Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Heaven just got a lot funkier
James Brown leaves a huge legacy as an innovator of soul music and the inventor of funk, which in turn spawned disco and hip-hop music, a huge amount of which is recorded directly over James Brown samples. There is so much being written on JB right now that I don't have a lot more to add (having already blogged on the JB legacy in the 2005 blog post Papa don't take no mess). As usual, Scott over at Powerline has a nice tribute, which includes a great video of the Godfather in action.
2 Comments:
By 
skipsailing, at
Wed Dec 27, 01:22:00 PM:
I remember a stupid movie called "blind Date" Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger.
One of the early scenes has willis in bed when the alarm clock radio goes off. It's an advertisment for the James Brown Auto Alarm.
Wahhhhh, Wahhhhhh, Wahhhhhh. It was just too funny.
Irreverant?
By GreenmanTim, at
Wed Dec 27, 04:59:00 PM:
JB and Gerry Ford. Quite a pair.
Back in the day, I fronted for a Funk ensemble called - I kid you not - The Hiram L. Weinstein All-Star Memorial Funk Project. This was the mad brainchild of a college friend, master bassman George Rush, and along with three other vocalists, a rhythm section that was hella tight and a righteous horn section, we gave up the funk up and down the Mainline suburbs west of Philly.
Singing James Brown standards with only a sliver of the style and power of his delivery gave me a huge appreciation for the extraordinary talent of the Godfather of Soul. I hope he greet's St. Pete with a hearty:
"Everybody say sh*t, g*ddamn, get of yo' *ss an' jam!"
