James Brown's Polydor Albums: Unintentional Comedy???
pickwick33
8,946 Posts
OK, don't get me wrong - anybody who knows me knows how big a James Brown freak I am. And Polydor definitely got some of his best stuff for a while in the seventies - you don't argue with "Get On The Good Foot" or "Papa Don't Take No Mess."
But some of the tracks he used as filler on his albums? Another story...
The salsa version of "Please Please Please."
Hank Ballard's solicited testimonial of how great JB is.
JB commanding Fred Wesley to "pull off (his) pants" on "Blues & Pants."
The rambling monologue about how other musicians are ripping him off.
The point is, there are enough surreal "WTF?" moments on JB's Polydor elpees to fill an entire comedy album. And even then, some of that weirdness spilled out onto the 45's, like on the 1975 remake of "Sex Machine" where he asks his band members about their female preferences.
So where am I going with this? Let's just say this is an appreciation thread for the sillier moments on JB's 1970's albums, because Lord knows that the man didn't always know when to stop the tape from rolling! As soon as he figured that albums would sell as well as singles, brotherman just went off the deep end! Love ya, Godfather, but...
But some of the tracks he used as filler on his albums? Another story...
The salsa version of "Please Please Please."
Hank Ballard's solicited testimonial of how great JB is.
JB commanding Fred Wesley to "pull off (his) pants" on "Blues & Pants."
The rambling monologue about how other musicians are ripping him off.
The point is, there are enough surreal "WTF?" moments on JB's Polydor elpees to fill an entire comedy album. And even then, some of that weirdness spilled out onto the 45's, like on the 1975 remake of "Sex Machine" where he asks his band members about their female preferences.
So where am I going with this? Let's just say this is an appreciation thread for the sillier moments on JB's 1970's albums, because Lord knows that the man didn't always know when to stop the tape from rolling! As soon as he figured that albums would sell as well as singles, brotherman just went off the deep end! Love ya, Godfather, but...
Comments
I would purchase.
Nashville, Johnny Cashville
Put some air freshener under the drums (It's Too Funky In Here)
The part in Goodness Sakes where he's talking about different kinds of cakes.
A low point is his version of Don't Fence Me In.
probably "smothered steak" (right before "grits and gravy") but smothered snake is
way funkier.
For The Record, we eat most anythang smothered here in the deepsouth,
I'd say James Brown probably has enough WTF moments to fill a comparable LP.
Maybe two, considering how long those songs were. And that's not even counting his bizarre cameos all over Fred Wesley & the JB's Damn Right I Am Somebody.
"king heroin" is followed by "i have a bag of my own"
:lol: and he did too or maybe it was cocaine
Yeah, Lily Tomlin wasn't the only comedian on Polydor's stable in the early seventies.
would make a great mix.
With bonus beats from Future Shock.
I found "Doin' It To Death" yesterday and I was laughing at the end of side two where James is asking the band if they can switch keys to F and they just keep vamping on the same riff with no key change and then the record ends. (or maybe they are in F and that's the joke)
http://www.mediafire.com/?1t1142cv3wsw46v
It just sounds awkward and forced. Out of all the songs in his catalog that he could have rerecorded, "Please" just does not lend itself to a Latin feel; at least not the way JB did it.
I love it myself, but more as a novelty.
and they could probably use his police mugshot as a cover photo
"More Peas" from the "Doin' it to Death" LP.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
That's some cold shit.
"friendly fred...like a cheesebox... he's square"
Yeah, for James Brown the tape was never not rolling, he just got abused by the system like many other beautiful people in history. I will always appreciate him for his inspiration and the breaks from his funk music.
Later,
lilmonstu
Stay gold, Ponyboy.
"Be easy Ponyboy, or else I'll skin your hide."
Spent most of the show dropping to his knees screaming for someone to help him.
Small room and I was at the edge of the stage. Amazing show.
But it still had it's share of James' comedy.
There are live recordings with similar routines.
He was doing moments of silence.
Band plays a groove and asks for a moment of silence for... Sam Cooke, band hits it and quits it. Then they repeat with a different dead person. He calls for a moment of silence for Elvis, and the guy next to me says 'I'm not doing a moment of silence for Elvis'.
He gives the guitar player a solo, says give me some BB King, guitar player keeps playing the same non-bb solo, then he asks for Jimi Hendrix, guitar player keeps playing the same non-bb-or-Hendrix solo, and so on.
Then he gets all serious and brings out a preacher who presents James with a plaque thanking him for all his good work with the children.
The preacher said, and I still remember:
I'm a preacher,
but I have been around,
I've been uptown
I've been downtown
I've been all around town
and one thing I have found
if you want to get down
you have got to have JAMES BROWN!
Years later I figured out that was Al Sharpton.
In Sacramento, at the record stores I always rap with a guy that goes by "downtown James Brown." He wear the coolest shoes, and I know he there when I hear him bust out tap dance and singing "pass the peas." I look up from diggin in the crates at the back of the store and shout, "now, papa don't TAKE no mess." that really sets him off.
Then we argue about the passing/murder of Micheal Jackson for bit, until he starts off on tangents of corrupt cops and crooked doctors. Then I just start diggin again.
Ps. "Get Down To It" is my favorite JB album at the moment.
...like when he stops "Try Me" cold, starts reciting the twelve signs of the zodiac for no apparent reason, then picks up exactly where he left off. He does this on Live At The Apollo 1995 (on Scotti Bros.), and may very well have pulled the same stunt on 1980's Live...Hot On The One (which was towards the end of his Polydor run).
You can hear him do the same routine fifteen years later on Live At The Apollo 1995, which wasn't on Polydor, but had enough surreal moments that it could have been.
The original hit version of "Sex Machine" was on King.
It's not that bad. And for those that will always appreciate his breaks, it produced these two classic basslines:
Nevertheless, when it comes to dancing I pack the double disc on HBR Music in my backpack.