THE JB REMEMBERANCE THREAD!
ariel_calmer
3,762 Posts
Post your fave James Brown pics, memories, & albums here. We could all use some good stories to uplift the mood. Okay gotta go snap some beans for xmas supper..... 
Or wait I am.
Or wait I am.
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it hasnt hit me yet. so sad.
I was in college when JB got in trouble for outrunning those cop cars, and that's when I realized the world ain't round, it's square. I'd be talking with friends about my love for JB, and all they could think about was "oh, you listen to the music of that criminal, ho ho ho."
There was a generational subset of people who ONLY knew JB for his scrap with the law - that was pretty damn sad.
The ultimate low came during the summer of '89 at the Chicago Blues Festival when some guy was selling these homemade "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - FREE JAMES BROWN" tees.
Some girl, white, preppy-ish and probably in her early twenties, asked her boyfriend: "who's James Brown?"
Her boyfriend, the vendor, and just about everybody else around (including yours truly) fell back about 20 feet, we couldn't believe it. The man was not an underrated cult hero by the late eighties - we couldn't believe that someone as massive as JB could escape her radar screen. You don't have to be a crate-digger or a baby-boom-aged African-American to know who he was. Wherever that girl is now, hopefully she's been educated.
Playlist:
think (live)
make it funky
ain't it a groove
Fred Wesley interlude
funky president
fever
the soul of J.B. (instrumental)
the J.B.'s - you can have watergate, but gimme some bucks and i'll be straight
Coldblooded
Maceo & James Brown - The Soul of a black man
J.B. interlude
i refuse to lose
papa don't take no mess
reality
Otis Redding - papa's got a brand new bag
Fred Wesley and the J.B.'s - damn right i am somebody
get on the good foot
Anyway, feel free to post other JB mixes, I'm curious about your selections.
Rest in peace!!
Great times.
2037
"I'm sorry-- 'Christmas?'"
still hasnt hit me.
dope isht. is this the one by coldcut?
There were a few people standing outside, talking and joking.
I looked inside and there was JB in a bright red suit, standing and talking to Al Sharpton and some of the barbers.
Must have been around '92 or '93.
Yeah it is.
And theres always the Froggy/simon harris ones.
He was a truly self-actualized man who worked his way to the top by believing in himself and continuously proving himself. His unmatched collection of material ensures he will never be forgotten.
May The Hardest Working Man In Showbusiness finally rest, in peace.
my Father's copy of "Live at the Apollo"
which wasn't even on King, but was the
Solid Smoke late 70's issue - I think he bought
it when it came out because he had long ago lost
the OG copy he got when he was 20. This was around
1980, so I had to be around 10-12 years old.
I used to play the shit out of that thing. I knew
every little crowd yelp and chart change by heart.
It always blew my mind how the album side ended right
in the middle of Lost Someone and picked up again
when you flipped the album - and every little dropout
and point where he is dancing and singing away from
the microphone, made it seem that much more intimate,
and I could honestly imagine I was there - yelling
"YEAH, YOU!" back at James when he sang "...and I believe
someone over heeere lost somebody..."
When I was 18 and had my first job working at a record
store, my immediate & most coveted buy was an early press of
the album on King - I won't venture to call it an OG because
there are probably more pressings of that record than anything
outside of Elvis Presley - and I played the shit out of that one, too.
Still own it, and still play it, and still get a chill when the
crowd goes deathly silent under James' drama, and laugh with the
crowd when the spell is broken by a single hysterical scream from
a girl either mid-swoon or just playing or maybe a little of both.
If I were to go through the thousands of records that
I own, and separate the ones I have had for more than
15 years, it would be a small pile of maybe 50 records -
and 10 of them would be James Browns...beat to shit and
ready to play again.
For the homecoming parade that year (the only one I attended in five years in Athens) we filled up a cooler full of beer (the drinking age was still 18!) and set up on the sidewalk of Baxter street and waited for the parade. Can't remember if he led the parade or not but the grandmarshall that year was none other than James Brown. He rode in an open convertible with a blonde or two at his side. We made so much noise ("James my man" I believe we were yelling) that he was forced to acknowledge us with a wave and a smile.
Later that weeekend JB showed up at the homecoming game (Herschel rushed for 283 yards and we crushed Vanderbilt 41-0) and James sang/lipsank "Dooley's Junkyard Dawgs" with the alumni cheerleaders. We were about five rows up from the field so we had a great view. Thanks JB and Go Dawgs!
Later when I started collecting records in High School James Brown was one of the first artists I tracked down, both on LP and 45. Later that became a bit of an obsession, and I've been able to track down most of his records. That wasn't enough and I started going after all the artists he produced and had as part of his revue as well. I'm still looking for some of those, but it says a lot about an artist that you not only want his own material, but all of the groups that got a taste of his sound as well.
Let's not forget the negative as well. James was a control freak who would manipulate his band, play games with them, fine them, and driven many of them away. Fred Wesley in his book documents many of these ups and downs, but in the end, he still said that James was the greatest.
On my last radio show I played a bunch of JB Christmas tunes. Looks like the next month or so will end up being dedicated to him.
What a loss.
Of course, in James' words ... "think about the good things".
2 Of my favorite James Brown vides that I haven't seen on the Strut today; Night Train on the TAMI Show (followed by the Rolling Stones) and this famous Ed Sullivan vid where James wouldn't stop playing and they had to cut to commercial and when they came back from commercial James was still playing, the band was on 2 ramp like risers like a V and James was in the middle, about 15 minutes long I think.
Is there video of the televised Boston show from the Night Martin Luther King was killed?
Dan