brown.^[26] Brown was featured in Tony Scott's 2001 short film, Beat the Devil, alongside Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson.^[27] Brown also made a cameo appearance in the 2002 Jackie Chan film The Tuxedo, in which Chan was required to finish Brown's act after Brown was indisposed.^[28]

On the concert scene, Brown appeared at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert on July 6, 2005, where he performed a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag." He also performed 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, Brown was scheduled to perform a duet with singer Annie Lennox on the song "Vengeance" for her new album Venus, scheduled for release in early 2007. In 2006, Brown continued his "Seven Decades Of Funk World Tour," his last concert tour where he performed all over the world. His last shows were greeted with positive reviews, and one of his final concert appearances at the Irish Oxegen festival in Punchestown in 2006 was performed for 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 guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist.^[29] 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 ballads.^[30] Altogether, the James Brown 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.^[31][32]

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![33]

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 on stage 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."^[34] 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 and cummerbunds long after more casual concert wear became the norm among the 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 that sometimes served as the show's opening act. Although Brown released many 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.

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,^[35] and he sometimes required glucose injections to resuscitate himself afterwards.^[36] (In later years Brown even required an oxygen mask and tank on stage at all times during his performances.)^[37] As the band continued to play, the MC draped a cape over Brown's shoulders and tried to escort him off the stage, but Brown shook off the cape and staggered 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.^[33][38]

Brown as bandleader

Brown was a taskmaster when it came to band practices and performances. He demanded extreme discipline, perfection and precision from his musicians and dancers — right down to when performers in his Revue showed up for rehearsals all the way to whether those members wore the right "uniform" or "costume" for concert performances.^[39] During an interview with Maceo Parker, a former saxophonist in Brown's band for most of the 1960s and part of the 1970s and 1980s, conducted by Terri Gross during the NPR segment "Fresh Air," Parker offered his experience 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 ....[40]

Brown also had a practice of directing, correcting and assessing fines on members of his band who broke his rules, such as wearing unshined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage.^[13] During some concert of his performances, Brown danced in front of his band with his back to the audience as he slid across the floor, flashing hand signals and splaying his fingers, as his fingers pulsated 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 played or sang the wrong note or committed some other infraction. Brown used hand signals and his splayed fingers to alert the offending person of the fine that person must pay to him for breaking his rules.^[41]

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.^[42] 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.[43]

Despite these technical limitations, Brown's unique musical vision was 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" (1956), "Try Me" (1959) and "Bewildered" (1961)).^[11] 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" (1962), "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (1965) and "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (1965).^[11]

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."^[11] 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 screams and vocal grunts. As for the shift to this style, Brown combined a polyrhythmic approach to his style to recreate the "ecstatic ambiance of the black church" in a secular context to create movement in his music. "Cold Sweat" (1967), "Mother Popcorn" (1969) and "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" (1970) were representative of this music and vocal style.^[11]

Brown’s signature groove emphasized the downbeat – that is, with heavy emphasis "on the one" (the first beat of every measure) – to etch his distinctive sound, rather than the backbeat, familiar to many R&B musicians, that placed the emphasis on the second beat.^[44] According to Maceo Parker, Brown's former saxophonist, playing on the downbeat was at first hard for him and took some getting used to. Reflecting back to his early days with Brown's band, Parker reported that he had difficulty in playing "on the one" during solo performances, since he was used to hearing and playing with the accent on the second beat.^[40]

Personal life outside of performances

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.^[45] 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), 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 (a member of Brown's backing band) and James Joseph Brown II, in addition to three daughters — Dr. Yamma Noyola Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas and Venisha Brown.^[46][47] Brown also had eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.^[46][47] Brown's eldest son, Teddy, died in a car crash in 1973.^[48]

Brown-Hynie marriage controversy

Much controversy surrounds Hynie's December 2001 "marriage" to James Brown, which was officiated by Rev. Larry Fryer.^[49] 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.^[49][50] 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.^[51] According to Dallas, Brown was angry and hurt that Hynie concealed her prior marriage from him, and that Brown moved to file for annulment from Hynie.^[52] 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.^[51][53] 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.^[54][55]

Paternity of James Brown II

In a separate CNN interview, Debra Opri, another Brown family attorney, revealed to Larry King that Brown wanted a 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.^[56]

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 when the repairman visited Brown's house to investigate a complaint about having no lights at the residence.^[57] In 2003, Brown was pardoned for past crimes that he was convicted of committing in South Carolina.^[58]

During the 1990s and 2000s, Brown was repeatedly arrested for drug possession and domestic violence. 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.^[59]

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 a doctor right away about his medical condition.^[8]

Brown checked in at the Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on December 24, 2006 for a medical evaluation of his condition, and he was admitted to the hospital for observation and treatment.^[60] 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.^[8] 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.^[8] 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.^[60] 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.^[61] According to Bobbit, Brown uttered "I'm going away tonight," and then Brown took three, long quiet breaths and closed his eyes.^[61]

Honors, awards and dedications

At one city, fans of James Brown decided to reach out to honor the entertainer. In Spring 1993, the City Council of Steamboat Springs, Colorado conducted a poll of its residents to choose a new name for the bridge that crossed 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 September 1993, and James Brown appeared at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the event.^[62] Although a petition was started by a local group of ranchers to return the name of the bridge to "Stockbridge" for historical reasons, the ranchers backed off after citizens defeated their efforts because of the popularity of the James Brown name. 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.^[63]

During his long career, 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 at its inaugural induction dinner in New York on January 23, 1986. On February 25, 1992, Brown 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.^[64] A ceremony was held for Brown on January 10, 1997 to honor him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[64]

On June 15, 2000, Brown was honored as an inductee for the New York Songwriters Hall of Fame. On November 14, 2006, Brown was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and he was one of several inductees who performed at the ceremony.^[65] In recognition of his accomplishments as an entertainer, Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors on December 7, 2003.^[64] In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked James Brown as #7 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[66]

James Brown was also honored in his hometown Augusta, Georgia for his philanthropy and civic activities. On November 20, 1993, Mayor Charles DeVaney of the city of Augusta, Georgia dedicated during 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.^[64] 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.^[64] 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.^[67] On August 22, 2006, the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority voted to rename the city's civic center the James Brown Arena, and James Brown attended a ceremony for the unveiling of the namesake center on October 15, 2006.^[64]

On December 30, 2006 during the public memorial service for James Brown at the James Brown Arena, Dr. Shirley A.R. Lewis, president of Paine College, a historically black college in Augusta, GA, bestowed posthumously upon him 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.^[68]

Discography

For a full listing of albums, compilations and charting singles see James Brown discography.

Notable albums and singles

Until the early 1970s, Brown was famous mostly for his road show and singles, rather than his albums (with his live LPs as a major exception). Many of his early albums included tracks that were recorded in the studio and later overdubbed with sounds of a live audience in an attempt to recreate the explosive excitement of the original Live at the Apollo. Four of James Brown's albums appeared on the Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time:^[69]

• Live at the Apollo (1963) (#24)
• In the Jungle Groove (1986) (#330)
• Star Time (1991) (#79)
• 20 All-Time Greatest Hits! (1991) (#414)

Six of Brown's hit singles appeared on the Rolling Stone Magazine's 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time:^[70]

• "Please, Please, Please" (1956) (#142)
• "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (1965) (#72)
• "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (1965) (#78)
• "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1966) (#123)
• "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968) (#305)
• "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" (1970) (#326)

The following albums, originally released as double LP records, feature extensive playing by The J.B.'s and served as prolific sources 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. This classic album remains an example of Brown's energetic live performances and audience interaction, as well as providing a means of documenting the metamorphosis of his music from the 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 Miles Davis boxed sets released by Columbia Records.

• 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 J.B.'s:

• Soul Pride: The Instrumentals (1960-69) (2 CD)
• Funky Good Time: The Anthology (2 CD; covers 1970-1976)

Popular culture

• Brown's inspiration was credited frequently 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" included the line "Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out!" – ostensibly in retaliation to Murphy's jokes.

• Ironically, Eddie Murphy would later play the role of "James 'Thunder' Early" in the 2006 release of Dreamgirls, the film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name. The character was inspired by the personalities of various R&B and soul musicians, particularly the magnetic persona of James Brown during concert performances. For his performance in Dreamgirls, Eddie Murphy won both a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actor Guild Award, as well as a nomination for an Academy Award as supporting actor in this role.

• 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 was 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 MADtv, 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 the highly irreverent and controversial single "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.

Filmography

• The T.A.M.I. Show (1964) (documentary)
• Ski Party (1965)
• The Phynx (1970)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Doctor Detroit (1983)
• Rocky IV (1985)
• When We Were Kings (1996) (documentary)
• Soulmates (1997)
• Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
• Holy Man (1998)
• Undercover Brother (2002)
• The Tuxedo (2002)
• The Hire: Beat The Devil (2002) (short subject)
• Paper Chasers (2003) (documentary)
• Sid Bernstein Presents... (2005) (documentary)
• Glastonbury (2006) (documentary)
• Life on the Road with Mr. and Mrs. Brown (2007) (documentary)

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